Blackburn Rovers (A) | Foster's Preview

For Ian Foster, this week is about similarities and differences.

Firstly, the latter. After playing at Sheffield Wednesday on Tuesday night, and faced with the prospect of a 4am arrival in Plymouth, Foster opted to have his players stay in Yorkshire, and alter the make-up of the week.

Recovery has taken place along the way, freshening the side up as they face a trip back up north, this time to the other side of the Pennines, to Blackburn Rovers.

And then for the similarities: Foster has always preached an approach of level-headedness, asking his players not to be despondent at recent defeats, just as he would not be drawn into too much elation at the superb 2-0 win at Middlesbrough two weeks ago.

A believer in fostering – pun not intended, but fully welcomed – a culture of hard work and belief, the head coach wants his squad to utilise their mental strengths as they head to Ewood Park to take on a side on level points with them in the concertinaing Sky Bet Championship table.

“[The week has] been slightly different,” said Foster. “We stayed over in Sheffield after the game. We did a recovery session on Wednesday morning before traveling back down.

“The players haven't really had any time off this week because Wednesday was a travel day. They've had a little bit of a breather [Thursday] morning, and the afternoon session is an active recovery session. That's all it can be for the starters.

“The boys that didn't start the game will do a little bit more, and we begin our preparations for Blackburn.

“It starts with the culture of the group. When you originally come into the building, you build a culture. We explained to the players that this wasn’t ever going to be a linear journey from start to finish.

“It was always going to be a rollercoaster ride, and it is that at the moment. We've had ups and we're having downs at the moment, but what we need to do is just remain calm, remain together, remain focused on our roles and our responsibilities, and we'll be absolutely fine if we do that.

“It's never easy losing games of football. None of us enjoy it: players, staff, supporters alike, we all want to win games of football. We're all desperate to do that, and we're desperately trying hard to do that.

“It goes back to the culture and environment you set. If that's strong, when you're tested like we are being at the moment, as a group, we stick together.

“The longer it goes on, the more it hurts. The more it stings, the more you do get tested as a group. We try desperately hard in every game, and Saturday will be no different, to try to get three points.

“As much as we want to beat Blackburn Rovers, we wanted to beat Sheffield Wednesday, we wanted to beat Ipswich, we wanted to beat teams before that.

“We don't change our approach; we try to win every game of football. Blackburn has the noise around it, because of where we are in the division. Everybody's that close at the moment; you could say that for most teams.

“We understand how tight the division is at the minute, and how crucial it is to get points on board.

“We have to remain true to our values and our principles. The players have to give the very best in order to get points in this division because it's very challenging, very tough and very demanding.

“I believe that when we do that, we've got a chance of getting points on the board, and we've proven that in recent weeks, against really good opposition.

“We have to make sure that, tactically and principally, we get it right. If we do that, we'll give ourselves an opportunity.”