Jonny Williams has urged his team-mates to believe in themselves and play with more freedom between now and the end of the campaign.
The Welshman returned to the first-team fold on Saturday but was unable to inspire a return to winning ways, as Brentford clinched three points at the Stadium of Light.
However, there’s been little time to dwell with Tuesday’s trip to Bolton Wanderers being billed as the biggest game of the season so far by players and pundits alike.
And with the stakes high, Williams admitted the Lads can’t afford to hand Bolton the early initiative.
“We need to play with more freedom and belief in ourselves,” said Williams.
“It is a massive game, they’ll be looking at it as a winnable game just as we will be.”
He continued: “The main thing is that we have a good start and give ourselves a chance of winning the game.
“We leave ourselves with a mountain to climb by going one, two goals down, and that’s when we start to play rather than putting the other team on the back foot straight away.
“It comes down to confidence and belief and we need to find that quickly, we know we can beat Bolton and we should have done earlier in the season.
“We don’t want to get deep in the relegation zone and to where we’re winning games but we can’t get out, so we need to win.”