Alfie Mawson spoke to the press this morning ahead of this weekend’s trip to Shrewsbury Town.
The commanding Reds centre-back gave his thoughts on the trip to Shropshire, as well as the feelings within the squad at the minute.
“It’s a massive game, the way we’ve been playing lately has been reflective in our results, they’ve picked up.” said Mawson. “We’re starting to work our way up the table and Shrewsbury are in the same position. They’ll be well up for it, which puts it into context how important it is. We could open a gap up on them if we can win it.
“In the league they got beat 7-1 then went and beat Cardiff! We know what they’re going to do, we need to come together and get a plan together to beat them.
“It was a matter of time before things started to click and we got that bit of luck that we deserved as we’ve been putting in good performances. Psychologically it gives you a boost, we know we’re working our way up now, so we can express ourselves more and relax a little bit.
“The confidence is high and as you can see from Saturday the result wasn’t the best, but on another day we’d have lost that game before, but now we’re still in the cup.”
After a successful Christmas period for the Reds, Alfie explained his feelings about what the catalyst for the turnaround was following the Reds' losing run at Oakwell.
“I think we always thought it’d happen (Starting to win again).” Explained Mawson. “As the losses mounted up you always had that slight doubt things wouldn’t go our way, but we went to Oldham and did well, we defended well and I remember going into the changing room after and there was a huge feeling of relief. We needed that, and we’ve used it as a springboard.
“Results can go your way, or against you, we’re not taking anything for granted but as long as we stick to what we’re doing we’ll be fine. I’ve got no doubt in my mind that everyone in our changing room has their minds set on three points this weekend.”
Alfie was asked about Conor Hourihane taking the captaincy for the last few matches, and he gave his thoughts on this.
“I’m behind Conor, he’s a great player and you can see that by his goals and assists. I’ve got a lot of respect for him, he just wants to get better and I’m in the same frame of mind. If that means taking a lesser role with the captaincy that’s fine, it’s the gaffer’s decision and I’m 100% behind him. I’ve got a lot of faith in him and he’s got a lot of faith in me.”
