Iron boss Russ Wilcox has said he won’t be using 2006/07’s record unbeaten run of 19 matches as a benchmark ahead of this weekend’s match, where they could equal the feat.
The unbeaten run of that season was ended by this weekend’s opponents, Northampton Town, so Wilcox will be hopefully history doesn’t repeat itself.
He told The Iron Player: “We won’t be using that as any incentive whatsoever.
“The unbeaten run is great and I think we should be very proud of the unbeaten run that we have gone on.
“If anybody was to say to me you’d finish third in the table and gain promotion but you would lose three games in the process I would take that all day.
“Our aim is to get promotion and while we are pleased with the run it shows that we are able to compete in every single match.
“The best thing with the unbeaten run is we are picking up points on every game we play.
“We want to get the three points every game and when we only manage to get the one we have to pick our heads up and move forward.”
Wilcox added: “Like Sean McAllister said the other day, it now becomes a 12 game season and if somebody said to me we’d be in this situation I’d have taken that. Our destiny is in our own hands.”
United now have a four point cushion on fourth place while they currently sit 12 points ahead of Plymouth Argyle who sit one position outside the play-offs.
That stat is not something Wilcox is focusing on as he is only focusing on the top three positions in the table, yet he did imply it was nice to start seeing teams like the Iron pull away at the top of the league.
“I’m not looking that low because I’m remaining positive on our job and the work we are doing,” he said.
“The lowest I’m really looking on is the top five."
“Southend have dipped a little bit and Plymouth are hitting a bit of form, but I’m not too concerned about that – the main thing I’m focusing on is ourselves Chesterfield, Rochdale and Oxford,” Wilcox continued.
“More importantly it is all about what we do.
“We know that if we can accumulate enough points we’ll get promoted.
“I think we need another 20 points from the remaining 12 games.
“The 80 point mark should get you into the top three.”
The United manager added: “It hasn’t every season but there have been a lot of draws this season which makes it a lot tougher.”
At this time of the season when clubs are on good runs a favour here and there could really help ones push for promotion and United got one on Monday night courtesy of Richie Barker’s Portsmouth.
They held table toppers Chesterfield to a goalless draw at the Proact Stadium, just nine days after the Iron thrashed them 5-1.
However, while that result really helped the Iron out in their quest for promotion it just showed the quality of sides in League Two.
Wilcox explained: “I think Chesterfield’s result on Monday shows exactly what this league is about.
“Everybody comes away from Newport disappointed after a 2-2 draw and all of a sudden people think that Chesterfield will just turn up and obliterate Portsmouth – because we convincingly beat them 5-1."
“I went to the game on Monday and you have to say that it was a point gained from Chesterfield’s perspective,” he continued.
“Portsmouth were the better side. Obviously we saw that as two points dropped by them and it’s nice to get little favours every now and again."
Wilcox added: “After turning up here and being very disappointing I have to say that Portsmouth were outstanding.”
See much more from Russ Wilcox on The Iron Player.