Intense sessions are back on the agenda

REUBEN REID . . . looking sharper day by day

NOBODY is happy with the run we are on and particularly the 5-0 defeat to Peterborough, and we as a management team take some of the blame.

With the fixtures piling up we took our foot off the gas in training, and it has started to show in games.

So this week we have reverted back to intense sessions, and the players have reacted well to it.

We had a good, long chat the day after the match and on Monday we scrapped the players’ day off.

After Peterborough’s first goal I think, for the first time this season, the players stopped trying. That was the most disappointing aspect of the defeat.

We have since sat them down and told them those sort of performances are simply not acceptable.

Even in the 6-0 loss to Southampton, the boys kept going until the final whistle.

This time there was no shape or discipline, and we sat so deep.

Only Dale Stephens and Filipe Morais turned up after the interval, and we capitulated.

We are not good enough to do that. It’s not like we can go into games with only four or five players firing on all cylinders. We need 10 or 11.

The carrot at the end of the stick for these players is the fact npower League One is still such a close division.

Everyone beats everyone. Two consecutive wins can take you right back into the mix.

But that is meaningless if the players do not turn up and perform on matchday.

These lads have to do the business and justify their places in the team, starting tomorrow at Bournemouth.

As we have always said, it is all well and good showing the right signs in training, we would expect nothing less. They must replicate it in games and help us get back to winning ways.

It was good to see Reuben Reid get his name on the scoresheet in the reserves’ 2-1 win against Morecambe in midweek, as it will do his confidence some good.

Reuben is short of fitness at the moment. He has to work hard, but the good thing is, he wants to work hard.

The 45 minutes he got under his belt is beneficial. We have given him extra sessions in training and really pushed him.

He is looking sharper day by day.