Accrington Stanley captain Seamus Conneely said it was a huge relief to move out of the relegation places – and now they have to make sure the table stays this way.
The Reds travel to in-form Ipswich Town tonight who are chasing automatic promotion and are the top scorers in League One.
Stanley are unbeaten in three league games and are two points above the bottom four, with games in hand.
“We have been in the relegation zone for the last few weeks, it’s not a nice place to be, we understand the importance to get out of it," said the Stanley captain.
“The pressure you feel when you are in it is more than when you are above that line so we are thankful to move out of the relegation places.”
With 14 games to go, Conneely knows it’s about wins not performances.
“It’s about winning, if we play terrible for 14 games but win 10 of them then I would snap your hand of.
“You see at this time of the year, teams change their style of play, they go a little bit more direct, play more percentage football, the pitches have had a tough winter and games are more difficult to play. It’s human nature to do whatever it takes to win games and that’s what it is all about now.
“Ipswich is a difficult game. They beat Burton 4-0 at the weekend and we found Burton difficult to break down but they broke them down four times.
“They are pushing for automatic promotion, there will be 25,000 at the game, they are high on confidence and I expect they will start the game fast.
“We need to try and find a way to nullify them as best we can. We have done it in the last few away games so we will try and come up with a plan to make it as difficult as possible for Ipswich.
“We need to stand up to these big teams and, if we are to stay in this division, we need to perform at them.”
He admits that there is a lot of pressure on the Reds in the final few months of the campaign.
“Everyone is looking at the run-in. We need five/ six/ seven wins and you look at home games and see where you can pick up points.
“But if you can pick up points away from home, the odd win, it does take the pressure off the home games.
“We have 14 games to go, if we were to win six away and none at home that would be enough, we just need six wins wherever we get them.”
He knows, whatever happens tonight, it’s important also not to let any heads drop if Ipswich do take the lead.
“We spoke about it at Barnsley when we were 3-0 down at half time. We puton a better performance in the second half and scored a late penalty to make it 3-1 and it didn’t mean anything at time but, come end of season, it could be massive. It’s important, whatever the score, you have got to stand up and play for 90 minutes and everyone has to give their best.
“You have got to be wary that games can get away from you quickly, you are talking about the top teams in this division like Ipswich, Sheffield Wednesday, Plymotuh they are very good and they will exploit you if you lose your discipline and shape and we have to guard against that.”
The full pre-match interview with Seamus Conneely is available to watch on the club's official YouTube channel, CLICK HERE to find out more!