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Yates issues omerta on Wembley

Mark Yates

Cheltenham boss Mark Yates has told his players there will be no mention of Wembley until they have negotiated their way past Torquay in the play-off semi-finals.

Yates knows last year's beaten finalists will provide a stern test when they host the Gulls on Sunday.

"There is a long way to go and I've said to the players that Wembley is miles away at the moment," he told the Gloucester Citizen.

"It's on the horizon and there is no point in thinking or talking about it because we have two really tough games against Torquay and they will be decent footballing encounters as both teams like to play.

"Whoever gets to the semi-finals, it's all about two games of football and if you lose in the first game, you don't do anything stupid because it's over 180 minutes. We have to be positive and do what we've done all season and if we do that we have a chance."

Meanwhile Torquay boss Martin Ling is concerned his players are suffering from fatigue ahead of the semi-final.

It will be the Gulls' second crack at promotion in as many years having lost to Stevenage last year in the Wembley final.

"The downside of it is how tired they are now," Ling told BBC Radio Devon.

"There's people like Eunan O'Kane, Lee Mansell, Kevin Nicholson who had 11-month seasons last year. We've got another 11-month season this year, so we'll take this into account.

"But we'll be ready. As from Tuesday we will be working our way towards Sunday's game against Cheltenham."