WILL Buckley says Wanderers are ready to scrap for survival, starting with Saturday’s crunch clash with Burton Albion at the Macron.

Although a 3-2 defeat against Nottingham Forest came as a setback to Phil Parkinson’s side, focus within the camp at Lostock has switched quickly to a game with big ramifications at the bottom end of the Championship.

Burton prop up the table but would climb above the Whites and pull them back into the bottom three if they emerged with a win.

How Wanderers react to last weekend’s result could now determine the tone of their festive fixture list, which also includes some tough-looking trips to Middlesbrough and Sheffield United.

“You go out to win every game but this weekend feels like a big one,” said Buckley, who scored his second goal in three games in defeat at the City Ground.

“The Barnsley game felt the same and we turned up for that one, so it has to be exactly right. We can’t afford not to turn up.

“I think we have got the right characters in the team. A lot of us have played for many years in the Championship, so we know what it takes to get results when the pressure is on you. We’re here to fight.

“We know we can do that side of the game and hopefully then our quality can show and we can go into the Christmas games on the up.”

Having spent the better part of four months in the bottom three, Buckley is in no mood to see Wanderers return and is keen to put some daylight between themselves and the relegation picture in back-to-back home games against Burton and high-flyers Cardiff City.

“No-one inside the group thought we’d have such a good start but now, thankfully, it looks like we are getting over it,” he said. “But we still need to push on up the league and get out of the scrap, to give ourselves a bit of breathing room.

“We lost at Forest but played well. We need to continue playing like that and hopefully it’ll be sooner rather than later.”