Head coach Uwe Rosler says he has confidence in his players to get a positive result on Tuesday night as his side face Blackburn Rovers (7:45pm k/o).
Rosler’s team go into the match at Ewood Park on the back of a fine 2-0 victory over Oxford United on Saturday at Highbury.
Remarkably, almost ten years ago to the day, Blackburn played Liverpool in the Premier League, whilst Town drew with Witton Albion in the Northern Premier League – a quite remarkable story.
“I don’t think our club has ever played a Premier League champion,” said Rosler.
“It’s a massive club in the region and we have an opportunity to show what we can do against such a historical club.
“We have a very good away record and like I said on a number of occasions it’s up to us. The result is up to us not Blackburn, how good we do will decide the outcome of the game. I have confidence in my players and in our ability and that is great for a coach.
“We go there and it’s a great opportunity for us to learn. To learn to play in a big stadium, to learn to play against a team who’s favourite in everybody’s eyes, to learn to handle those occasions and I look forward to it because the facts tell me we do well in those scenarios.”
Saturday’s clean sheet was the first since late September, which Rosler says has provided a confidence boost to the team.
“We were very good against a good side,” added Rosler.
“I think that gives confidence, and spreads confidence around the team, but Blackburn Rovers at Ewood is another level up so we need to raise our level of performance. For some reason Tuesday evenings do us good.
“Evenings we get more out of our players physically and produce higher numbers and the pitch is big. We can play and then we see where it takes us. Their crowd will be expecting a comfortable win against Fleetwood Town and we are there to spoil the party.”
Rosler’s substitutions on Saturday proved to be key, with both Jordy Hiwula and Ash Hunter having a big impact on the game, with the German keen to stress every player has a role to play.
“Like I always say football is a squad game and everyone on the bus has a role to play,” stated Rosler.
“We need to pick the players who have to be top drawer in what they deliver. Not only the players who start but also the players who are coming on.
“It was players coming on who won us the game on Saturday, our impact subs made more of an impact than Oxford’s players who came on that is the fact.
“The players are looking forward to it. It’s great for the football club to play Blackburn Rovers, for the players, for the coaches, for the chairman but also for the supporters.
“I always say to our players it’s up to us to light the matches and then the crowd will take over with gasoline and it comes to an explosion. We need to initiate them on the pitch by performing the way we did in the second hal,f and the supporters followed us.
“It was very important to us ending the game the way we did and taking the confidence into tomorrow’s game.”