Burton Albion defender Jake Buxton is urging his Brewers team-mates not to dwell on Saturday's 4-1 defeat to Hull City ahead of another tough trip north on Tuesday night.
Albion travel to the Riverside Stadium tomorrow to face another relegated side in Middlesbrough - the latest fixture in a 13-day stretch that will see the Brewers in action five times.
Buxton - who ended that defeat at the KCOM Stadium with the captain's armband following an early injury to Stephen Warnock and with John Mousinho on the bench - is instead taking the positives from a tough week that saw Burton lose to Cardiff City before coming from behind to beat Oldham Athletic on Wednesday.
"We did well on Wednesday night at Oldham, we put a good performance in against Cardiff for nearly 90 minutes - we played well it, but it was just that late goal," Buxton said post-match at the KCOM.
"On Saturday it was a different fight, and I thought for 30 minutes we did well. It was just the sending off - the last 60 minutes you void.
"We go to Boro, dust ourselves down and can't dwell on the fixture that's just gone., we've got a lot more games to come and they come thick and fast.
"We play Tuesday and Friday and we have to pick up some points - we have to get some points on the board going into the international break."
Buxton's comments come after the Brewers suffered back-to-back league defeats to open the season for a second straight year in the Championship.
And with the trip to the Riverside against a Boro team that have spent more £30 million on strikers looming, he knows Albion need to open their account sooner rather than later.
Buxton has earmarked the first international break - beginning after the visit of Sheffield Wednesday to the Pirelli Stadium on August 26 - as the deadline for the Brewers to get their first points on the board.
Between the Boro match and then, they face Birmingham City - as soon as Friday night - and an early reunion with Cardiff City in the second round of the Carabao Cup next Tuesday (August 22).
The never-say-die attitude that has been a staple of the Brewers' success in recent years is still present in the side as they target that first positive result - not least in Buxton, a man who returned to the Pirelli after eight years away and came back to a much different club to the one he left.
"It's something that comes from within from the manager, and is present throughout the players," the former Derby County man added.
"The boys were down there the same as I was (with Wigan Athletic) last year.
"It's about getting the points on the board and we know the task ahead, we know what's in front of us.
Hull City 4 - 1 Burton Albion
"We know the league has got tougher and we know that we're trying to get a better squad.
"We've just got to try and get as many points as quick as possible, so let's get a point on board before people start looking over their shoulder."
