Rosler tells Town to avoid any complacency

Town are two points away from Rosler’s 74 point target after steaming past Andy Pilley’s initial 50-point goal, clinching a place in the FA Cup third round and surpassing the club’s highest League One points tally.

The tally is no random number with it having been the highest needed to seal sixth place and a play-off spot in three out of the last five seasons.

Town now have a six-point cushion on seventh-placed Millwall after that 3-1 midweek win at Oxford.

While Town are battling it out at the right end of the table 18th-placed Athletic are embroiled in a relegation scrap.

And Rosler says the Boundary Park pitch will be a challenge as they bid to retain the unbeaten away record they have held since the 2-1 defeat at Port Vale that sparked their 18-game unbeaten run.

Rosler said: “We are not over the line, we need to address the next game at Oldham.

“Oldham is a very difficult place to go in terms of their pitch; that will be the next challenge for us.

“We will be ready, we will travel well, we do all the recovery protocols we do in general and the team travels back high in confidence.”

Skipper Nathan Pond made his first appearance since injuring his knee in a collision with Conor McLaughlin in Town’s 3-1 win over Bristol Rovers, while Jack Sowerby also made his first appearance since the 0-0 draw against Rochdale in February.

Rosler said: “Jack Sowerby came on; he gave us pace. “We brought Pondy on because we knew they did not hurt us in the first half.

“They could not play through our shape, we were very well organised.

“They went long in the second half and picked up too many second balls but with Pondy in there he is another big unit and we still had the sides covered with Sowerby giving us real pace and that was important.”

At half-time Rosler sent George Glendon on for Godswill Ekpolo and the German was happy with the improvement from last weekend’s loss to Swindon.

He said: “He played against Swindon and he needed too long in my opinion to get up to speed eventually he did.

“(At Oxford) he was there from the first minute, he not only gave us too nicking the balls but he also gave us a little more quality and structure on the ball.”