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It's a straight road ahead for Wanderers in their quest for League One promotion now that they are out of the FA Cup.
Distractions now disappearing from sight in the rear mirror, there are 20 games remaining which will determine success or failure this season.
Wanderers go to Southend tomorrow sitting third in the table, five points behind second-placed Scunthorpe United and six behind leaders Sheffield United, with a game in hand. The chase is on – but goalkeeper Ben Alnwick is confident the Whites can make up ground.
The team bus pulled up in the wee hours of Wednesday morning after defeat at Selhurst Park and it will be all-aboard again today for the 250-mile trip to the Essex coast.
But rather than worry about the travelling involved this week, Alnwick believes it can strengthen the team bonds.
“We make the most of it,” he said. “There are plenty of lads here who enjoy a laugh or a game of cards – there’s all sorts going on.
“I think as you get older you get used to the travelling. It just becomes part and parcel of the job, you don’t look at journeys and think ‘ah, that’s going to take it out of us’ you just embrace it, really.
“Travelling is only difficult if you make excuses before you go.
“We have an experienced squad, that’s one thing counting in our favour here. The lads know how to go away, recover, prepare properly. I think that showed with the results we got over the Christmas period.
“The lads don’t really need too much telling – they know what they need to do now.”
After playing down the significance of the league table in the first half of the campaign, now is the time players, managers and supporters start to look for opposition results with interest.
Wanderers are one of half a dozen sides who have promotion designs but after two cup games interrupted their flow in recent weeks, Alnwick reckons it is imperative the team quickly rediscover their earlier consistent form.
“Promotion is the aim and we’re in a fantastic spot with that game in hand,” he said. “A win on Saturday will put us right up there.
“We can go on another run like we did not too long ago and if we can get the points column rolling over, we’ll be back in the top two.”
Last weekend’s defeat against Swindon was uncharacteristic in that the organisation and stability preached by manager Parkinson since his arrival was nowhere to be seen in a harem scarem last 15 minutes at the Macron.
“We lost our way a little bit against Swindon because usually we play off a good defensive shape. That game became a bit end-to-end,” Alnwick conceded.
“But I thought at Palace we looked quite comfortable. They didn’t have a lot of chances and we matched them stride for stride.
“We were disappointed to have lost last weekend but no-one can say we weren’t giving it a right good go. The game started to get away from us a bit and when it opens up it doesn’t really suit us.
“But it’s four games since we won, so that is one thing we’re looking at. We need to get the league form going again.
“We can learn from those games. We can take that into the Southend game now.”
Instead of Manchester City at the Macron a week on Saturday it will be Charlton Athletic – but Alnwick thinks Wanderers will have won themselves a few new admirers with the work they put in against Sam Allardyce’s Palace.
“We gave a great account of ourselves, we didn’t go there and roll over,” he said. “But credit to them, they wore us down in the end.
“When you can bring on the likes of Jason Puncheon and Christian Benteke off the bench with tired legs out there it gives you a lift. On another day we’d have won it but we gave it a good go.
“Naturally when you go a goal up you start getting your hopes up, maybe get another goal and shut up shop but it wasn’t to be.”
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Distractions now disappearing from sight in the rear mirror, there are 20 games remaining which will determine success or failure this season.
Wanderers go to Southend tomorrow sitting third in the table, five points behind second-placed Scunthorpe United and six behind leaders Sheffield United, with a game in hand. The chase is on – but goalkeeper Ben Alnwick is confident the Whites can make up ground.
The team bus pulled up in the wee hours of Wednesday morning after defeat at Selhurst Park and it will be all-aboard again today for the 250-mile trip to the Essex coast.
But rather than worry about the travelling involved this week, Alnwick believes it can strengthen the team bonds.
“We make the most of it,” he said. “There are plenty of lads here who enjoy a laugh or a game of cards – there’s all sorts going on.
“I think as you get older you get used to the travelling. It just becomes part and parcel of the job, you don’t look at journeys and think ‘ah, that’s going to take it out of us’ you just embrace it, really.
“Travelling is only difficult if you make excuses before you go.
“We have an experienced squad, that’s one thing counting in our favour here. The lads know how to go away, recover, prepare properly. I think that showed with the results we got over the Christmas period.
“The lads don’t really need too much telling – they know what they need to do now.”
After playing down the significance of the league table in the first half of the campaign, now is the time players, managers and supporters start to look for opposition results with interest.
Wanderers are one of half a dozen sides who have promotion designs but after two cup games interrupted their flow in recent weeks, Alnwick reckons it is imperative the team quickly rediscover their earlier consistent form.
“Promotion is the aim and we’re in a fantastic spot with that game in hand,” he said. “A win on Saturday will put us right up there.
“We can go on another run like we did not too long ago and if we can get the points column rolling over, we’ll be back in the top two.”
Last weekend’s defeat against Swindon was uncharacteristic in that the organisation and stability preached by manager Parkinson since his arrival was nowhere to be seen in a harem scarem last 15 minutes at the Macron.
“We lost our way a little bit against Swindon because usually we play off a good defensive shape. That game became a bit end-to-end,” Alnwick conceded.
“But I thought at Palace we looked quite comfortable. They didn’t have a lot of chances and we matched them stride for stride.
“We were disappointed to have lost last weekend but no-one can say we weren’t giving it a right good go. The game started to get away from us a bit and when it opens up it doesn’t really suit us.
“But it’s four games since we won, so that is one thing we’re looking at. We need to get the league form going again.
“We can learn from those games. We can take that into the Southend game now.”
Instead of Manchester City at the Macron a week on Saturday it will be Charlton Athletic – but Alnwick thinks Wanderers will have won themselves a few new admirers with the work they put in against Sam Allardyce’s Palace.
“We gave a great account of ourselves, we didn’t go there and roll over,” he said. “But credit to them, they wore us down in the end.
“When you can bring on the likes of Jason Puncheon and Christian Benteke off the bench with tired legs out there it gives you a lift. On another day we’d have won it but we gave it a good go.
“Naturally when you go a goal up you start getting your hopes up, maybe get another goal and shut up shop but it wasn’t to be.”
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