MANAGER: Give a platform to play on

“It was a frustrating day for Hayden,” he agreed. “They were getting a lot of impetus and a lot of forward momentum down his side. He had to nullify that by stopping the service from their wide player and that’s a learning curve for him. 

“They also made sure they denied him the opportunity to get his speed up and he started to get frustrated. When that happens to a young player they can make poor decisions. It was potentially a shocking challenge because the intent was there and it was right that he got a red card. The worst thing for us is that we miss a good player for a number of games. 

“He’s a player we want to keep and hopefully, with it being a youth loan, we’ll be able to keep extending him through to the end of the season. He’s a young man who is learning and he’s part of the work in progress we have here. The best way for anyone to learn is to be out there. We’re doing our bit off the field and to an extent, once they go onto the field of play, you have to let them off the leash.”

On the contract talks with Danny Grainger, he said: “Danny is a professional I see who can have a pivotal role at this club in the development of the squad and of the changing room. He has an affect on other people around him and he always says what he thinks. I like that.

“There are a lot of things about him I like and there are things we can build on with him. He takes pride in what he does and he sends out all the right signals. He enjoys training and working hard and you can see it means a lot to him to be a professional footballer. 

“The left back position is one of the hardest positions to fill and he does it superbly for us. He has a fantastic left foot and an aggressive attitude in the right way. He’s dependable and committed and he sees the game in a way that helps him and the team.”

And on the recent interest in some of the younger members of the squad, he said: “Whenever we hear of interest we ask the clubs in question to make it official. That gives us a starting point and obviously we can then discuss it with the player. At the moment all we’ve had are phone calls and, as of yet, there has not been an official offer for any of our players. 

“There will always be interest when you have young players playing week in and week out. We’re not going to hide them away. We want to give them the platform to play on. 

“It was a representative from Barnsley who contacted John Nixon about Kyle Dempsey and they were asked to make it official. As of yet we’ve received nothing. With Kyle and Brad [Potts] I see both of those lads plying their trade in the Championship. That could happen for them very quickly but I’ll keep telling them that it has to be right for them and the club. They’re getting football here. At this stage of their career that’s exactly what they need.”

“Part of the process of evaluating the squad will be for me to identify a five or six players who I think need to go out on loan to get game time and to help their own careers,” he told us. “We don’t want players sitting around if they can be elsewhere keeping themselves ticking over. We want to help people as much as possible because we want the best for everyone at the club.”