Joey Barton remains sure a "phoenix" will emerge from the flames which have engulfed Bristol Rovers, despite his side sliding to a third successive defeat of the new season.
The Carabao Cup loss to Cheltenham Town on Tuesday has been sandwiched by late defeats in League Two to Mansfield Town a week ago and Stevenage on Saturday to end a nightmare opening week of the season for the Pirates.
Barton was met with boos from the stands after Saturday's 2-0 defeat, which saw Rovers legend Chris Lines haunt the Gas on his return to BS7.
The Gas have now lost eight competitive games in succession, failing to score in their past eight hours of action on home soil, but Barton believes he and his side will come out the other side of this ordeal stronger.
"It was grim before I came in, it was terrible before I got here and I don’t think it’s improved a whole lot since," Barton said on Saturday.
"But somebody has got to reset this, I spoke about it last year, this needs a great reset, it’s not going to happen in two league game’s, and it’s not going to happen in two games when you’ve got a lot of quality players and key components not available to you and players getting fit and players coming back into it.
"I think we’ll be a slow burner, we’ll be very similar to loads of other teams who’ve done this before, you have to knuckle down, you have to batten down the hatches, get together as a group and then a phoenix should start to emerge from the flames. I wouldn’t be here if I didn't think it was possible.
"I see the fan base, we didn’t have that at Fleetwood, allocation sold out for Exeter next week and I’m gutted for them. I’m gutted because we need to give them something to scream and shout about, and I thought they were tremendous today, absolutely tremendous today because it’s not easy watching that when we’re huffing and puffing.
"I thought we were better than Tuesday night but we were still nowhere near the level that we expect to be but then at the end you rightly get a little bit of stick and they need to know that we’re here to be the spark that changes this football club’s trajectory around and it feels tough at the minute because as you say we’re on a terrible run.
"But also I’m absolutely confident that this group will turn it round and the core of the group that we’ve got now with a couple of little additions will be the boys that put this football club back on the platform that we think it should be on which is certainly in League One and then can we kick on from there."
With just three wins since taking charge in February, Bristol Live asked Barton if he remains confident he is the right man to lead Rovers.
He replied: "Time will tell on that, I’m absolutely certain in my ability as a coach and my ability as a leader of men.
"I haven’t got the results at the minute so I can’t be sitting here full of bluster and this is going to happen or that’s going to happen.
"For me it’s about executing on the pitch executing on a matchday. As the leader you cop the flack. The tallest trees catch the most wind and when it’s going well you get all the plaudits so I understand the game.
"I’ve been in it a long time and the only way through this is hard work and sticking together.
"I can’t fault the fans, they’ve been superb, even today I thought they were absolutely superb but we’ve got to give them as a group something to get off their seats about, something to sing about and I’m absolutely certain that in the coming weeks we’ll do that."
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