When pushed for the mandatory pre-season prediction on how the team was going to do this term Paul Simpson insisted, back in July, that his first target was to reach 42 points, a haul that usually means league status has been secured.
Not yet halfway through the campaign – that milestone will be reached next week – and with 33 points already accrued, we pressed once again to see if the time for reassessing the situation will come once that first marker has been chalked off.
“Well, let’s not get too carried away, we still need nine points to get there,” he cautioned. “That’s still my first thought, and that’s what disappoints me because I know we could be even closer to that 42 mark right now with the situations where we feel we’ve left points behind.
“That has to be the first target because we’re not a club that’s in a position as we sit here right now to expect to be going into the automatic places.
“I’ll do everything I can to get there, and I want these players to do the same, but we’ve still got a long way to go.
“Even on Tuesday, we held our own for the majority of the game against a team that rightly so is up in those top places.
“They consistently ask questions, they put the ball into good areas, and they make you defend, and we’re chasing that standard for ourselves. That’s the level I want us to get to.
“We’re assembling a better group of players, with a better mentality about them, but we just have to keep going. That’s where the January challenge is – to see if we can add people who will make us even better without derailing what we’ve done so far.”
Three games stand between now and that window – Bradford, Crewe and Doncaster – and the aim for that short-term spell is to pick up as many of the points available as possible.
“These games are really important because Bradford are level on points with us, we’ve played a game more than they have, and we want to do it right so that we can keep pushing on,” he commented.
“I’ve told the players a few times already this week that this one hell of a game to look forward to. Tuesday is gone, we’re not getting rid of that disappointment, but what a way to get going again.
“It’s Boxing Day, there’ll be a big crowd, and I don’t get this thing with footballers that they’re disappointed to have to play over Christmas. This is a brilliant time of year for a football person so there are no complaints from us.”
“The games come thick and fast and it can put real markers down if you do it right,” he concluded. “We’re 21 in, 22 after Bradford, 23 after Crewe, and you’re suddenly halfway along.
“Into the New Year and you’ve turned the corner and on your way in. That’s why we want to have done it properly so that we’re giving ourselves the best chance to still involved when it comes to 10 or 12 games to go.
“Hopefully we’ll have improved the squad in January and we’ll have a few more back and fit. Who knows, maybe our luck with injuries will be better as well.”