Manager speaks ahead of Saturday's clash with Yeovil
Dougie Freedman revealed that the team have gone back to basics in a bid to secure a maiden victory of the season when they face Yeovil Town this weekend.
Speaking in his pre-match press conference, the manager admitted that he believes that this week’s training regime will pay dividends come kick off on Saturday afternoon.
“We’ve had a good week’s work. We’ve been working on certain issues that have been disappointing for us,” he said. “We believe that we had to go back to basics a little bit and back to one or two scenario situations we’ve found ourselves in and that will be the key to turning the season round.
“It’s not a time for me to manage the players right now – it’s a time for me to lead them and that’s what I’ve been doing and I believe that I’ll fix it. I had a situation similar to this a couple of years ago and I fixed that, so I’m more than capable of fixing this situation.”
The signing of Leicester City’s Neil Danns on a three-month loan deal was confirmed on Thursday morning – a player who the Scot is confident can make his mark at the club and help his teammates find a winning formula.
“The confidence that I’ve got is that these players are good enough,” explained Freedman. “I suggested last week to the board that we bring in a loan here or there and we’ve done that in Neil Danns to help the players to get that first win and I believe that when we get that, the confidence will grow from there.
“He’s a fit guy and he works hard. He’s not had as many games as we would have liked this season, but knowing him and having worked with him, he’s a very fit guy and will certainly strengthen the squad.”
Ahead of the Glovers’ first league visit to the Reebok, the manager revealed that he will be warning his team about the threat which Gary Johnson’s side pose, despite their disappointing start to the season.
“Yeovil are going to look at us and say to themselves that if they want to stay in this division, then they’ve got to take points off teams in and around them and that’s what they’re going to try and do.
“It’s a difficult game for us because possibly we’re the favourites to win, but considering we’ve not been playing fantastically well, we need to turn that round and make sure that we make it an uncomfortable 90 minutes for Yeovil. I think if we do that, then we have the quality to win the game.
He added: “The division is very tight and every game you play is very tight – it can go either way. The league table is very tight and when you have three games in a week and you get the positive results that hopefully we’ll be getting, then you can soon turn it around very quickly like what happened to us last season.”