Brian Barry-Murphy spoke to the press at CCS on Thursday morning, previewing our upcoming clash with Bradford City this weekend.
"It's probably the first time that we've had a full week to train properly, because of all the games around Christmas, so I'm really pleased to get everyone back together and to have a great week in preparation for a great game.' Brian began.
"The players made a huge sacrifice over the Christmas period. December is an unusual month; you get those four games in ten days, and all the players played so well. I'm very grateful for what they've done.
"If you look at the first 45 minutes of last Saturday's game against Leyton Orient, that felt as stern an examination of where we're at as any previous game. All these different games and different stadiums have different challenges, and the exciting part of it is seeing how we cope with that, try and overcome it and obviously win."
Bradford City are our opponents this weekend, with Brian keen to keep full focus on Saturday's clash rather than looking too far ahead to future fixtures.
"It's so difficult to pre-empt what's going to happen during any given game. If you start thinking about what's going to happen next week, so many things can happen between now and then.
"The reason there has to be so much focus on Saturday's game is, we came into a home game against Bradford where we were doing really well, the stadium was full, everyone was coming expecting to see a great win, and they blew us away. We weren't able to compete with them in that game, on that occasion.
"Now we have to go and show that we're better than we were back then, which we believe we are. We still have to go and try and show it by preparing well today and tomorrow, and seeing where we're at. That constant evaluation of how much we're improving, and how good we think we are, has to be tested every week, and that's the way to do it."
The boss also provided an injury update, beginning with Omari Kellyman, who was withdrawn in the first half last weekend due to a groin issue.
"Omari hasn't trained this week, so he's very doubtful for Saturday. Calum Chambers had an issue with his glutes the day before Leyton Orient and he still hasn't trained, so he's a genuine 50/50.
"Ronan Kpakio had an issue with his knee on Monday in training, so he is also doubtful for Saturday. All of those players will definitely be fit for the following week if they don't make this weekend.
"We never want to lose any players, but once they go away and start their rehabilitation, other players step up to the plate. Eli King is obviously not going to make it back this season, but Rubin Colwill is making great steps, so to have him and Ollie back for a critical stage of the season will be brilliant. Hopefully we can keep our squad healthy and try and avoid any of those medium-to-long term injuries."