West Ham United go to Wigan Athletic on Wednesday night bidding to kick-start another unbeaten run on the road that will keep the club riding high.
Prior to last week's two disappointments at Bolton Wanderers and Middlesbrough, Gianfranco Zola's men had not experienced a loss on their travels since 29 October. Having jumped just above Wigan into seventh spot with the weekend win against Manchester City, the significance of the JJB Stadium encounter is not lost on the manager.
"The players know what our objective is right now so everybody is going to be pushing to achieving that," he said. "The players are focused on that. We just have to be consistent now to get results starting on Wednesday. We will go there and we can try to win."
As was the case with Mark Hughes on Sunday, Zola knows his opposite number in the dug-out very well - having come up against the dogged defending of Steve Bruce many times during his playing days. The Wigan manager was at the Boleyn Ground on Sunday trying to get some early pointers about the Zola system.
The West Ham United boss is full of respect for Bruce's coaching credentials. "I rate him very much," Zola said. "His team is playing very well and they are a team to respect. I saw them play a couple of times and I like the way they play. They like to play football and they are a powerful and strong team and it is going to be a hard game for us."