What we had to do with the squad this week

Lee Johnson

ATHLETIC’S players have experienced a ‘stick and cuddle’ approach this week in a bid to coax them back into form.

Manager Lee Johnson, who tore into his side after the first of successive embarrassments against Yeovil, has revealed how the latest hammering at the hands of relentless MK Dons provoked him into adopting a softly-softly approach.

And, digging into his memory banks, he revealed how his manager father Gary’s unorthodox idea helped to turn around a streak of five defeats from six almost a decade ago — a sequence which, once ended, enabled the Glovers to move on and collect the League Two title.

“We wouldn’t run, we had no touch — it was unbelievable,” said Johnson (pictured at yesterday’s press conference) of the Huish Park club’s barren spell, towards the end of a 2004-05 campaign they had previously dominated.

“We were completely gone and at the time, I was getting married and my dad said, ‘everyone has four days off’.

“I took the chance to go to Marbella with my best mate and nearly ended the wedding!

“We had a great time, with all the lads going their separate ways. We came back and were 2-1 down to Mansfield and won 5-2.

“We never looked back and ended up winning the division.”

The time for barracking fragile individuals has gone, Johnson indicated, and he wants the home supporters at SportsDirect.com Park to be fully behind their side to help defeat basement club Crewe on Boxing Day.

He added: “You hit them with a stick and then give them a cuddle. That’s what we have had to do with the squad this week.

“We go into Friday in really poor form on an individual basis, but I believe I will put a team out that will run about and give their all against a Crewe side that is struggling.

“We will try to win and take the game to them, hopefully with individuals getting their games going with the support of the crowd.”

And as for suspicions of an off-field issue hanging over the club being responsible for the mystifying slump, Johnson said that wasn’t the case.

“I think the players have genuinely been really hurt and 99-per-cent of them are very disappointed in themselves,” he added.

“We have had two really poor performances in a row. There has been no issue — nothing like that. Everybody gets on great.

“It might be a crisis in confidence and sometimes that happens in football.

“But at the same time, we are in a fantastic position. If someone had been in a coma from the first week of the season to wake now, seeing us one point outside of the play-offs, they would view it as a successful time.

“It has, but at the same time it’s the manner of these defeats we need to get rid of.

“We have been very organised and our back four has been solid. Then in these two games, it is like the parting of the Red Sea.

“For whatever reason, as a team we haven’t blended and, of course, I have to take that fully on. But players have to look at themselves and say ‘why is this?’

“Is it confidence, is it help needed tactically, is it their mate they need to dig them out of trouble?

“The truth is, we had six or seven players completely fold against an MK Dons side who I think will win the division comfortably.

“I never thought one of my sides would get done like that.

“You speak to players afterwards and it is good that you find out things about their personal lives you didn’t know before.

“And you can help them with that. What we have done this week — and we will find out whether it is right on Friday — is attempt to rebuild confidence and rebuild the group.

“What we had done really well is push this group to a place where everybody thought they probably couldn’t be.

“We were third favourites for relegation and have come through to surprise people. Now, we are not a surprise package and people look at us as a bit of a scalp.

“That brings a different pressure. Sometimes you might push the players to a point where you have to ease off — not just as a management staff but also as fans and as a club, and have to boost them and encourage them into believing they can be the players we all know they can be.”