We spoke to Steven Rudd, ahead of our trip to Bradford.
Speaking to CUTV, he said: "It's been better having a couple of days preparation into a game.
“We had yesterday to prepare, even though the lads were off, and then today we prepared properly. It feels a little bit more settled.
“We had a quick meeting this morning, we showed them loads of good clips of us at our best on Tuesday night.
“We've put that to bed. Very disappointed still with the result, but it's done. Take the positives out of it, build on it, do the positives for longer when we go to Bradford.
“We’ve debriefed it, looked at the good and where we can still improve more. We still need to improve and be better.
“We want to take all that positivity from Tuesday night into Saturday, get on the front-foot, do the same again, but be even better. Be even better at Bradford than we were on Tuesday. And more importantly, get a positive result.
“We all want a positive performance. But if you get that bit, then we need that result at the end.”
Following numerous bright performances in midweek, we asked if it would be a struggle when it came to selecting this weekend's team.
“Lads are now back from injury, which helps.
“The squad numbers are big. We've just had a meeting there. We are going to have to leave lads out of the 18-man squad, I'm not sure when that’ll have last happened.
“From the academy side, Aran, Jake and Sam and people like that have been involved, which is fantastic for us. But, you know, there's going to be first team senior players not in the squad on Saturday. So it's a great headache to have.
“It's going to be difficult. There's conversations to be had and we'll see how training goes tomorrow.
“We'll then get our 11 nailed down, get our game finishers and subs organised, ready to see how the game might go and go from there.”
Dylan McGeouch and Cameron Harper featured in the first-half of Tuesday evening's defeat in their first minutes since returning from injury.
“They've both trained again this morning.
“That's been excellent for them. It’s great to have them back in the group and just reassuring for them that they’re fit, they’re back and they’re ready to play.
“We've got a couple that we're waiting on tomorrow. Nothing major. We'll just see how it goes in the morning. They'll be in with Sophie [Birnie] early on.
“They've all done bits of recovery and training. Everyone's done something today. So it’s just about seeing how they react to that and how they're feeling tomorrow.
“We want everybody in the squad at Bradford to be ready to perform for 90 minutes. It's not ifs and buts, we're going there with a fully fit squad, ready to go.”
With another training session on Friday, we asked Steven if he felt more prepared, he responded:
“I think it's the first time this week I've felt actually a little bit organised. Training is sorted for tomorrow.
“The team meeting is already sorted for tomorrow. So I feel a little bit more organised than I have done all week since Saturday night. That's a positive, because we don't want to cause chaos for the players.
“We want them to be relaxed. They've got the information, they know what we're doing. We're going into Saturday confident, ready to go and put our stamp on the game.”
Steven spoke in midweek about everyone pulling together in difficult times, we asked him how important it’s been to have all the staff supporting him this week, he said: “Even the staff around the other side, on the east side, they're still coming around today, making sure everything is organised from travel, logistics, hotel, pre-match, even stuff like doing all this, making sure our week's organised and everything's in place.
“The football staff have been excellent. Yesterday was a day off, but we all had an online Zoom meeting to make sure things were sorted.
“They were in early again today to make sure we're organised. So I can't credit the staff enough. They've been absolutely excellent on both sides of the ground and the academy staff as well.”
Looking ahead to this weekend's match in further detail, Steven said: "I watched them twice yesterday. All of us have. So we've had loads of different thoughts and conversations on them.
“We know what to expect. We're ready for it. We're organised for it.
“I've just said in there as well, it's about what we do on the day. Yes, it's Bradford. Yes, there's a big crowd.
“It's about what we do as a team. Get on the front-foot, play our game and go there and be really positive. We're not going to go there and sit in.”
United will be backed by close to 2,000 travelling supporters - which could make the difference, pushing the lads all the way at Valley Parade.
“There'll be a big crowd there, which is great. We want that. They can be our 12th man and we want them to be. It can have a massive effect and it can really help us.
“The most important thing is at five o'clock on Saturday night, we've got three points. It might not be pretty. We hope it is, but it might not be.
“We grind it out, we get three points and the crowd can have a massive, massive impact on the game. We want them right behind us.”
