City won’t be getting an easy ride during the unofficial mid-season break – because they are blowing the manager’s mind.

Peter Taylor has warned the players to expect a week of tough talking and hard training before they return to combat at Aldershot next weekend.

Taylor is still mad at the way his side under-performed in the first half of Tuesday’s draw with Accrington and he will get that message across in no-nonsense fashion on the practice ground.

City were hauled in for extra training the morning after the game and, despite a free weekend because they are out of the FA Cup, the squad can anticipate more of the same before the long trip south.

Taylor views the blank week as an opportunity to remind the players of what is demanded of them.

He said: “I think it’s probably good news for us at the minute. The players are not going to get lots of days off.

“I was really disappointed with the first-half performance on Tuesday and in that respect they are going to have a hard eight to ten days ahead; harder than they would have imagined.

“I still maintain that will help us and make us stronger as a team. Plenty of truths will be spoken before the Aldershot game next Saturday.”

With only one point from back-to-back home games against Macclesfield and Accrington, City blew the chance to close the gap on the play-offs. But Taylor’s attention is fixed on a crucial month ahead – and ensuring his team prove faster starters.

He said: “You can’t change it now. We’ve just got to think about what we are going to do to get a decent first-half performance.

“I was only telling the players at the end of last week and on Monday morning how pleased I am with them. Then the following game, they produced a frightened performance.

“I don’t want to take anything away from Accrington. They are a good team and everyone at our level are well organised and disciplined.

“You would be surprised how much possession we had (in the first half) but didn’t take advantage of it. Then we conceded a really rubbish goal again to make it so much harder for ourselves.

“It’s a plus we show we’ve got bottle to come back and we also should have scored against Macclesfield because we had more chances than the other night.

“So why can’t we show the right bottle needed in the first half? It’s mind blowing.”