Gaffer wants "fire in the belly and cool heads" from his players.
Manager Paul Dickov refuted claims that Saturday’s home clash with play-off chasers Reading at the Keepmoat Stadium on Saturday is the biggest of his managerial career.
Dickov’s side enter the contest one point above the relegation zone, but the Scot has called on his troops to use their experience.
“Don’t get me wrong it’s a massive game, but we’ll have fire in our belly and cool heads and that starts from me. I know and I believe that when we play the way we can we’re more than a match for anybody and that’s what we’re hoping for on Saturday and the players have taken a lot of confidence out of the determined performance that we put in the other day and if we show more of the same then we stand a good chance,” he said.
“We know we can do it, we know we can defend, we know we can put our bodies on the line, we just need that little bit of quality back in to our play.”
The Reading fixture will complete what has been a largely successful home campaign and, after recording 31 points of their overall tally of 44 points at the Keepmoat, Dickov called for one last push to help the club to Championship survival: “It would be great to end the season at home with a win, what happens elsewhere we can’t affect. We’re hoping for a win in front of our own fans – who’ve been fantastic all year – and I’ve heard there’s going to be a big crowd coming down so the more the merrier.
“Every player should have something to play for in every game, I’ve always been of that thinking. I know it will be a tough game; it’s a game that we can go and compete in and really try and get the win that will help us get over the line,” he said.
Nigel Adkins’ Royals defeated Rovers earlier in the season, but Dickov remained in typically bullish mood, “It’s a positive place to be and the players, I can sense they have a lot of belief looking at the fixtures coming up. I’ve believed in them all along. We all knew that our main objective was to stay in this division and we’re all confident that we can do that,” he said.
“They’re a good team, they’ve got a lot of Premier League players from last season but we have shown when we’ve played against these sorts of teams at home that we can rise to the occasion. Our fans will be there, there will be a big atmosphere and there’ll be a massive desire from us to win the game.”