Manager gives his thoughts ahead of the weekend's clash against the Hornets
Dougie Freedman believes that his side are in the perfect mind-set ahead of Saturday’s trip to Watford and is confident that the team can continue their unbeaten run against the Hornets.
With the Whites having secured maximum points against Millwall last time out, the manager paid tribute to his players in his pre-match press conference, claiming that their performances in recent weeks have been testament to the hard work that has gone on behind the scenes.
"The Championship is a relentless division,” he explained. "When we played Watford at this time last season, I felt that we needed a bit more energy and freshness in the team and I think we go into this game with that.
"I made some tough decisions last year in terms of some players, but it was due to the league that we’re in which gives you three games in a week.
"You’ve got to have energy and people with the right sort of qualities, and I believe that a year down the line we have got that quality to face a relentless three or four month period."
With Wanderers having not been in action last weekend due to the international break, the Scot explained that there has certainly been no let-up in terms of his expectation of the players.
"The past few weeks have been the last time that we’ve had that block of five or six days until February, so we’ve used it to physically train the lads hard," he said.
"We’ve given them a bit of time off as well, but we’ve made them understand how to adapt to certain formations."
He added: "I can flip it and say that it came at a good time because we had a few injuries and it’s given us time to have a little breather, but then again we were on a great run of form and want to keep it going."
Having brought in a number of new faces during the course of 2013, Freedman admitted that although he is pleased with the application of the players currently at his disposal, he still has hopes of bringing in more bodies to help cope with the influx of games over the festive period.
"We still need to strengthen the squad in certain areas over Christmas and I am working very hard at that, but I’m not bringing in people just because they’re available.
"I want to bring in the right types who aren’t available just yet, but hopefully they will be next week. With one or two players more, we’ll have a very strong squad."