It’ll be a busy Christmas for the Tigers and Peter Taylor wants to see his side get off to a positive start by getting a result at Crewe on Boxing Day.
City are facing a run of four games in eight days over the festive period and Taylor admits it will be a big test of resource and character.
‘It is a tough period but thankfully we had 20 outfield players training on Thursday,’ he said.
‘The virus we had in the camp seems to have cleared up a bit which is good news for us and like anyone else, we want to be lucky with injuries and deserve our luck in games.
‘As regards injuries we’ve had poor luck, but in certain games I want us to deserve our luck a little bit more.
‘I look at the Reading situation and there have been times when they’ve had luck but have earned it by continuing to work hard, on and off the ball.
‘That’s the kind of attitude I want to see from us in the second half of the season.’
Crewe are one of the sides that the Tigers haven’t yet played this season but Taylor has done his homework on Dario Gradi’s side.
‘I know all about them and they have a tremendous manager who has helped a lot of peoples’ football careers,’ he added.
‘Dario is great for the game, Crewe will be playing good stuff but we can’t afford to stand there admiring it.
‘We need to get about them to stop them playing football and be very, very positive when we have the ball so that we create chances of our own.’
The City boss made no secret of the fact that he was disappointed with both the performance and result at Brighton last week, but wouldn’t be drawn on whether he is looking to make changes for Boxing Day.
‘Because we play so many games in such a short space of time I need to look at that side of things carefully,’ he said.
‘We have 20 outfield players fit at the minute and it wouldn’t be a surprise of most of them are involved over the Christmas period.
‘You just can’t expect players to go out there and play 90 minutes one after the other in that space of time.’
