NEIL Young is hoping to exorcise the ghosts of Whaddon Road when Cherries renew rivalries with fellow League One strugglers Cheltenham tomorrow.

Despite diverting Dave Bird's header past Gareth Stewart, Young avoided being credited with an own goal as Cherries were beaten in injury time at the Gloucestershire venue six weeks ago.

Defeat saw Cherries sunk by a late winner for the second year in succession at Cheltenham, while the Robins went down 2-1 on their only previous league visit to Dean Court in August 2006.

Young said: "I don't have too many fond memories of Whaddon Road. We've lost there twice and been the better side on both occasions. We will be looking to beat them this time around and a victory would help to settle the demons from last month.

"It's important we try to take an early lead to get the crowd behind us. We don't want to have to come from a goal down because that makes it a lot harder. It's important we get the first goal to put us on the front foot and then take the game to them."

Young, a veteran of Cherries' Great Escape in 1995, admits he is relishing the battle ahead and says he thinks the club's off-field problems have brought Kevin Bond's squad closer together.

"I'm looking forward to the fight and it certainly isn't over yet," said the 34-year-old. "We all believe that if we can get a couple of wins and get some momentum going then we can do it. It's not impossible.

"What's happened over the past few weeks has brought us together as a group and I think it has shown in our performances. The lads have been playing for each other and hopefully that will continue for the rest of the season because we're all in it together.

"If anybody is going to get us out of this then it's going to be us so we've got to stick together and stay positive. We know we're going to have setbacks but it's about how we react and bounce back from them."

Cherries boss Bond ran the rule over Cheltenham in person when he embarked on a midweek scouting mission to see their 2-1 defeat at Brighton on Tuesday.

Bond said: "For the most part, they made life extremely difficult for Brighton. They took the lead and looked just as likely to make it 2-0 as Brighton did to make it 1-1. Brighton finally broke through in the 80th minute and then got a dubious winner late on.

"I've seen Cheltenham three or four times and they've got their noses in front on every occasion. They are a threat up front with Steve Brooker and Steven Gillespie and solid and hard working behind them.

"It's a game we badly need to win and will be doing our level best to do that. We can't afford to be gung-ho and leave ourselves too open but we need to win our home games.

"If we perform as we're capable of and as we have in our past few homes games then hopefully we can give them a problem."

Shaun Cooper returns after serving a one-match ban, although Danny Hollands is suspended after collecting his fifth booking of the season at Southend.

Cherries: (from) Stewart, Young, Pearce, Gowling, Cummings, Bradbury, Bartley, Gradel, Kuffour, Vokes, Cooper, Pitman, Tessem, Partington, McQuoid, Franks, Pryce.

Cheltenham Town: (from) Higgs, J Gill, Gallinagh, Caines, Wright, D'Agostino, Bird, Armstrong, Lindegaard, Brooker, Gillespie, Scott Brown, Vincent, Connor, Connolly, Duff, Higgs, Scott P Brown.