MANAGER: Football makes me tick

“I made it in good time for my speech, which was very pleasing,” he revealed. “It was a fantastic day and a great opportunity, as every father will tell you, to be able to make a speech at your daughter’s wedding. It was a special time and a fantastic celebration.”

“My daughter has been brought up with me being involved in football and she knows the passion I have for the game,” he explained. “She knows the lifestyle it’s given to her, her brother and her sister, and they all know football is in my blood. She knows it makes me tick.

“The family know that if I’m working, I’m working. They accept that because they know it is what makes me tick.”

And on the victory over Tranmere, he said: “The win on Saturday was important for a lot of people inside this football club. On my side of things it was important for the changing room. I need players and staff to buy into me even though I know the decisions I make won’t always be right.

“If people believe in me then they’ll give it a go. All I want is for people to get on board and help me to give this a real go.”

“We have to remember it’s a work in progress because we haven’t won anything apart from the three points on Saturday,” he continued. “The important thing is that we have our first home win and we now look to the weekend to get our first away win. If we achieve it we will climb off the bottom off the league and that’s another small step for us.

“I think the clean sheet gives people belief in what we’re trying to do. We want to be difficult to beat and, if you stop the other team from playing and scoring, you’ve got a chance. On opportunities to score we came out on top on Saturday. On another day we could have had three, four or five and that was really good for the coaching staff to see.”

“It was a performance that we all needed,” he agreed. “We needed the win because it means we’re going in the right direction. I’ve had a better look at what’s in the changing room now and that helps to assess where we are and what we can do. 

“Things have improved as more players become available and I’m not going to force players to play out of position. On Thursday we spent a lot of time doing 20 minute sessions of 11 v 11. I moved the players around within that to find out what they could offer me. It’s all part of getting to know everybody and to seeing what they can bring to the table.”

“I think we have definitely all seen that there’s something to build on,” he said. “It’s about baby steps at the moment and making sure we’re going in the right direction. 

“What I will say is that the more people who get on board the easier it is to take those steps. No matter what happens, we can’t do it on our own. The more people on board and backing us, the easier it is for all of us. I’ve joked about people wishing me well with a wry smile on their face – what I’m not joking about is our fans want the football club to do well. We’re very hopeful we can make that happen for them.”