A focused Paul Heckingbottom spoke to the media ahead of this weekend’s League One match against Chesterfield.
Heckingbottom was solely concentrated on the league campaign again after last weekend’s Wembley success, and says his squad are too.
“We’ve flicked the switch, its Chesterfield now.” He said. “Everyone has turned up today knowing the final has gone, it’s all about Chesterfield.
“We gave the lads the chance to get the final out of their system, to celebrate it, enjoy it and make the most of it, which we hope it brought everyone together as a club. It gave the players a taste of success and left them wanting more.”
After a succession of recent injuries, Heckingbottom gave Reds fans plenty of positive news regarding the current situation of the squad.
He explained, “Everyone is raring to go! Marley Watkins is back in training as is Sam Winnall, we’ll have everyone barring Ryan Williams fit and on the training ground today. That’s the most I’ve had since I’ve been doing it, which is brilliant.”
On the Chesterfield match itself, the Reds Head Coach spoke about a meeting of old friends, but wanted to press home to his players how important the remaining seven games are.
“I have good friends there, I know most of them,” He said." All their staff are friends of mine so that will be good and they’re in their own battle. This stage of the season is great, you don’t want it to come round too soon but once you’re here it’s what it’s all about because everyone is playing for something.
“I’m ready for the game to start. We’ve then got Oldham on the Tuesday, these two now are the most important games, you’d much rather have the points in the bag so everyone above us are the favourites and we know that. We have to keep pushing, fighting and scrapping for every point and these next two games are a part of that because after, there’s only five left.
“The introduction of play-offs all those years ago means everyone is either chasing them or chasing points to stay in the league. The results the other day went against Chesterfield so there’ll be coming here fighting for their life again. They’ve got some good players, Danny (Wilson) has made a few signings when he went in and they’re performing well. It’s a massive, difficult game.”
After an excellent Wembley win Heckingbottom has told his players to put it to the back of their minds now.
“We don’t want the intensity to drop," he added. "We want to harness the intensity and drive from the cup final as you can be on a downer, we need to keep on at the players and keep pushing.
“We’ve got another do tonight at Barnsley town hall which is another chance to let the fans celebrate with us again which is great. We’ve discussed it and spoke about it and said we need to remain focused, this one is for the fans but your mind needs to be on Saturday.”
