JULIAN Rhodes has called on everyone connected with City to hold their nerve as they target 50-point safety.

David Hopkin’s team have 13 opportunities left to try to scramble out of League One’s bottom four – none bigger than this weekend’s visit to fellow strugglers Walsall.

Their hosts are just two points better off in 18th spot having lost seven of the eight games.

Fifty is traditionally viewed as the mark for staying up and Rhodes is confident that should be enough in the logjam of teams currently involved in the survival race.

READ MORE: Hopkin: Stay focused on us only

He said: “One of the first conversations I had with David was that to reach 50 we literally had to win one, lose one, draw one for the rest of the season.

“We were on 10 points and had played 17 games, leaving another 40 needed from the 29 left.

“We’ve since picked up 23 from 16, which means we need 17 more from the last 13 games.

“It’s time for everyone to hold their nerve. Look at statistics like that and we are moving in the right direction.

“We’ve only lost five of the last 16 games and three of those were away at Luton, Barnsley and Sunderland – who are the top three teams in the division.

“People are frustrated because we only took one point from the last two home games. But anyone who was there last week will know that we should have won it.

“It’s not going to be pretty in a relegation dogfight and we’ve just got to do whatever we can to get over the 50-point mark.

“I think that will be the benchmark again this year.”

Rhodes was impressed with the backing from the fans as City pushed for a breakthrough against Plymouth. And he is expecting another vocal support in the Black Country for tomorrow’s vital tussle.

He added: “I’m sure the fans will travel in numbers again and really get behind the team. I thought the atmosphere last week was pretty good, especially in the second half.

“There’s no denying this game is absolutely enormous and we want three points.

“We’ve said for the last two weekends that if we win we’ll probably be out the drop zone and it’s not happened.

“But if we beat Walsall, there’s a very good chance of that – and we’ll certainly be ahead of them.

“We’ve got some tough games coming up but we’ve also got about half against teams in and around us.

“I think we’d all say now that if we could get to the final day needing to beat Wimbledon to stay up, we’d probably take it.”