Steven Schumacher wants a winning performance to end the season on a high and set the tone for next time around, writes Pete Oliver.
The Whites will be looking for a first victory in six games when they end their campaign against Stevenage at the Toughsheet Community Stadium on Saturday.
Avoiding a hat-trick of home defeats would guarantee an eighth-placed finish but Schumacher wants maximum points to take into the summer and the start of the re-building process, and to reward the Wanderers’ fans who will again be out in force.
“We want to end the season on a positive note,” insisted Wanderers’ head coach. “We want to continue from last week's performance, which we felt we deserved three points from but only managed to get one.
“So that'll be the message: ‘c’mon on, let's get out there and put in a performance that sends everybody home a little bit more positive. A couple of our last results at home we've come out of on the wrong side, so we want to put that right.
“We want to go into next season and really stamp our authority on our home performances. We've dropped too many points throughout the whole season here, so we don't want that to happen at the weekend.
“Since I've been here, the fans have been brilliant. I think the support that we get up and down the country is outstanding. The level and the size and the stature of this club is not lost on anyone.
“So, yes, we want to put a performance in and go around the pitch afterwards and say 'thank-you'. No, this season hasn't ended the way we all wanted it to or expected it to, but this is football, it happens. We won't be negative about it as a staff and we need to make sure that we're ready and prepared to go better next year.”
Wanderers have won 11, drawn three and lost eight of their home fixtures in a season which has seen them miss out on the play-offs for the first time in three years.
The Whites will again be without a raft of senior players for the visit of Stevenage, who could finish as high as 12th with a win, with only George Johnston and Josh Dacres-Cogley of the dozen who missed last Saturday’s 1-1 draw at Peterborough available again.
Schumacher will therefore try to squeeze what he can out of depleted resources once more and is likely to involve a number of young players again before meeting his squad on a one-to-one basis next week to step up his future planning.
“You can't do anything officially yet because the window is still not open but the conversations are ongoing, which is necessary,” added the boss, who takes charge for the 19th time on Saturday following his appointment at the end of January.
“I think a lot of the teams will be doing the same thing, so we won't fall behind. We've got a clear idea of what we need for next season for us to do better, to improve and have a better chance of getting out of the league.
“We'll have a conversation with the lads who are out of contract and go from there. The ones who are here next year will be getting a full performance review from a medical team perspective and from a coaching team perspective.
“There will be bits of data and bits of information of what they've done and where we see them playing next year and just having a conversation on how they found it and areas where we can help and make them improve and come back next year in a better place.
“We'll have a staff review on Tuesday and then it's full steam ahead on sorting our squad out. It will be busy over the summer which is necessary, again, to give us that best chance.”
Watch the final pre-match interview of the season with the Whites’ head coach on Wanderers TV