Four points from the Easter weekend with no goals conceded could prove to be an important four days of football for the Blues come the final reckoning, particularly if the coming home games against Northampton and Stockport bring successful outcomes.
“Over an Easter weekend it’s not bad,” manager Paul Simpson agreed. “It’s a good return, but obviously we wanted to get six. When you set yourself up and you win the Friday one you want to come here and get another three.
“It hasn’t happened, we didn’t do enough to get a goal, but I’m really pleased with the majority of the performance. We’ve just got to keep going.
“And now we have two brilliant games to look forward to and we have to make sure we’re right for them. We know they’re going to be difficult because, like us, these teams aren’t up at the top of the table by accident.
“We’re all up there because we deserve to be, so we have to kick on, make sure we have a good week and get ready to go out and perform against Northampton on Saturday.
“It’s absolutely brilliant to be involved in it. This is what you want to be involved in, and we’ve just got to make sure we do it properly. These games don’t need any building up or hyping, we’ve just got to be right.
“I hope the supporters are enjoying the ride that they’re on and they come and back us again this weekend, and let’s hope we get the result.”
And the fans, just over a thousand of them, were in fine form once again at the Bescot.
“They were brilliant,” he said. “That was part of my thinking with the huddle to get all of the players together so they could show their appreciation to the fans after I’d said my bits.
“With the traffic, it was absolutely incredible support. When I came out for the start and saw them all, I knew they’ve had problems on the motorway on the journey down.
“Absolute credit to them for coming, it’s brilliant to see them all, and that’s why the players wanted to show their appreciation. It’s been a long tough season, we’ve got five games where we can go and really do it properly, and hopefully we’ll seize the opportunity.
“It would have been so nice if we could have finished one of the chances off in front of them, but it wasn’t to be. We’ve just got to hope the celebrations are saved for another day.
“I told the lads in the huddle that it could be a really good point because this is a tough place to come. We’ve found that many a time, it’s a really difficult place to visit.
“They battled, they worked hard and I said to them that everybody is bound to be disappointed, because it’s not three points, I get all of that, but we have to just keep going.
“We’ve set ourselves up for two fantastic games over the next week, both are at home – in fact three of the next four are at home – and we’ve still got a great opportunity. It is still in our hands.
“We’ve just gone out of the top three, and Stockport have gone in. I’m not surprised at that because I’ve thought all along that they would be up there.
“We’ve got two games coming up, against Northampton and Stockport, where if we do our job properly at home, which we have done for the majority of the season, in what will be tough games, we can be in a really nice position.”
“We’ve worked so hard to get into this position to earn this right,” he added. “We have to make sure we go and grab the opportunity. I’m quite sure I’m right in saying the players will do everything they possibly can.
“They have to be professional this week, we have to go out and perform next weekend in what will be a really tough game, but I’m hoping we’re able to keep some of those supporters that we had for the Good Friday game.
“I’m hoping we get numbers coming in to come and support us, come and back us, then it’s up to us to get a performance that gets us a result, then we take it from there. That’s all we can do.
“We’re in a really good position, and I’ve got to say probably a bonus position because it’s not what we expected. We’re competing with some really good sides, but we’ve shown over 41 games that we deserve to be there and we’ve got to do it well for the next ones.
“It’s always a tight battle for promotion, that’s how it works out. There are crazy results all over the place. We can only affect ours, we’ve got to try and do everything we possibly can, starting with Northampton on Saturday, trying to get a performance, a result that sets us up for the Tuesday night.
“I’m not surprised at Stockport, I always thought they were going to come good and be up at the top of the table. we have to do everything to compete against Northampton, then Stockport and hope we’ve got enough points that we’re sat in a good position to take into the next one.
“There are teams battling for all kinds of reasons, it’s really close. With five left we’re in an ok position, now we need to make sure we keep going a little bit more, trying to work a bit harder, having a bit more quality, and if we can do that we’ll be in a good position.”