Manager Steven Pressley sat down with us shortly after he put pen to paper on his new contract which will see him manage at Brunton Park for the 2019/20 season.
“I’m really, really chuffed," he said. "Since I came here I’ve had an amazing feeling about this club and we’ve got some terrific people working here. I’ve seen the potential of the club, at the MK Dons game but also at the Lincoln game on Friday. There was an electric atmosphere in the stadium, and everything here is geared towards being a really successful football club.
“It’s about now making the appropriate changes going forward and really trying to push it on and getting my teeth into those things. I’m really excited, and really honoured to be the manager of this club moving forward.
“We’ve been planning pre-season and looking at potential targets for next season so even if I wasn’t the manager, the work would have been done for whoever came in. I’m obviously delighted that it will be me who will be implementing those things. The great thing is will still don’t know what division we’ll be in, if we achieve what we really want to achieve in the next few weeks we may well be playing League One football."
“It’s a really exciting club for me," he told us. "I’ve really enjoyed my time here so far, although it has been a bit of a rollercoaster in terms of results. There are so many good things around this football club, we’ve got a terrific fan base and I think we’ve got the potential to build a really good squad for next season.
“It’s a one city club with a fan-base who are hugely passionate about their football. We’ve got a good catchment area for players north and south of the border, and there are so many things I think we can improve on. I’m really excited to get my teeth properly into it."
“We have a responsibility to get the supporters right behind us," he continued. "When we put on a performance like we did against Lincoln, you can feel the energy from the supporters behind you because they can see the intensity of the game and the way the players are working. If we bring that to our games, supporters will get behind us. If they can see the passion, energy and intensity in our football they will get behind us. We have a duty to serve that type of football up on a regular basis."
“I desperately wanted to stay here and my family were very much aware of that," he told us. "It takes the doubt away because we now all know I’ll be here next season. Football is what it is and there are a lot of pressures that go with it, regardless of whether you’ve signed a contract or not. One of the biggest pressures comes from myself, because I expect so much from myself. I expect us to win games of football and be a success, and that pressure from myself is what keeps driving me on.
“Friday was a hugely important game for us, because it’s given us a chance again, but tomorrow at Grimsby we must take another step forward and give us something to really fight for in our final two games.”
