Wanderers Head Coach Steven Schumacher has challenged his players to “go and do it again” and carry on their unbeaten home record in Sky Bet League One when league leaders Cardiff City visit on Saturday afternoon.
The Whites are back in action against Brian Barry-Murphy's Bluebirds, following on from a dramatic 2-1 victory at Huddersfield Town last time out.
Wanderers will be aiming to continue their fine home form, which has seen them win four of their opening six games at the Toughsheet Community Stadium.
Previewing the fixture, Schumacher told Wanderers TV: “We’ve said to the players all week that it’s going to be one of the toughest games that you’re going to face all season, especially at home, so we need to make sure that we are prepared for it.
“Obviously it was a great win for us last week at Huddersfield, the first thing we did was let the players have a bit of time off over the weekend, we haven’t had any time off in the international break so we gave the players the weekend off. The first thing they did was rest and recovered, and then from Monday onwards, we reviewed the game then got straight to work on Cardiff.
“Everyone will see it, it’s two teams that will play in a style that should be entertaining to watch, it’s two teams that are right up there in the possession stats in the league, two teams that have got the highest amount of chances created, the style should jell and mix quite well, I quite like these games.
"You’ve got to figure out what the opposition are going to do, as was the case last week at Huddersfield, I’m sure it will be a high-quality game and it will probably be decided by a small margin, so hopefully we come out on top of that.
“They (Cardiff) have been really positive, that’s kind of what they needed at that club, they’ve struggled in the Championship over the last couple of seasons, obviously got relegated last year, with Brian Barry-Murphy going in there, I think what’s he’s done has added an air of positivity all around the city probably and certainly around the club.
"They’ve got young players in the team playing with loads of energy, they’ve got loads of good-quality players who played in the Championship, who are Championship-standard players as well, they have been really good, they’ve been exciting, scored goals, they’ve not been faultless either, they’ve not been unbeaten in every single game so there will be opportunities for us if we get our plan right.
“These are the games that you want to play in, if we want to be in the shake up come the end of the season, then we’ve got to make sure that we can compete against this type of team, the game against Huddersfield and other teams we’ve played who we would expect to be at the top end of the division, I think we’ve handled ourselves quite well, now the test is on Saturday to go and do it again.
“They won’t get a more difficult game now, so let’s back it up and see if we can get an equally as good performance as we did on Thursday against Huddersfield, take it at home and see where it takes us.”
Schumacher believes that the Wanderers supporters will have a big part to play from the stands this weekend.
He added: “The support away at Huddersfield was incredible, like it has been in all the away games, so I think the fans sensed that we were on top of the game and a chance was just about to come, and the stuck with the team, it took us until injury time to get that equaliser and then the winner, but that just shows you what you can do if everybody keeps believing in it.
“I think where we’ve been really good at home is we’ve started games incredibly well, we’ve got on the front foot and out of the traps quick, managed to be clinical with chances that we’ve had, and therefore it’s allowed the crowd to get going at get behind us, that might not be the case though this weekend because we’re coming up against a top quality outfit who might have spells in the game, and when they do have spells, that’s when you need your support more than ever, to keep the players on it, to keep the players with that energy that we’re going to need to try and get the result that we want.”
Watch Steven’s pre-match interview in full on WanderersTV by clicking here!
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