Exeter City manager Paul Tisdale has told his players to focus on what they have done well over the past month as they bid to pile more misery on bottom-of-the-table Hartlepool United.
The Pools' plight is something City are all too aware of having started September bottom of the standings. However, the Grecians go into Saturday's game looking for their fifth straight league win – something they have not managed to achieve since April 2011 – having beaten Cambridge United, Tranmere Rovers, Bury and Dagenham & Redbridge in recent weeks.
City do have a few concerns go into Saturday's match at St James's Park, including a lengthy injury list. Colin Cooper also resigned as Hartlepool United manager last weekend, meaning they have a bit of an unknown quantity about them with Sam Collins and Stephen Pears in caretaker charge.
"I suppose it means that we can't be too sure on how they are going to line up, but I don't think you ever can be too sure be honest," said Tisdale. "It does put a little bit more of an unknown factor onto the game, but essentially they have got the same group of players.
"I think what it does do is makes it clear to us that we shouldn't worry too much about what they may or may not do, because we can't really predict it.
"I think we have worked very hard on our game, just changing the tone of our play, and we will be looking to continue that.
"We have done very well over the last five games and we need to remember that and not be side-tracked by what is going to happen at Hartlepool."
Alex Nicholls' departure from City will have come as a massive blow to Tisdale though.
The striker, who was on loan from Northampton Town, has returned to his parent club having played six games for the Grecians. In that time he managed to score one goal, win two penalties and provide one assist.
"It was always likely to happen," said Tisdale, who revealed that the Cobblers exercised a 24-hour recall on the player. "They (Northampton) were entitled to do that at any time so it was always a possibility coupled with the fact that he has done well for us and played lots of 90 minutes.
"I'm not surprised really, I was hoping it was going to continue for a month, but I'm glad we have had six games from Alex.
"My job now is to try and keep the momentum going in the front end of our pitch, but that is easier said than done, because we don't really have the capacity to just go out and sign someone."
Nicholls' departure is made worse by the fact that City currently have seven first team players out and two, Christy Pym and Matt Grimes, returning from England under-20s duty the day before the Hartlepool United game.
Craig Woodman, David Noble, David Wheeler, Liam Sercombe and Jordan Moore-Taylor, who was injured in Tuesday night's defeat to Coventry City, could all return for the Hartlepool match, but equally they could all be ruled out.
"The last couple of weeks we have been hoping that Craig Woodman was going to make the Saturday games and he hasn't," said Tisdale.
"It has been lingering on a lot longer than we had hoped. David Noble is the same and David Wheeler we are unsure about as well. His injury was too painful for him to start the game at Dagenham and we are going to get him to see a specialist this week to get some information on if he can carry on or not.
"He actually played on Friday and showed a fair amount of guts on his part, so we don't know on him.
"Liam Sercombe, until he is assessed this week, I don't really know either. So what I'm saying is, with Jamie Reid and Pat Baldwin also out, we could end up with six players unavailable for Saturday.
"I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Christy Pym and Matt Grimes return in one piece from Holland.
"They are of course playing for England under-20s on Thursday night against Germany so it is not going to give them a lot of time to recover."
Tisdale added that he was not too concerned about Grimes and Pym though. Both players featured for England under-20s against Romania on Friday, September 6 and still played the following day for City against Mansfield Town.
"It is a quality problem to have and I am not worried about it," said Tisdale. "I am confident that they can play in both games and I know they will have to.
"It won't be a case of me having to make a decision. At the moment they will both come back and start on Saturday and that is regardless of whether they play 90 minutes or five minutes on Thursday."
