Jon Palmer on the fairytale return of Steve Cotterill to save the club he first took into the football league in 1999 and how his success hinged on connecting with young fans.
Watch the full chat with Jon Palmer below:
Cotterill’s comeback fairytale
I’m going to party like it’s 1999. That line from the famous Prince song may have resonated strongly with many Robins this season as a football fairytale played out at Whaddon Road.
Steve Cotterill the man who lead Cheltenham Town to the football league for the first time in 1999 returned with the club rooted to the bottom of the table on the 30th September 2025.
At that point Cheltenham had won one of their first 10 league games and looked destined for relegation to non league. But, in the end, Cotterill eased the club to a comfortable 18th place finish, 13 points clear of the relegation zone.
Jon Palmer, a boyhood Cheltenham Town fan and a journalist who’s covered the club professionally for more than two decades says this past season will live long in the memory.
“It’s probably been one of the most eventful seasons and, ultimately, satisfying seasons I think,” Palmer told Sport and Life recently.
“I think it’s been a real turning point, but it’s one of the most up and down, eventually positive seasons that I can remember covering.”
Jon writes for Glos Live and his family goes back generations in Cheltenham. I’ve found him a font of knowledge on local football history, in particular.
In a bizarre twist, Cotterill – also Cheltenham born and raised – grew up in Palmer’s great-grandma’s old house.
Clearly older fans were buoyed when the club legend returned in the autumn, but Palmer says one of Cotterill’s most significant early achievements was connecting with young supporters. The people who wouldn’t remember his first spell managing the club from 1997 until 2002.
Getting young fans onside
“His first game back in charge, the Fleetwood game, he got the two nil win. But he had an instant connection with the younger group.
“There are younger fans dotted around the ground, but the particularly noisy group in block one of the Colin Farmer Stand. He really made a beeline for them after the game.
“They took him to heart straight away with the banners and the chants and they just seemed to understand. It’s almost like they heard all these legendary stories about him and what he did to bring football league football to the county for the first time.”
It may be that reading Palmer’s reports on Cotterill’s return underscored the man’s importance in the club’s history to young fans.
Cotterill wins his freedom
In my opinion, Palmer is one of the finest beat journalists in the country and illustrates the value of a reporter covering a club, game in and game out. He has covered more than 1000 matches for the Gloucestershire Echo (now Glos Live). He even wrote the first ever match report for the CTFC website in 1999.
In the past few weeks Palmer also reported on the ground swell of support for Cotterill to be awarded the Freedom of the Borough.
“He’s Mr Cheltenham Town and that’s why I’m so pleased he’s getting the Freedom of the Borough.”
I hope you enjoy this conversation about the remarkable 2025/26 campaign for Cheltenham Town FC with the insight of a true, professional journalist.
