Graham Kavanagh on work to be done
Manager Graham Kavanagh spoke about the need to strengthen the squad, if possible, following the disappointing defeat against Colchester on Saturday.
“It really is difficult to explain why these situations are happening and we don’t want to sound like we’re making excuses,” he said. “We had a good week of training last week but we are now down to the bare bones of the squad.
“We’re playing players you would like to play, but not all at the same time. They’re learning, and they’re giving great honesty, but it is affecting us. It’s probably affecting the players in general because of the position we find ourselves in the league.”
“We need to try and get some players fit or we’re going to need some money in the market so that we can improve things,” he admitted. “At this moment in time we’re too fragile and it’s a real problem. I will be asking what we can do this week because we have to be better.
“It’s clear where we’re faltering because we’re conceding soft goals and we’re not putting the ball into the back of the net enough at the other end. Having said that we got two goals at home and you would expect to win a game when you do that.”
“I’m very understanding of where we are as a club and the chairman and the directors have been very good with me,” he told us. “They know where we need to get to and I’m also aware that we probably need to move one or two out. That’s difficult to do in any transfer window. We do need to try and recoup some money and anything we do generate needs to be invested wisely.
“I thought we had a few deals done this week but they didn’t happen for one reason or another. We’re looking mostly at loan deals so they can be more complicated than you expect. Hopefully we’ll be able to do one or two things to improve the group because we have to find a blend which will get us the results we need as quickly as possible.”
“This is a tough period for us but I know the players understand the situation,” he confirmed. “They want to be successful and they’re giving it their all. They’re not hiding away but they’re making individual errors which are costing us.
“We’ve been playing catch up since the start of the season and we can’t seem to jump away from the pack. It takes a seven or eight game run to do that and we haven’t managed that for four or five years now. That comes down to mindset and it’s something we have to change. You have to be harder on yourself and you have to constantly look for where you can improve.
“It’s only three or four weeks ago that we were playing some really attractive football so we know we’re more than capable. We need to get one or two of our injuries back and we need to get Lee Miller firing again. I’m not making excuses but we haven’t had the same back four, or keeper, since I took over. I’ve had to change it every single game and you don’t ever really want to do that with the spine of your team. With a bit more luck things will settle down and we’ll be able to push on.”
“We have one or two contracts coming to a close and we want to address that this week,” he said. “Pascal [Chimbonda] has everything agreed so we expect him to sign until the end of the season. I’d love Tom [Lawrence] and Max [Ehmer] to stay with us but I’m not sure if it will happen or not. We’ll do our work and see what it brings.”
