BURTON Albion have turned all attentions to the visit of Crewe Alexandra on Saturday, says assistant manager Dino Maamria.
The Brewers were scheduled to have two home games this week but our midweek clash with Bolton Wanderers was postponed yesterday following COVID-19 cases in the Wanderers' camp.
That followed postponements of our Boxing Day trip to Sheffield Wednesday and another home game against MK Dons, meaning Albion were last in action on December 11.
But with the Brewers squad back in training and raring to play again, Maamria says all focus has turned to Crewe on New Year's Day following our enforced extended break - and to putting together a good run of form for the second half of the 2021/22 season.
Crewe themselves have a game on Wednesday night away to Morecambe before making the trip to the Pirelli Stadium, where the Brewers will be returning to action.
"Well first of all I want to say a happy Christmas to everyone, especially our Brewers fans as we’re missing them," Maamria said this morning.
"Everybody is okay. Obviously like every club up and down the EFL we had some cases. The club has been great in terms of following the protocols, and we’ve done that. Overall, we’ve got a team ready to go.
"We were really disappointed that our game against Bolton was called off so late yesterday as we were ready for the game.
"It’s been a tough couple of weeks but when you’re in a situation like that, you’ve got to take a broader, wider vision, and some of our lads needed a rest. Some had COVID and needed a rest anyway, but it was good time spent with the family and almost have a reset too.
"Before Christmas, we came back (to training) for a couple of days, then on Sunday we came back in and had a big chat with the group out on the pitch, and it was almost ‘let’s kick on in the second part of the season’.
"We’ve been quite inconsistent for where we are, our position in the league is in our hand, and it’s our choice as a team where we will be at the end of the season.
"I think we can certainly have a great finish - so we discussed that and what we want to do. Everyone is on board with that, and now the focus turns to Crewe."
"We got told yesterday at about 11am mid-way through our session that Bolton was off. So we modified training slightly and now from today we’ll do all our preparation for Crewe.
"We’ll be off tomorrow and back in Thursday and Friday for Saturday’s game. We’ve got to keep focused. The big thing when something like that happens is the focus of the group.
"We gave them Xmas Day off and they had a good time with their families, they’ve almost effectively had a mid-season break. We’ve got to make sure that we take advantage of that, get one or two players back to fitness and get ready to kick on."
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