United welcome Doncaster Rovers to Brunton Park tomorrow and, with the teams deadlocked in the league table as things stand, it promises to be a decent game of football.
Speaking ahead of the game, manager Paul Simpson said: “Their fans are talking about them having a rubbish start, but we think we’ve had a good start and we’re on the same points.
“Maybe they expected a little bit more coming down from League One, I can understand that. It will be a tough game for us this weekend, they’re a good football team.
“We then go to Barrow in the Papa Johns, which I want to stay in, then we’ve got Orient who are the early season pacesetters.
“Those games will show us where we are, hopefully we can get through this weekend and win consecutive games and set ourselves up well for Barrow before we worry about anything else.”
“I’m quite sure Doncaster will be wanting to go straight back up,” he added. “They’ve had some iffy results, but that doesn’t take away from the quality in the group.
“I obviously went to their game against Hartlepool last week and I thought they were the team who would go on to win, but Hartlepool showed good spirit.
“They got a good draw at home against Orient last weekend, which was a good point for them, then during the week they took a bit of a beating off Barnsley.
“We expect it will be a tough game but I really want to focus on us and going out at home and being positive in front of our fans.”
On the threats we could face, he told us: “They’ve got good players. I would expect George Miller to come back in after scoring a couple of goals during the week after being out.
“They’ve got a bit of experience in the side and they’ve got a good blend. Just like we say for every game, we’ve got to be at it. You can’t go into any game with any half-heartedness or thinking it’s going to be an easy game. This will be a tough game and we’ve got to be ready for it.
“It’s been a tough first job for Gary [McSheffrey] with him taking over when they were in a downward spiral.
“Being part of a team that goes down and the changes that come along with that, there’s an expectation at Doncaster.
“They don’t just expect to be in League One, they expect to be at the top end, so he’s got a challenge on his hands. I hope after Saturday he’s still got a challenge on his hands.”
As ever, the main thrust of the message was that it comes down to us and what we do that will dictate where the points go.
“People are saying we got a complete team performance in the second half last Saturday, but it’s always different when you watch it back,” he told us.
“It was a complete team performance in terms of picking up second balls and running forward, but there were also things we didn’t do particularly well.
“When I looked back at the game I saw lots of areas we need to improve on and that’s what we keep telling the players. I’m not battering them about it, but I keep insisting that we’re not there yet.
“There are still things we need to improve on because if we do them too much in different games we might get undone, which we can’t afford to do.
“We’ll keep working with the players and get them to believe like they did in the second half last week, and hopefully that will mean we keep picking up good results.”
“The pleasing thing is that they’re showing that they can adapt to different situations,” he continued. “We’ve started in certain shapes and had to change throughout the game to try and get a reaction to get results.
“Last weekend was more about me making changes to try and be positive, like bringing Edmo on and moving Jordan to right wing back, and it worked on that particular day.
“Whoever comes in, it’s a great opportunity for them. They have to go and show us they deserve to be in the side and deserve to stay in it. That’s what we want from all the players in the group.
“Spirits are really good and that comes from winning games, it’s not something we do differently inside the building, it just comes from winning games.
“It breeds confidence, we’ve got a good group who are challenging each other and testing each other and we’ve got to keep doing that if we want to stay in these top places. It can very quickly fall away otherwise.”
A keystone to the results so far has been the work rate, with a real willingness to work hard.
“If you run forward and get into forward areas you’ve got a chance,” he agreed. “You look at the goal Owen Moxon scored, he’s running forward with the ball and taking a chance. He’s bought himself a ticket and ends up getting a good goal.
“For Omari’s goal he’s running at players and being positive in the box. Other times we were giving it away and not getting any end product.
“Jordan found Omari with the crossfield pass for his second goal, but if Omari doesn’t make the run we don’t get that goal. You’ve got to run forward to stretch teams, and that’s what we need to do this weekend.
“Whichever players are selected and whoever is fit to play, it’s up to them to go and show that they deserve to have had the starting shirt, but also deserve to stay there.
“Tomas running to celebrate like he did, it shows they’re enjoying it. He was claiming an assist because he threw the ball out to Jordan, and I think he just wanted to be a part of it.
“I want them all to be doing that, I want to see them all celebrating with each other and with the fans. I really want to make sure we’re doing that on Saturday evening as well.”
“The fans make a massive difference,” he concluded. “I know it’s more difficult at home because they’re all spread out rather than being in an isolated part of the ground like they are at away games, but if we can get our fans coming in and making noise this weekend it gives us such a boost.
“I hope the weather is kind to them, but then it’s down to us to make sure we do something to make them want to keep coming back.”