Tom Clarke says that Preston North End need to start picking up maximum points as Sky Bet League One races towards the prize giving part of the season.
The Lilywhites travel to the Wirral on Saturday where they will face Tranmere Rovers and the defender knows that now is the time for the real work to start as he and his teammates bid for promotion.
“The games are coming thick and fast and to get a win at Tranmere would kick us on in to another tough game,” said Clarke.
“It is the business end of the season now and results matter, so that’s what we need to achieve.
“These games now coming towards the end of the season, they are important and we need to kick on and get the results and that starts now.
“We are now out of the FA Cup obviously, so we can concentrate fully on the league.
“We are definitely confident going in to Saturday.
“We played very well on Wednesday and we go into Tranmere now full of confidence.
“It is another game were we need to concentrate on the league and get a result, because we have a big game against Leyton Orient coming up after that as well.
“Tranmere are a good side, any team in this league can cause you problems, it is going to be hard so we will just have to see.
“We go there full of confidence from the Forest game and we are looking to get three points.”
Saturday’s match comes quick on the heels of PNE’s FA Cup exit at the hands of Nottm Forest, a match which the Lilywhites dominated in almost its entirety.
And Clarke admits that the players were disappointed with the result, despite the excellent performance.
He continued: “We are obviously disappointed by the result, it was a game that we played well in and we are just disappointed we could not take the chances we created.
“With the quality of players that they have got, they had two chances and two good finishes and that is the difference maybe between doing well in the Championship and League One.”
Saturday marks a return to Prenton Park for North End trio Iain Hume, John Welsh and David Buchanan.
And with the three returning and a big Preston following expected, it could make for a good atmosphere come 3pm.
An atmosphere that Clarke is looking forward to and he believes that the returning players will be even more eager than the rest to get the job done.
“The guys that used to play for Tranmere are looking forward to the game obviously and know a few of the players there,” added the former Huddersfield Town man.
“They will be keen more than anyone to go there and get the three points and like all of us, we need to go down on a quick turnaround, but as I have said, we are full of confidence.”