MANAGER: I'd rather have a game straight away

“One of the things we’ll do is work on set pieces, for and against,” he said. “We don’t look a threat from our set plays and we’re allowing other teams to bully us when they take them. We have to change that. 

“The focus this week will be on looking again at what we have in that changing room physically, tactically and technically so that we can start to develop a way forward.” 

“The lads are disappointed because they understand individual errors can cost the team,” he continued. “Goals always change games and I think they’ve had that realisation that you can take your eye off the ball for a moment and you’ll get hurt because of it. 

“We need to stop conceding goals, be that at home or away, because they’re coming against us too cheaply. If we do that we can go out and play our way.”

“Mind you, even at two down I thought we were going to get something,” he insisted. “It didn’t work out for us because sometimes you’ll play against teams who want the game to take part in the middle areas of the pitch.

“That’s where they have their experience and strength and they’ll play to it. That’s when you have to keep the ball away from those areas and make them work harder at breaking you down. If you look at how Newport played they turned us round very well and, even if it wasn’t attractive, it was very effective.

“We didn’t stop them enough in the first half and we gave them opportunities to get on the counter attack at the wrong times. I don’t think there was much in that half, if you take their goal out of it, and I always believe we are going to score goals. We have to make sure we’re stopping them at the other end to give ourselves more of a chance.”

On a weekend without a game, he said: “I’d rather be back and playing on Tuesday. The only way we’re going to get out of this is by playing games and picking up points. The quicker that happens the better it is as far as I’m concerned. 

“The next two weeks gives us an opportunity to learn more about ourselves and the situation we’re in. Some of the players have never faced this before and they have to understand they need to start doing the horrible side of the game well or they’re going to struggle. 

“There’s no need for us to do a mini pre-season at this stage. I don’t punish players by doing mindless running but we do need to educate them on game situations. We’ll look to do that so we’re ready to go and get a result at Exeter.”

And on the injury situation, he said: “Gary Dicker had a collision with Brad Potts in training on Thursday and it was on the area where he has a plate in his leg. That caused some pain and swelling but it’s just one of those things which happens. He should recover from that quite quickly. 

“Danny Kearns had a slight reaction with his troublesome thigh and he wasn’t able to train over the latter part of last week. He’s been out for a number of weeks and you don’t want to make things worse when that’s been the case. 

“Troy Archibald-Henville was very close. He developed swelling in his knee on Thursday and he’s one who isn’t comfortable with playing when he gets that. He knows his knee better than anyone else. We’re hoping Mark Gillespie will back on the grass by the time the next game comes round as well.”