With seven games to kickstart 2023, Notts County boss Luke Williams has emphasised the importance of starting the new year with victory at Oldham.
In an unusual run of fixtures, the Magpies will play David Unsworth's side six days since their last encounter, when Notts were 4-1 winners on Boxing Day.
Goals from Cedwyn Scott (2), Kyle Cameron, and Ruben Rodrigues condemned the Latics to their 12th defeat of the season as the threat of back-to-back relegations grows.
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But victory has presented the Notts boss with the challenge of ensuring his players don't take their foot off the gas following the ease of Oldham's capitulation at Meadow Lane.
County's FA Cup defeat to Coalville Town was perhaps evidence of underestimating the opposition, and the consequences of a repeat this Sunday could impact on the race for National League promotion.
Williams warned: "It's a different atmosphere playing at Oldham and I am sure there will be a good crowd behind them. We need to re-energise and have a fresh game plan with the possibility of changing some players and we feel like they can try to make the game a little bit more like a basketball game so we can't control it as much.
"There are things in the game that we looked at that we feel as though we need to establish those patterns in the next fixture, but there are also things that we have seen in there that could have caused us some problems.
"Of course, there's a goal in there that we have to recognise that is not great but excellent play from Oldham.
"Thinking about the team selection and the potential scenarios at their place."
The game at Boundary Park kickstarts a busy month for the Magpies, with five games to follow in the league along with their FA Trophy fixture against Maidstone United, which has been rescheduled to take place on Sunday 15 January after clashing with Nottingham Forest's home tie against Leicester City.
While the number of games offers Williams' side the opportunity to open a gap between themselves and Wrexham, the Notts boss highlighted the importance of starting this hectic run of games with a win.
He said on the official club website: "I think it is going to be crucial because I don't think there is going to be any slowdown from the teams close to us.
"You look at the likes of Wrexham, Chesterfield, and Woking and they are rolling one win after another.
"Barnet have five straight victories so we have to maintain our standards and we have to keep picking up the points otherwise people will catch us."
