MANAGER: I want to make the supporters feel proud

Manager Paul Simpson spoke to us this week ahead of Saturday’s trip to Bristol Rovers.

“They’ve had some good results and then they’ve had some bad results as well,” he said. “The truth is at the moment that the situation we’re in, we know that they are all tough games.

“We’re going into the game with the belief that we can get a performance that gets us the result.

“I’ve said this all along, when we’re not winning, there’s no point in looking at the table. We know we’re not in a good position so we have to start getting results, we have to start winning.

“I believe that the players that are going to go to Bristol Rovers are good enough to go and get a result, that’s why we are placing our trust in them. We’ve got to get a full performance, not for 15 minutes at the start or for 15-20 minutes at the start of the second half, we have to have a complete performance.

“If everybody puts the work in, if everybody is as professional as we believe they can be, and we can stick together as a group then hopefully we will be able to go and get a result.

“We know Bristol Rovers are a good side, they’ve struggled a little bit because they’ve got a few suspensions of late, Anthony Evans will be serving the last game of his suspension on Saturday.

“Let’s not kid ourselves, they are certainly doing a lot better than what we are, we know we’ve got to lift our game, we know that we’ve all got to be front foot, head up, chest out, and go and give our supporters something to be proud of. That’s my big message, I want to get that trust back from the supporters, I want to make the supporters feel proud.

“I know in the long term, they will have something at this football club to be proud of, we’re going through a sticky patch at the moment.

“I’ve said this to the players, show us all that you want to be part of where this football club is going because the club has got a really bright future. I want to be a part of it, I want all the players to be a part of it.

“We’ve worked on things this week. I’m hoping we’ve got a shape that is going to go and cause Bristol Rovers some problems but also just try and stem that leek that we’ve got of goals going in.

“We’re not going to be given it on a plate, we know Bristol Rovers won’t do anything easy for us, we are going to have to earn that right. That’s what I’m going to look forward to, seeing that fight come back into the players and showing what we are capable of.”

Read Time: 3 mins