So far, Roughyeds have been solid in what has been a stop-start League 1 campaign, but they struggled in the battle for territory in the recent loss to Doncaster.
Oldham now have two free weekends before the club faces Cornwall at home on May 7, and Littler has upped the intensity in training to get his men firing.
“Against the better teams, you’ve got to be in that grind and you’ve got to go a bit further than you usually would,” said the Roughyeds boss.
“We become a different beast once we’ve been in those battles, so we’ll increase the workload and challenge each other more in attack and defence.
“We will make the area we are working in tighter, so our skill level will have to go up a notch with the defence in your face.”
Littler is relishing the game against Cornwall next month as it kickstarts a run of eleven games back to back, and he believes his side will reap the benefits of playing consistently.
“We’ve got a big period coming up and it’s where we want to be. While the breaks are good for resting bodies, it’s not ideal for consistency or match fitness,” said Littler.
“We keep evolving and I’m quite confident that come the back end of the year, we will be a much stronger team than what has started the year – and we’ve started pretty strongly.
“Once we go week to week, we will start seeing what this group is about and we will start to see the mark of us as a team as we’re still a bit clunky, for me.”
Admission prices for the Cornwall game, which kicks off at 1pm at the Vestacare Stadium are £16 for adults, £10 for concessions (65 and over), £5 for students and FREE for under-16s.
Tickets can be bought at www.roughyeds.co.uk/tickets.
