United boss Gary Johnson spoke of the need to remain positive, ahead of his side’s trip to Altrincham on Saturday.
“It has got to be positive really,” began Johnson, before reflecting on Tuesday’s defeat at Chesterfield.
“I know we were all very disappointed, and you can’t come in the dressing room after getting beat at Chesterfield, happy and bouncing around, because we have had a good run. That was a poor game for us, and a good game for them, as they brought out their best game and we probably brought out our worst for a little while. When you have got a team up in the top three there, they can be very potent if you are not producing yourself, and it started off poor and we couldn’t get it back.
“We got it back a little bit later on in the game, where in the second half it was 2-1 instead of 3-0, and obviously we scored the goal, and you never know how important that might be. We can always change their thoughts – ‘you change your thoughts, you change your world’ as I say, that is what we have got to do. That is going to be massively important now, which is why we are going up to Manchester for a couple of days so that we get the journey out of the way today, we stay over the Friday and be ready for the game on Saturday.
“The lads are ready. We had a chat even before we left the dressing room, saying let’s not spoil what has happened in the five games previous, and hold our hands up, they were a very good side on the day, and we’ve got two more games to keep ourselves in the league.”
Having highlighted the importance of looking ahead, Johnson went on to talk about the importance of a strong dressing room mentality, with every member of The Gulls’ squad playing a part – on and off the field.
“We are more or less taking the whole squad to games, in case they are needed. They need to listen to the team talks, they need to listen to their teammates, so they don’t just come in cold – as it were – and that’s how we do it.
“We’ve got players that didn’t play – Asa Hall, Lapslie was off the pitch pretty quick, and Frank doesn’t mind saying motivational things. Of course, me and Downesy sometimes play good cop / bad cop – I don’t know why I’m always the bad cop, but anyway that’s how it goes. They came in straight away and held their hands up, we knew it was a poor performance individually and collectively, and now we have got to fully focus on these next two games.
“When you are struggling in the bottom there, you didn’t pick up enough points earlier, then you also have to rely on other games, other teams. It is in our hands in that we have to pick up at least one win and probably one draw, or switch our goal difference from a minus seven to a zero with a team like Maidenhead for instance – where we are seven goals behind them – but they’ve still got two games, and we’ve still got two games, so anything can happen.
“You’ve just got to keep going, keep thinking positive, but get your game going – that’s the key, and then what will be, will be. We have tried to look at a game at a time, we had five great individual games previously and one poor one, and had it been in the middle of the season that would’ve been a good little run. We’re still relying on other teams, but we have got to give ourselves a chance by getting enough points to stay in it, and that’s probably going to be a win and a draw.”
With so many permutations possible at 4:45pm on Saturday, it’ll be hard for the Yellow Army to focus solely on events at Moss Lane, however, as far as the Gaffer is concerned, all attention will be on the 90 minutes that his players can affect, as United take on an Altrincham side firmly locked in mid-table.
“You have to portray to the lads what can they do now. You are in a situation, and you’ve got to do your best to get out of it, and the way you do your best is the first massive option – to win – and certainly not lose at Altrincham.
“We don’t want to have to play Wrexham at home and have to win it, so this is an opportunity for us to get the win we need to go into the next game still with the possibility of staying in the league, albeit playing Wrexham. They may have won it by then and they might put their youth team out when they play us – I doubt it – and we can’t rely on that, that’s for sure.”