Steven Schumacher hailed a new high in his time as Wanderers’ boss but hopes the best is still to come, writes Pete Oliver.
Schumacher again saw his side come from behind to ultimately out-play run-away league leaders Birmingham City in a magnificent 3-1 win.
Wanderers handed the Blues just a third league defeat of the season to check their title charge thanks to goals from captain George Thomason and the deadly duo of John McAtee and Aaron Collins.
The Whites have now won four successive home games, staging successful comebacks in the three matches since Schumacher took charge.
And the head coach – who has taken Wanderers to the brink of the play-off places on the back of a five-match unbeaten run – believes this was the best so far in front of another fantastic Toughsheet Community Stadium crowd.
“Against the best team in the division by probably a long way, so yeah, it is probably the best night,” said Schumacher. “The second half as well, it's probably the best we've played since we've been here. It was a really good performance.
“We said to the players at half-time, again, credit to coming back and showing some character. The way we were passing the ball, not too many teams have done that against these this season. So I said to the lads at half-time, be positive and go for it and who knows? And in the second half they were outstanding - everyone.
“We come up against some good teams in this division, and if you stand off them and admire them and say how good they are, then they're going to win the game. Sometimes you get it wrong, sometimes you get your press wrong, but if you go and be brave and you go and take the game to them, then you're in with a chance. Thankfully today we've come out on the right end of the result.”
Wanderers’ energy, commitment and quality after McAtee had cancelled out Emil Hansson’s opener just before half-time proved too much for Birmingham to live with as their 18-match unbeaten league run came to an end.
A sixth win in eight games put the Whites back to within a point of the top six with successive away games to come at Burton Albion and Bristol Rovers. And Schumacher is determined to see no let-up as his side bids to keep their promotion hopes on track.
“We want that to keep growing, we want the momentum to keep building and the belief in themselves,” he added. “I keep saying to the lads that they're a good team and if they work as hard as we worked tonight for the next 12 games then we'll be OK, because we've got some quality.
“But it's no good just relying on quality, you've got to have the effort, you've got to have the industry, and that's what we had today.
“It was a whole team performance and sometimes we had to struggle. Let's have it right, for the first 20 minutes of the game Birmingham were outstanding. But we managed to stick in there and stay with them and, in the end I think we got the result that we deserved.
“We can't deny it's been a great night. It's a brilliant win against the best team in the division. But we don't want it to be our best night of the season, there's still hopefully better ones to come.”
While Chris Forino and Carlos Mendes Gomes both starred on their return to starting duty following long-term injury absences, there was bad news for Victor Adeboyejo on the only down side to another big day for Wanderers.
Schumacher confirmed that the striker requires reconstructive knee surgery to repair anterior cruciate ligament damage and is facing a lengthy spell out.
“Unfortunately, we'll lose Vic for the end of this season and a long time,” the head coach confirmed. “But we wish him well and we'll give him our full support in his recovery, and he'll be back next year.”
Watch our full post-match interview with the head coach on Wanderers TV