BURTON Albion manager Dino Maamria says that belief is the key to their recent victories and hopes it can continue for the end of season run-in.
Following back-to-back home wins against Barnsley and Sheffield Wednesday, sides strongly tipped for promotion from League One, Bolton Wanderers are the next promotion-chasing outfit to visit the Pirelli Stadium and Maamria is keen to keep the belief in the group.
“It’s belief and intent in the group as well as confidence,” said Maamria. “That’s what we are about. It’s focus on the performance. We work within a structure of ‘we control what we can control’ which is our performance, our work ethic and our desire to win games, which is always our intentions.
“We turn up every game with the belief that we’re going to win and that’s what we do every game. It doesn’t matter who we play, top of the league or bottom of the league, we try and win every game.
“Sometimes we come short, that’s the ups and downs of football. As long as we keep putting in performances, that’s always the measure for me.”
Amongst outstanding team performances; Sam Hughes, Mark Helm and Mustapha Carayol stood out from the crowd during Saturday’s game. With injuries to key players like Tom Hamer and Terry Taylor, Maamria is pleased other players have stepped up in their absences.
“Over the last six months we’ve spoke about so many players who’ve improved massively and are an integral part of the team. They’ve given me a nice headache as we’ve got a tough team to pick.
“You wouldn’t believe the players like Tom Hamer’s been out, Terry Taylor and Jonny Smith have been out. Those players have been a big part of what we’ve been doing. With those players out, others have stepped in come on. You talk about Mark Helm, Sam Hughes and Mustapha Carayol. We talk about John Brayford who’s been rolling back the years recently and has been outstanding in every game.
“There’s been so many good performances and as a team I think we’re playing at a level where we’re capable of beating the likes of Barnsley and Sheffield Wednesday. What we must focus on now is foot on the gas, full throttle, keep that performance level high, keep our fans happy, it’s our stadium tomorrow night and we’ve got to own it.”
With a few injuries in the squad, Dino was happy to report that everyone from Saturday’s game is fit and fresh to take on the Trotters tomorrow night.
“There’s no injury concerns from Saturday. I’ll take a look at the lads in the morning and see if there’s one or two back from injury.”
Tickets are on sale for tomorrow’s game against Bolton Wanderers and can be purchased from here.