"The next two games are very important now" - Niall Maher's captain's column

I think it happened in the Chesterfield game, towards the back end of the ,match. I felt something but didn't think too much of it.

We just thought it might have been fatigue, but I never rule myself out of playing and I thought I was going to be OK for Saturday.

I tried my best but it just gradually got worse.

I think Saturday might come too soon, but I'll leave that up to the medical staff and the management team to manage it.

We'll just take each day as it comes.

It was a frustrating game last Saturday, we could have been 2-0 up after five minutes and then it's a completely different story.

There weren't many clear cut chances from us, which is frustrating because we've prided ourselves on scoring goals and keeping the back door shut.

To concede off a set-piece is a hard one to take.

The next two games are very important now. We've got a squad that are itching to get it over the line and done with, but we can't look too far in-front, we've got to take each game as it comes, worry about how we play and the result will take care of itself.

We're fully focused on wanting to achieve what we set out for at the start of the season, we're so close, we just need to keep our heads down, keep working hard and hopefully we can see it through.

Is there a pressure over the race for the top three? Potentially, but as a captain I kind of thrive off that.

You will get inklings within the group with people looking at tables, or looking at form, saying 'we need to do this' or 'we need to do that'.

But if we're solely focused on ourselves, we can't worry about what everyone else does.

We've just got to worry about ourselves and take care of business.

Everyone would have taken the position we're in now at the start of the season.

Put the shoe on the other foot - this time last year we were waiting for results to go our way, so to have it in our own hands is a good thing.

We've got a great group that have got more than enough to go and get it done sooner rather than later, but again, it's a case of focusing on ourselves, take it game-by-game, not looking too far in-front and what will be will be.