Bristol Rovers must turn up at Scunthorpe United "hungry and humble" on Tuesday night, manager Joey Barton says.
The Gas – unbeaten in three League Two games – are favourites to beat the struggling Iron at Glanford Park on Tuesday, but Barton expects a difficult challenge against a team "fighting for their very existence".
While the Gas boss says victory is far from a foregone conclusion, he believes his squad is in a very good place after an impressive performance in Saturday's 1-1 draw at Swindon Town.
"We’ve got to be hungry and humble, of course, because we want to win every game, but we’re going to be real dark horses and we’re going to be dark horses based on the depth that we’ve got in the squad," Barton said.
"(Scunthorpe are) fighting for their lives. They’re fighting for their very existence so it will be another tough fixture on the road.
"We’re going into a period of hectic Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday, but competition is rife and we’ve got players coming back to fitness.
"It’s been a tough time for the Gasheads, it’s been tough for all of us trying to get through but the new year brought new optimism and a new haircut.
"If you watch training now, it’s night and day from where it was and that’s due to the quality of the players and also the players taking it on."
Scunthorpe have lost four successive games in League Two, sat in the relegation places and six points from safety, but Barton is an admirer of manager Keith Hill.
"He’s a good man," Barton said. "I remember him from Rochdale and when he was at Bolton as well.
"A really good character and a good coach. He’s given them a fighting chance and they’ve certainly picked up under his tenure and we know we’ll have a tough game on Tuesday night."
Attacking midfielder Tyrese Sinclair could make his Scunthorpe debut on Tuesday after joining on loan from Mansfield Town, but Harry Bunn is out with injury and Hayden Hackney is in the midst of a six-game ban for spitting.
For Rovers, Alfie Kilgour is expected to miss out again with a flare-up after his return from a knee injury, but Cian Harries should be available after feeling stiffness in his neck.
Long-term injury absentees Harvey Saunders and Alex Rodman remain out of contention.
Seven points from a possible nine in their past three League Two outings have lifted the Gas to 15th, but with an 11 point gap to the play-off places to bridge – albeit with games in hand – Barton and his players can ill afford any slip-ups.
"The hardest game is the next one, as clichéd as it is," Barton added. "This is a tough league in terms of the results don’t go the way you expect them to go because, on their day, there are some good players down here.
"The problem that they’re here for is the fact they are not consistent enough and you’re hoping those are the days when you turn up and play them.
"We’re striving for consistency so we want to back that performance at Swindon up and give another good account of ourselves.
"We’ll have a number travelling again because we always do and because they’re superb and we’ve just got to focus on that next game and take maximum points.
"Luckily for us, we’re not sitting up perched anywhere. I’ve been in these situations many times, you want to hit those final furlongs with momentum, coming up on the rails with a big, bold effort.
"If we keep progressing and we turn up and set that standard of performance that we had today, it will only be a matter of time before we’re climbing that table and pushing into the parts of the table that we want to be."
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