Coventry City manager Andy Thorn faces a conundrum about which players he chooses to play in two vital games in three days over the Easter period.
However, Thorn is focusing on the first of the two games, the home clash with Peterborough.
The Sky Blues need to take maximum points from both games in a bid to avoid relegation and with City having a fine recent record at The Ricoh Arena, many fans are confident of a home win before the side travel to Bristol. A win at Ashton Gate for either side would put distance between the two sides in the battle between the two relegation candidates.
Two games in three days will put Thorn's tiny squad to a severe test with more concern on whether the ageing striker Clive Platt will be able to play two intensive games in such a short period of time.
To use the overused cliché, Thorn is taking one game at a time and the next game is the one he is focusing on now.
He said to the CT's Andy Turner: “The most important game now is Peterborough so we’re focused on that, then it will be whatever bodies we have got on Sunday when we go down to Bristol and we’ll assess the situation then.
“We will take them one game at a time. Peterborough play a diamond and I think they’ll come and have a go. I hope they do, I want everyone to come and have a go at us because I think the way we are at the moment we’re on the front foot and we want to maintain that.”
Referring to Platt and whether he will play in one or both games over the Easter holiday, Thorn admitted, “I don’t know how we’re going to play him yet. It’s the first game that’s important so we’ll pick a team to try to get a result against Peterborough and then we’ll pick a team to try to get a result against Bristol City.
“It might be that I might not be able to pick the team I want to pick on Monday but it doesn’t matter because I have put the young ones in before and I’ll put them in again.”
Thorn will be without central defenders Nathan Cameron and Richard Wood, but he will have David Bell available for selection now he has returned from a six game injury break.
Thorn has maintained his sense of humour and joked with reporters when he said, “I’ll have to rotate them this weekend, all 15 of them. At the moment we feel like we can win anywhere and we feel we can get a result anywhere, and when we feel like that I don’t care who we play.
“I wish there had been a game midweek because we want to get back out on the pitch. We’re not getting carried away, it’s total focus and hard work, but we’ve been on a decent run and we’ve had to go on that to get where we have got. And we’ve got to maintain that now and we’ll only do that by hard work and determination.
“People were saying about us, ‘oh they’ve got no money, the club is in trouble, no players, look how many young players they’ve got in their team,’ and people thought Coventry would be gone, be relegated, but we’ve stuck to our principles and got on with it, and as I have said before, if we come through it then it gives us a real base to build on for next season.”
Thorn maintains he is not thinking further ahead than the home game against Peterborough, but six points from both games give Coventry the advantage in beating the drop.
He said, “I have not even thought about if we win both games because the minute you think you’ve cracked it this game will come and slap you straight in the face. It’s happened to me enough times and I’ve seen it happen on a few occasions and I am not about to let it happen now.
"Hard work has got us where we are and we’ve set standards that we don’t want to drop.”