Five weeks, eight games and full focus on ourselves.
That was the key message from Danny Röhl on Thursday morning as the manager addressed the media in his pre-match press conference.
Forgetting all what has gone before, the manager believes it is now akin to a mini eight-game tournament with Championship survival at stake.
As the months have passed by under Röhl, the gap to safety has been slashed and as we head into the Easter double-header with Swansea and Middlesbrough, it stands at just one point.
“We don’t want to look to the past,” Röhl explained. “I said to my team in the meeting yesterday, we have eight chances now to achieve our goals.
“My players know what I demand from them now and what is important. We have developed very well over the last five months.
“The final five weeks are not about doing special things, it’s more about playing to our strengths and getting our basics right.
“If we do this we have a big, big chance to achieve our goals.
“It’s a restart now, the last games are out of our minds and for me, it’s eight games to go and that is our focus.
“We can take it as an eight-game tournament that starts now and we know what we have to do.
“We will demand a lot from ourselves and tomorrow we want to make a good start.
“We always have courage in our game, wherever we go. We don’t just look to not lose, our mindset is always to win.
This is good to see and when I see how my team have improved in all the faces of the game, it’s massive and now we have to show up again.”
The upcoming period of fixtures will no doubt be crucial in the Championship shake-up.
At least for the next two weeks, it’s game after game after game and that starts with two in four days over the Easter weekend.
Röhl added: “It’s really crazy, in the next two and a half weeks we have five games and we will then know exactly where we are and what we will need from the last three.
“The important thing is to be ready for these eight games and we will be.
“We have prepared this week very well, refreshed our minds and know what we have to do.”
