Luke Williams has insisted that he wants to continue to instil a winning mentality into his Notts County players ahead of their FA Trophy tie with Chorley on Tuesday evening.
The Magpies had to postpone their fixture with Andy Preece's side on Saturday due to a frozen pitch at Meadow Lane, meaning the tie had to be rescheduled within five days of the original date.
Consequently, their National League fixture with Barnet has also been rearranged to take place in the new year as a busy January looms.
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The last time the Magpies were in cup action was back in October, with Coalville Town providing one of the upsets of the FA Cup fourth qualifying round, emerging 3-2 victors against a side featuring eight changes at Meadow Lane.
But many fans have suggested that going out of this competition could be seen as a positive, meaning sole focus is then switched to the league and continuing their quest for promotion.
And while Williams suggested that small positives could be taken from a defeat on Tuesday evening, he explained that it would be difficult to ask his players to take it easy and halt the momentum that their league form has provided.
"In some ways we would say that would be a silver lining, but certainly we want to have a winning mentality and it's difficult then to ask the players to take it easy or to not worry too much about the game.
"I think we have prepared in a thorough way and that is the mentality I want the players to have.
"In the end it becomes a habit that they only know to go on to the pitch and really try to win and give everything.
"And I think that is the mentality we have, I hope. I think players will try to impress and want to show themselves in a good light and they are in a favourable position for a league game.
"All these things add up and I hope that is the mentality.
"Of course if we don't manage to win the game, we will take some small positives out of that because we have one less game for us to worry about and we can totally focus on the league campaign."
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