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"We can't feel sorry for ourselves we've just got to keep working hard and we just need to grind a result out. We've got a big week coming up and it's testing times for everybody at the moment but a lot of football clubs go through these phases and we know that things can change round quickly.
"I've been involved in teams before where we've gone through a run of not winning games but to not have scored in five league games is obviously a worry. We are getting punished for stupid little errors and you can't go to a place like Swansea and give them a two goal head start. We are gifting teams goals at the minute but what we mustn't do is lose that belief.
"We went to Oldham a few weeks ago and got a win, and everybody was getting carried away and talking about the play-offs, and this game has a habit of kicking you in the teeth. But we can't feel sorry for ourselves. I am scratching my head at the moment as to what's gone wrong, but teams have to go through these little phases and the quicker we get out of it the better.
"We know that the players have got it in them because the results proved that and we just need to get back to putting in performances like we did against Doncaster and Huddersfield earlier in the season. You can't keep hiding behind things though, and at the end of the day the results show.
"We are creating chances but at this moment in time we aren't converting those chances. At the moment we are probably a team that needs 15 or 16 chances in a game to score and we obviously need to improve our chances to goals ratio. We are getting punished for the errors we are making and we aren't punishing teams ourselves.
"We need the players to put on a performance for the supporters on Saturday and now is the time for them to stand up and be counted. Sometimes the players don't need me to tell them whether they have had a good performance or not, they know themselves. Sometimes you have to look at yourself in the mirror.
"Ideally we'd obviously like to get the first goal but if we do go a goal down I need to see more of a response from the players. We can't keep relying on Andy Kirk to score our goals, it has got a be a collective team effort. The players know when they've not performed and at this moment in time we are not getting enough consistency collectively from the eleven.
"I put pressure on myself and I can't say I'm enjoying it at the moment but I know that things can change round quickly in football. Teams go through phases like this but we obviously need to get ourselves out of it as quickly as possible. I am looking forward to Saturday's game though and it's up to us to get ourselves out of the trouble we are in.
"I know John Ward from my time at Aston Villa, Carlisle are a good team and it will be a tough game but we got a good result against them here last season and hopefully we can do that again on Saturday. I would rather play ugly though and just sneak a 1-0 win."