The manager explained the predicament, “Everybody should look forward to playing at home, but some of the lads are just frightened to death. It’s ridiculous that you can be fearful in front of your own fans, but that’s the way things look at the moment. There’s no way Doncaster should have beaten us because Andy Liddell had the best chance of the game, which you would expect a player of his quality to stick away. If he had scored, all this fuss and all this doom wouldn’t have started. But he missed and all of a sudden one or two lads started to panic. They started passing to the Invisible Man, which meant the crowd got on their backs and it all got even worse."
"The supporters are entitled to their opinion because we’re talking about professionals footballers who are out there to perform and, at the moment, aren’t doing that. Some of the passes we played were shocking, but we’ve got players who are short of confidence and going through a bad time. I would love to say ‘You’re out, you’re out and you’re out’, but we are down to 17 fit players and it just can’t happen. Who can I bring in at centre-half when the likes of Will Haining, Chris Swailes, Guy Branston and Stefan Stam are all out? Or who can I bring in at right-back? We just need to get the best from what’s available and hope the missing lads are fit again soon. Our best team would be a match for anyone in this division and it would be better than most."
“We are lacking strong characters at the moment. We need more people who will stand up and be counted. That’s the sort of player who comes good when the team isn’t playing well because they make sure you dig deep for at least a draw. We’re crying out for players of real stature who will dominate their opponents instead of thinking they can play like Alan Hansen. Instead of that we had people who made silly decisions which were naive and ended up costing us. That’s what frustrates a manager most, when players make individual mistakes, it’s down to a brainstorm more than anything else."
"It isn’t bad coaching, although I can take it on the chin if the supporters decide it’s time to have a go at me personally. This is my team and I brought most of the players to the club, but I think it’s fairest to be judged when you can actually pick the side you want to pick. Until then it’s vital we get back some confidence. We just don’t look capable of winning home games at the moment, but you’ve got to do that if you want to reach the play-offs.”