|
" The mood has been very determined to put the losing run right. I think that we are all hurt, we all felt that last week was a below-par performance and it is something that we have got to put right. Obviously the first opportunity that we have got is tomorrow afternoon at 3 o'clock, I am very much looking forward to the reaction of the team. If we can take what we have seen in training this week, which has been very determined, into Saturday afternoon then hopefully come 5 o'clock, not only ourselves but our supporters can go home satisfied.
" When you lose three games on the trot people are going to ask questions. I think though that we have been relatively satisfied with performances at Scunthorpe and Leeds, although we lost both those games, particularly at Scunthorpe we thought that we played very well at that game. When we lose a third one though, and don't play well as we did last Saturday, then people are going to obviously lump the three together and say that it is a crisis or whatever words they want to use.
" The crisis though is that we are seventh in the division and if we can win at home to Tranmere tomorrow afternoon then the chances are that we will go back in the top six. That is something that we obviously want to do, so we are not hiding from any facts but we are saying that we didn't play well enough last Saturday. The previous two were reasonably acceptable performances, even in defeat, but we have got to recover that winning form that we showed in the earlier part of the season.
" I hope that people have enjoyed my first 12 months here, I think that there have been a lot of good things about it. The disappointments are there, we had poor performances at Bristol Rovers last year, and Oldham, but in the main we have put a lot of decent things together. I think that the players have enjoyed what they have tried to do, we have been in the top six, that is pretty successful for any club at any level. "
" So I am satisfied with that but we would all like to try to go one better, and that is something that we are attempting to do. It is very difficult to do that and get a little bit better than finishing fourth as we did last year, but it is something that we would very much like to do.
" Early on in the season we were winning games and everything is pretty quiet, and even as early as the Tuesday you are thinking same again for the team, everybody is OK. There are not a lot of problems for the manager when things are going well, it is when they are not going so well, as we have just experienced, that you do start looking at other things. So this week has been a major case of that, of me taking careful looks at people and trying to get what I think is the right team to play tomorrow.
" We have tried hard to get a strong squad of players and try to increase that competition for places in the team. I think that we are close to doing that, I think that we have got a stronger group of people all round, and in the next seven games through October there is a great likelihood that the majority of them will get a chance to play.
" It is not a bigger squad in terms of numbers but I think that it is a bigger squad in terms of the quality that we have. There are four centre-backs there that can play in any team in our league, there are five strikers that can probably get in most teams in our league also. So there is the competition for places I think is stronger, so there are players that want to be playing. "
" That is something that I have tried to get, is a stronger squad of people if I could. Those players that are not playing, or don't see themselves as getting an opportunity, are the ones that are going to be a little bit frustrated. Because, as I have just said, they are capable of playing in most teams in our division.
" So we have had a chat with one or two people, as I would expect to happen, I don't expect them to be satisfied, I don't expect them to sit and just take it quietly. If they want to come and talk to me then my door is open and I am available to chat to them about it. That is what has happened a little bit over the past couple of weeks, but it doesn't lessen the desire and the capability of the players that we have got that will play in our team and try to win the matches.
" I think that Michael (Bridges) is fit and ready to go, I think that he has had games now. I think that even he early on would say that he was playing catch-up, but we are well into the season now, in a sense, at all levels, first team and second team. He is ready to go as and when I would like him to start and get on with it. He is looking forward to that, he is one that I have had a chat with this week and he is enjoying what he is doing. Like everyone though, he wants to have a go, he is raring to go and it is up to me, and one or two other things in there, to see when he gets that chance.
" Peter (Murphy) is going to be at least another two weeks. We had a good shout on the scan which we thought was a clear one, but he still experienced some discomfort in that as this week rolled on. Neil Dalton has done a great job really, because he has looked at that and said that he was not satisfied with it. We have had a second view of that with a specialist and he has said that there is a little bit more damage to the medial ligament than we anticipated. "
" So he has put him back a little bit, but that is to Neil's credit certainly because his experience has told him that and Peter was uncomfortable. So we are looking at least a couple of weeks at the moment, he is still just having treatment now rather than getting the training that we hoped. So we will try to build him up in the next couple of weeks and see where he and nature allow us to go.
" I'm OK with the squad at the moment, we will certainly have to look at the Murphy and Chris Lumsdon areas if we pick up any other problems. With the seven games to come and if anything else crops up, we have got four bookings for Paul Thirlwell. So we will only look at those when they crop up, but at the moment it would not be the correct thing, in a sense, to bring other people in at this particular time, until perhaps is necessary.
" They (Chris Howarth and Luke Joyce) are still here because they are good players. I think that Luke Joyce, you can probably see that he has been on the substitutes bench for a majority of the games this season, he is just 21, just turned 21, he has got a future in the game.
" Chris Howarth is only 22, Chris has been second to Keiren Westwood who has played very well, and I have obviously brought Ben (Williams) in and I have chosen Ben at the moment ahead of Chris. I have got to have players around the football club that are not always going to be in the team, but maybe we hope will develop and become those particular first-choice people. Chris and Luke Joyce come into that category at this moment. "