Manager Paul Jewell says the Blues face a big week with today’s game at Cardiff followed by back-to-back home matches against Portsmouth and Crystal Palace. While delighted with his side’s recent form, the Town boss isn’t getting too carried away with so much of the season still to be played.

Jewell adopts the traditional approach of taking each game as it comes: “We’ve got a game tomorrow, then another Tuesday and then another on Saturday. I don’t even look further than the next game.

“But the next week is a big week because we’ve got ourselves in a nice little position. Now we want to kick on consolidate and not rest on our laurels.

“Anything can happen. You can win three in a week but you can also lose three in that week. I don’t think anyone in this room would be surprised if either of those two scenarios happened.

“In this league it’s very, very difficult to call a result — in their last home game Cardiff beat Southampton, who have looked invincible so far this season.

“There are no games where you think you can just coast through it. Every game you have to be flat out.”

While delighted that there’s a bit of a buzz around the club, Jewell is keen that everyone concerned remains level-headed in their outlook: “I went to a supporters’ do a couple of weeks ago and everyone was on a high, which is great.

“I don’t want to be Scrooge but you just have to temper that with a bit of realism that we’re still a newish team.

“People are still getting to know one each other and getting to know me. I’ve got a two-and-a-half-year contract and I’m not even a year through that and I’m hoping that I’m here beyond that contract.

“We want to get to the Premier League as quickly as possible, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to happen overnight.”

The one-time Wigan and Bradford boss reflected on how quickly perceptions of his team have changed: “We’re 10 games in. A month ago we were hopeless, we were relegation fodder, weren’t fit to wear the shirt and all that jazz. Now all of a sudden we’re like Brazil.

“We’re somewhere in between and that’s just down to confidence. We’re on a confident run at the moment, the fans are confident, the players are, the staff are.

“We want to use that, but we also want to temper that with realism — there’s three-quarters of the season to go, 36 games, a huge amount of football to be played.”

Jewell, who spent a few days back home in Yorkshire last week taking in his former club Bradford’s victory over Torquay, says the recent form means nothing if his players can’t keep it going: “Over the last four games you’d be a liar to deny that we’ve made huge strides and progress.

“The key when you get into a situation like this is not to sit back on your laurels and tell everyone what a good team you are.

“It’s OK [West Ham boss] Sam Allardyce telling us we’re the best team they’ve played and [Coventry manager] Andy Thorn also saying the same. That’s very nice, but I hope Cardiff are saying that after we’ve beaten them.

“Those four games mean nothing now, they’ve gone. We’ve now got to take up the bit and kick on a bit more.”

Story syndicated from TWTD.co.uk

Photo: Action Images

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