Well, Clint, that must’ve been a frustrating afternoon but I guess you just couldn’t find a way to get a goal?
That’s the story of the time since we’ve arrived. The same kind of issues, the lads have had a go but we haven’t got enough quality to either get a goal or keep it out of our net.
I think everybody knows about the issues here, I think the gaffer’s spoken about them previously.
The only we can do now is get into the summer and start building a proper team that will represent the football club.
Defensively, again there was lots of positive stuff, but it seems at times silly mistakes are still costing your side?
Yeah it’s individual errors unfortunately and that’s up front and at the back. How do you stop that? We could say that it’s down to fitness, ultimately.
I think it’s probably the way you portray that fitness, because under pressure you may forget some of your training and unfortunately, on too many occasions this season, the pressure’s come and individual errors have cost us.
Because that keeps happening, obviously that must be a concern and you’re trying to recruit players, do you think players can’t get out of that or they can get better with a good pre-season of work?
When you get to 45 games played in the season and you’re bottom of the league, everybody knows there are going to be changes. I’ve been in that situation as a player and deep down if you know that you’ve given enough and have prepared right and executed on the pitch then you should win.
The summer’s coming and there’ll be a big rebuild once the new season comes.
How difficult is it when you know the relegation is already there but you have to motivate yourselves?
Well they’re professionals, so listen I’m here again and I’m losing again, that doesn’t feel nice. I’m not used to that, especially under our tenures as managers and coaches. How many is that? 12?
What a horrible weekend ahead for me. It’s not good but we’re professionals so we’ve got to stand up and puff our chests out to face the pressure.
From what I know, pressure is a privilege, so next season when it arrives, we’ll have a proper team that’s fit and ready to fight.
What work at the moment is going on to try and sort this?
Loads. We’ve been looking at players and we’ve got a big list of players that are out of contract and out on loan or here on loan, so we’re well into that. Rest assured, they’ll be a proper team here next season.
Every manager wants to get things done quickly, is that a key to try and get them as fast as you can?
That’d be nice. It’d be good to get two or three done just before the season finishes, not just for us as well, but to give the fans a little bit of belief as well. Two or three good signings early will give everyone a good reaction.
We’re working on it, but obviously we don’t know until we’ve signed some. We are working on it though.
There are so many changes needed, is there that belief that you’ll get it done and restore the side to be competitive again next season?
Definitely, we will be. I’ve been in that situation with QPR when we made 18 to 20 changes and then we ended up going 18 unbeaten and going on to win the league, so it can be done. We know that our processes for pre-season, in terms of fitness and getting the lads together and the camaraderie going, will get them ready for the season.
For you personally, you’ve had plenty of success as a player but also negatives as a player, how does this rank for you?
It’s horrible. What more can I say? Coming off that pitch with more losses than wins isn’t a nice feeling. I don’t like losing and I don’t like the taste or the smell of it. We know we need to get rid of it?
Is Anssi just wrapped up in cotton and wool with all of his niggles?
In the last 24 hours we had three players pull out because they weren’t ready for the game. Then to cap that off, we’ve driven into the ground for the game and the suspension goes at the back of our car and I’m going: "Wow". Is this the way it’s going to be?
It’s not been a great 24 hours, the players have had a few niggles overnight and then the car suspension goes and you think is this going to be our day? So, it’s not been a great start to the weekend.
Obviously, Joey’s at the forefront of everything but I recognise that when you came in, yourself and Andy brought real energy into everything. Obviously, there have been so many body blows over the last few weeks, but are you confident that your enthusiasm will remain for the job?
It’ll never stop. We all love football and it’s all I’ve ever had since I was 16-years-old, I’ve been privileged enough to be in this game. I’ve had a hell of a load of lows and highs so I know how to handle it.
But more importantly, I don’t think my enthusiasm will ever go away. We’ve just got to be professional and wait until the end of the season.
I believe the manager had some sort of debrief yesterday with the chairman, how was that, obviously you live together so has it been discussed?
That’s not really on my pay grade, mate. There are processes going on, we’ve identified some key players we’d like to bring in. So we’ll try and get that across the line if we can.
Are the managerial team happy and optimistic in terms of the project being built?
Far from happy. It’ll be a long summer, there are a lot of obstacles in the way but we know what we need to do and we want to do this club proud.
We’ve come in and it’s not been great for us and we know how hard that is for the fans, but next season, with that stand full, they’ll have a team to be proud of.
