Steven Schumacher wants to make the most of a big week to go into the up-coming international break on a high, writes Pete Oliver.
The Whites’ boss takes in-form Wanderers to Bristol Rovers tomorrow (Tuesday) night in search of back-to-back away wins and a possible eighth victory in the last 10 league games.
Schumacher’s men climbed into the play-off places with Saturday’s success at Burton Albion and after their trip to Bristol face top-six rivals Stockport County on Saturday before a two-week break from league action.
“We said to the players this morning, we've got two huge games now against Bristol Rovers and Stockport,” said the head coach. “We said on Friday it was a big three-game week and we got the business done on Saturday at Burton. Now we've got to go and do it again at Bristol Rovers.
“If we can get the energy levels right for that game, and similar on Saturday at home to Stockport, then we go into a bit of a break where the players can refresh and also others can get some minutes in a B Team fixture, so yeah, it’s a big week ahead of us and we need to attack it as best as we can.”
Defender George Johnston will again be missing for the trip to the Memorial Stadium, where Rovers have won four and drawn one of their last five games to aid their fight against the drop.
Wanderers have no fresh injury worries and have been boosted by the return to training of on-loan striker Kion Etete alongside Ricardo Almeida Santos and Kyle Dempsey. The trio are likely to get some game time during the international break to potentially be available for the final nine games of the run-in.
And Schumacher wants it to be an exciting time for the fans as his revitalised side aims to sustain a top-six challenge and stay in the promotion mix.
“Like we said last week, it's going to be really tight,” Schumacher told Wanderers TV. “It's going to be competitive, no matter what, from now to the end of the season. I think the last game of the season will be important, so we need to make sure that we just stay consistent, keep trying to get points where we can and get everybody in as good form as possible.
“So, that's the message this week; ‘come on, we've got two big games, let's start on Tuesday with a positive performance and hopefully a good result’. I'm not bothered what anyone else is doing. I know there's going to be teams in the top six coming up against each other in the next few weeks and over the course of the rest of the season, but we're not bothered about what's going on elsewhere.
“We're just concentrating on our own game, keep grinding out performances, keep trying to get results that we want and keep our fans excited from now until the end of the season, that's the message. The way we've been supported lately has been outstanding, including Saturday at Burton Albion and I'm sure it'll be the same on Tuesday at Bristol, so we keep going.”
Watch the manager’s full pre-match interview on Wanderers TV