It’s a razor-thin line to walk. Phillip Dos Santos and the Valour FC coaching staff fully understand that.

Yet there’s also something both intriguing and appealing about a squad so uber-competitive in training and so engaged on impressing the staff to earn valuable playing minutes while chasing down the four teams ahead of them in the Canadian Premier League standings.

That certainly was the case with Valour this week as it prepared for Saturday afternoon’s matchup in Halifax against the Wanderers.

“Everyone is energized right now,” Dos Santos, Valour’s GM and head coach, told valourfootball.club. “We felt training was even a bit chippy with an energy that can sometimes lead to a bit more and things could get a bit tense. But that can be good.

“The guys understand the urgency and have a sense of what’s coming, so the levels of testosterone just rise up. That’s good. I like it.”

Valour is in a good place right now, having cranked out five wins and a draw against two losses in its last eight matches while closing in on a coveted playoff spot.

They’ve found some consistency in their game and have leaned on their depth to find a way to grind out results. Through that, they’ve fine-tuned both their formula for winning and an understanding of who they are as a squad.

“We’re there,” said Dos Santos. “We focus a lot more on what we have to do than necessarily fixating on what our opponent does. Of course, we look at the way the opposition sets up and the ways they go about their game in their defensive and offensive organization. We paint pictures and try to find solutions within who we are. But the day we start trying to adapt every week to what the opposition is, it becomes dangerous.

“Right now, we’re comfortable and we feel good about who we are and how we approach games.”

Dos Santos said that when Valour is on its game – as it has been over the last few weeks – they are cohesive defensively, defending far away from their own goal while pouncing on the opportunities to take away time and space from the opposition.

And he also likes the variety of ways it has found offence, too.

“We have players that are comfortable breaking quick and exploiting the space, but we also have quality on the ball, so when that space is closed, we can go through a few spells of possession where we control the rhythm and temp of the game,” he said.

“Today we see a team that has many ways to hurt the opposition. We have a lot of variety in the way we attack, and I think that’s a good thing.”

There can be a clarity that comes in being in full chase mode – just as Valour was late last year after Dos Santos took over and the club was in pursuit of a playoff spot. And when it was suggested Valour is in that place again and that could perhaps be a positive, Dos Santos countered with a different thought.

“Yes, but we don’t want to be on the hunt,” he said. “We want to be above the line and have the others play with pressure. We are a mission for a cause.

“I go back to when the guys were signing in the offseason and a lot of them were talking in interviews about wanting to achieve something big — it was a playoff spot and winning a championship with this club. That’s our goal. We want to be in that Top Four because after that we know it’s game on.

“When you’re there, when you’re competing, and you know what the cause is you have to go through the process knowing if you don’t go through it or embrace the process the cause is lost.

“Right now, the guys have that cause in mind. That’s their purpose. That’s what brings them in every day. That’s what motivates them to train, to play because that’s sports.”

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‘V’ NOTES

-Valour will be without fullback Brett Levis on Saturday as he is suspended for one game due to yellow-card accumulation. On the flip side, the club does get fullback Andy Baquero back after he served his one game suspension.