Evening Recap: “I Am Going The Birmingham City Clash With A High Spirit,” But What We Ned’s Is…

SCHUMACHER | WE’RE GOING TO NEED THAT ATMOSPHERE

Steven Schumacher is relishing the prospect of a big night at the Toughsheet Community Stadium as the league leaders come to town, writes Pete Oliver.

Wanderers face table-topping Birmingham City on Tuesday night when Schumacher’s men will bid to become just the third side to beat the Blues in League One this season.

The big-spending Midlanders last lost a league in November but Wanderers are in good form themselves, having taken 16 points from the last 21 available.

And Schumacher is looking to keep the run going with the top-six places within touching distance on the back of a goalless draw at promotion-chasing Wrexham on Saturday.

“It’s always a good challenge when you’re playing the league leaders, so it doesn’t get much bigger for us at the moment,” said the Whites’ head coach, who has enjoyed wins in his two home games in charge so far.

We know what’s at stake as well.  We need to keep trying to collect points. It will be a big week for a lot of teams and we’re no different, so we look forward to it. It’ll be a tough game but, fingers crossed, we can put in a good performance and get a result that we want from it.

“There are 13 games to go in the regular season, so you can’t worry too much about what’s going on around you.  You’ve just got to keep trying to pick up your own points and when you’ve got home games, especially, you need to try and make the most of them.

“We’ve had two real good results in the last two games here at home. The atmosphere has been outstanding and we’re going to need that again on Tuesday night. 

“The players should be in good confidence and be playing with a belief that they can go and get a good result from this game. The momentum that we’re building, with the result that we got on Saturday from another difficult game away at Wrexham, we should go in with full confidence and ready to go again.”

With Birmingham – who are 12 points clear at the top of the table – set to bring close to 4,000 fans up the M6 for a first visit to Wanderers since 2018, the Whites are poised to attract one of their biggest gates of the season.

And Schumacher is again calling for the fans to play their part in keeping his side up with the play-off pace on what could be an electric evening at the Toughsheet

We know what’s at stake as well.  We need to keep trying to collect points. It will be a big week for a lot of teams and we’re no different, so we look forward to it. It’ll be a tough game but, fingers crossed, we can put in a good performance and get a result that we want from it.

“There are 13 games to go in the regular season, so you can’t worry too much about what’s going on around you.  You’ve just got to keep trying to pick up your own points and when you’ve got home games, especially, you need to try and make the most of them.

“We’ve had two real good results in the last two games here at home. The atmosphere has been outstanding and we’re going to need that again on Tuesday night. 

“The players should be in good confidence and be playing with a belief that they can go and get a good result from this game. The momentum that we’re building, with the result that we got on Saturday from another difficult game away at Wrexham, we should go in with full confidence and ready to go again.”

With Birmingham – who are 12 points clear at the top of the table – set to bring close to 4,000 fans up the M6 for a first visit to Wanderers since 2018, the Whites are poised to attract one of their biggest gates of the season.

And Schumacher is again calling for the fans to play their part in keeping his side up with the play-off pace on what could be an electric evening at the Toughsheet

We hope it will be. We want to get a result first and foremost. It’s a game that’s a big challenge for us. But if the last two home games are anything to go by it’s going to be a brilliant atmosphere,” he added.

“I thought the fans stuck behind the team, especially against Crawley when we went two goals behind. They stuck with us and got us over the line. I think if it wasn’t for them, if it wasn’t for that atmosphere, then we probably wouldn’t have got a 99th-minute winner.

“Then it was similar against Leyton Orient. Even though we went behind, kind of against the run of play having started the game really well, there were no sort of jeers or edginess. We sensed that we were going to be okay and came back in the game and maybe that will be a similar case on Tuesday night. 

“Hopefully we don’t fall behind but I’m sure the atmosphere will be great. Our fans will be well up for it and we need to make sure that we reward that with a good performance and hopefully a real good result.”

Wanderers could have defender Gethin Jones back in their squad to face the Blues, while Schumacher is hopeful that strike duo Victor Adeboyejo and Kion Etete may still have a part to play as the run-in approaches.

Adeboyejo was seeing a specialist today (Monday) for a further opinion on his knee injury, while loan man Etete is stepping up his rehabilitation from a thigh injury and could feature by the end of the month.

Watch the manager’s full pre-match interview on Wanderers TV