Player guest column: Max Power

To be honest, we didn’t really want the international break because we felt we were starting to build some momentum and our performances have been improving steadily, but we’ve used the time wisely, we’ve trained really hard and we’re looking forward to getting going again.

We trained throughout the week and we had a few days off so I was able to spend some time with the family. I’ve got two young kids and a lot of the time, with football, I’m away quite a bit.

I’m very family-orientated and I’ll spend time with the kids whenever I get the chance to, whether that’s going to the zoo or whatever, it’s spending time with them that’s important to me.

It was also nice to do that and switch off from football and spend some quality time with them.

Getting back to football, we’ve looked at Burton a lot and how they play ahead of the game.

We want to use this next block of games now before the next internaitonal break to build some momentum and push up the table.

With games coming thick and fast you can quickly climb the table but at the same time you can quickly fall down the table so for us to have a strong mentality going into these games is important. It’s a busy schedule but the rewards are great if you can start winning games, go up the table and look down rather than up it.

The start was hard for us, and any time you come into a new season, there’s been a big player turnover again, very rarely you get a team hitting the ground running. It takes time to build relationships with players and I think steadily that’s been coming along.

We did it last year in League One, but no disrespect to that league, it’s not as tough as the Championship and you’re coming up against much better opposition.

Last year we got away with it at times, but in this league you certainly get punished by the better players.

The more we play together, the signs have been there that we’re really coming together.

The performances have been there, they’ve not been an issue, it’s just fine details, tweaking things and we’re looking to go onto this next block of games wanting to push for some wins.

I have a lot of admiration for Burton. What they’ve achieved in the last two years is incredible.

I played against Burton in League Two when I was at Tranmere. They’ve kept quite a few of those players so it’s very good to see them advance through the league and keep their core of players. They’ve started the season well and they are very competitive. There are no easy games in this division and we found the two times we played Burton last year, they are very close and tough games. We have another tough test coming up but we’re fully confident.