Ian Evatt wants a 100 per cent record in the Papa John’s EFL Trophy to help get his side back into top gear.
A point at Rochdale in Wanderers’ final Group D game tonight (KO 7pm) will be enough to take Evatt’s men into the knock-out stages of the competition.
But Evatt is aiming to make it three wins out of three to restore some momentum after four defeats in five League One games since beating Liverpool’s U21s 4-1 in the Trophy.
“We need to win for us. We want to win for us and we will be going there to try and do that to rebuild some confidence and belief, enjoy ourselves again and play with a smile on our face,” said the Whites’ boss.
“We’ve done some hard work in this competition already and winning two games will probably see us through.
“But we want to do it by winning all three and that starts tonight.”
All four sides in the group still have a theoretical chance of going through with Port Vale and Liverpool set to play in the final group fixture next Tuesday night.
But it would take a major swing in goal difference to stop Wanderers progressing without another point.
And Evatt aims to keep maths out of the equation by getting the job done against League Two Dale – unbeaten in four in the league and who have won one and lost one of their opening fixtures to sit second in the group – to end Wanderers’ winless run.
“It’s been tough. We’ve been on a poor run with some difficult fixtures and injuries to deal with,” added Evatt, who will still be without injured frontman Amadou Bakayoko for the short trip to the Crown Oil Arena.
“But we still have belief in ourselves. We are better than we’ve shown in October.
“When we looked at the fixture list we knew it was going to be a difficult time for us.
“We haven’t performed to our standards and levels but we’ve got another opportunity tonight to get back on a winning run and that will give the lads no end of confidence if we can do that, so we are concentrating on that.
“We have to keep reminding the players we’ve done a lot of good things so far this season as well.
“We haven’t ruined our season on the back of one month. We’ve got an opportunity to put things right and it starts with two cup games coming up.
“We know we are heading in the right direction. We have a belief in our identity and our philosophy.
“We just need to do it better and be better at it and hopefully that will start tonight.”
Tonight’s game is being streamed live to watch on iFollow. For details click HERE