Steven Schumacher told his players not to lose confidence in their quest after heading into the international break with back-to-back defeats, writes Pete Oliver.
Wanderers followed up their mid-week loss at Bristol Rovers with a first home defeat under Schumacher as top-six rivals Stockport claimed the points from a 1-0 win.
The end to a four-match winning run at the Toughsheet Community Stadium allied to results elsewhere saw Wanderers slip out of the play-off places.
But Schumacher is backing his players to bounce back after the two-week break from action and renew their challenge over the final nine games of the season.
“We're on the back end of two results that have gone against us but what we need to remember is we've given ourselves a brilliant chance,” insisted the Whites’ head coach, who has overseen five wins and a draw in nine games since taking over.
“Since we've come in the building, if someone would have said to us that you’d get to this point and you're in the top six, with the two teams below us having to win to go above us, then we'd have taken it.
“We’ve just got to go and rest now and refresh and get ready to attack the last nine. The results that we've had and the performances that we've had before these last two games allow us that time to lose a game.
“You're always going to lose games in football. It's not a simple science where you just know how to win every single game. Obviously, we wanted to pick points up on Tuesday night. I felt we deserved to and I felt we probably deserved something from today's game. It was a close game and it's decided by small margins.
“I've just said that to the players, go and enjoy your break. They've got a few days off now to sort of mentally re-charge and physically re-charge. We're using certain players a lot in games and that obviously takes a lot of energy.
“So, I've just said look after yourselves for a few days and then when we get back in the back end of next week, be ready to go and ready to train. Then we go and attack two other big fixtures for us at Blackpool and Wigan, two tough away games.
“There’s loads to play for, they can't lose confidence. I certainly won't lose belief in them and I hope our fans don't either.”
Schumacher made five changes to his starting line-up to try and freshen things up and counter a Stockport side which has lost just twice in the league since Boxing Day.
County were fortunate to keep 11 men on the pitch at the break after full-back Kyle Knoyle looked certain to receive a second booking but replaced him and went on to secure a seventh away win when the impressive Tanto Olaofe finally found a way past an impressive Nathan Baxter with 20 minutes to go.
“I thought we'd come up against a good team,” Schumacher added. “It was a third game in a week for us and they had a clear week, so maybe they had a little bit more energy in the closing stages to concentrate and defend their box as well as they did later on.
“I thought it was tight. They had a couple of moments, we'd had a couple of moments in the first half and we said, ‘look, let's make sure you concentrate because one goal is probably likely to win this’ and unfortunately for us, they got it.
“They've been in the top six pretty much all season. They're consistent, well organised and they've got good players, so it's not easy if they score first and especially when we've come off the back of a three-game week and a long journey and a late night.
“But the lads tried, I must say. I'd give our players loads of credit for that. The energy that we tried to play out was good, some of the quality that we had in the first half and in the second half was good, but we've just come out of a tough week.”
Watch the full post-match interview with the head coach on Wanderers TV