Boss Kieran McKenna says last week’s friendly at Tottenham, in which Conor Chaplin scored a hat-trick as the Blues won 3-2, was a useful exercise, while having a free midweek has given him and his staff a chance to work on details with the players who weren’t away on international duty.
Town came from two goals down in the friendly at Hotspur Way a week ago, Lucas Moura and Japhet Tanganga having netted for the home side, who fielded the senior players who weren’t away with their countries, including skipper Hugo Lloris, as well as U21s, before Chaplin bagged his treble in the final 20 minutes.
"It was 70 minutes, we managed to utilise the squad and give more minutes to those who haven’t played as much and most of those who have been playing regularly were in the squad and got some minutes off the bench,” McKenna said.
"It was a really useful exercise from a fitness point of view and also, of course, tactically against that type of opponent it’s always going to be a good challenge and you’re going to learn things as a group as well.
"We thought it was a good fixture for us and we’re thankful for them hosting us and finished off the week well and gave us a god chance to have a full training week this week with the group.”
Chaplin has scored twice on six occasions in league and cup games this season but so far without having claimed a hat-trick for the Blues.
"He managed to get them before I could sub him off so that was probably his approach!” McKenna laughed.
The Northern Irishman isn’t particularly concerned that his side have gone two weeks without a senior fixture, the Blues having taken their winning run to six and their clean sheet record to seven matches and 686 minutes when they beat Shrewsbury at Portman Road a fortnight ago.
Town last won seven matches in a row at the end of 1988/89 and the start of 1989/90, all in the league.
The Blues most recently won seven on the bounce in the league in one season in 1953/54 during a run of eight successive wins, a club record.
Town’s longest winning run in all competitions was a nine-game streak during 1981/82.
"We don’t think it’s such a big deal, to be honest,” McKenna said when quizzed on the gap between league fixtures. "We had a game anyway, so it’s not like the players haven’t had a match, they’ve had a match.
"Nearly everybody in the squad has been involved in a match in the last week or so and we’ve had a little bit more time in training this week with not having a midweek game while some other teams have had some midweek games, it’s given us a chance to have a good full training week this week and work on some details.
"That’s always counterbalanced on international weeks by the fact that you don’t have your whole squad and you’re missing a few players but it enables you to work a little bit more individually with the players and a little bit more in smaller units and smaller groups with those who are here.
"We feel like we’ve utilised that time well and I think with the eight-game month that we have coming up in April, hopefully the way that we’ve used the last 10 days will be of benefit to us from a physical and, of course, technical and tactical perspective.”
McKenna knows his squad will come into play during a busy and crucial month: "We think that will be the case. I think, to be honest, everybody has big numbers and big strength in depth at this stage of the season. Derby have a big and strong squad as well.
"What I can say for our squad, and that’s not to speak for anyone else, but what I can say is that we’ve got 21 players training extremely well, working very hard behind the scenes, all feeling part of it, all knowing their jobs, all working and preparing as if they’re going to play. And all ready to come in and contribute when ready.
"I think that gives us a good chance, we feel like we have that in the group, that everyone is on board, everyone is part of what we’re doing, everyone is excited for the run-in and everyone knows that they need to be ready and everyone is working to be ready.
"That’s a good position to be in and hopefully that will help us over the course of the month.”