Devastated manager Lee Johnson has told his players to ignore newspaper reports and Twitter comments as he tries to rebuild their confidence. He is also appealing to supporters to keep encouraging the team as they try to turn around the season. He said, “I went in there and I needed players to be able to say what they needed to say to me, personally, to get it off their chest. So if there was anything that needed to be said, they could. And I could come back with an honest answer. I gave my opinion, which was very calm and very composed, as I had time to plan and assess what I would say afterwards. Sometimes you can be aggressive and get into people. But I think we all know, it was never going to be the case. Now we have to rebuild our club from the top down. Everyone in the club will be upset.”
“Our fans were fantastic, even towards the end — and it brought a tear to my eye, to be honest, the reaction we got. My own pride is beaten black and blue, but we are a tough spirit as a club. There have been a lot of things gone on in the last couple of weeks and things said and I just said to to the lads, close ranks. Don’t read the papers, don’t read twitter, anything. That’s all important, but we are at a low ebb. When it is going well you can be falsely led into thinking you are better than you are, and at a low ebb you can be knocked down to a place where you think you're the world’s worst. They are not and there are many clubs who would swap places with us and take our squad. We have to really plan for these next two games. They will be tough we and will need everybody. I want everybody to come and to show their support. In the next game, give everything you can for the team for the 90 minutes. After that, give any reaction you like. We haven’t represented ourselves and our fan base over the last two games and that really hurts.”