CLOUGH CALLS FOR PLAYERS TO DIG DEEP FOR LAST THREE GAMES

NIGEL Clough has called upon his payers to repeat the performance against Wigan over the last three games.

The Brewers boss says his players gave everything against the league leaders and hopes that despite a long, hard season they can dig deep three more times as Albion chase promotion.

He said: “It’s difficult playing like we did against Wigan every game, especially at his stage of the season when several players have played over 40 games and you are asking them to play at their maximum every week.

“It has to come from within. They have to find that drive and that something inside of them. We can help to a certain degree but if the players don’t have that inside them, no-one will get it out.

“We don’t get the GPS stats but against Wigan the players probably worked as hard as at any point this season.”

Clough expects Colchester to be desperate for a win to keep their slim survival hopes alive.

He said: “Colchester might just go for it on Saturday. They need a win to stand any chance at all. Going forward they are very good.

“They have had some close games and narrow defeats but it looks like they are going down. But they will keep fighting all the way.”

Clough also believes that Albion’s recent struggle to record a win should be seen in context.

He said:”The season is evening out. You have runs within the season. If we had these last six games at the start of the season everyone would have been saying, ‘oh brilliant we are now in second place’. It just evens out over 40 odd games.

“Wigan went 19 games unbeaten then lost one and drew with us. It doesn’t matter when you pick up the results, you still have the same amount of points. To have the number of points we have got at this stage of the season is incredible.”