"It's been a disappointing pre-season on relation to results and if you look at the results, it's played five, lost five.  That's disappointing and I do think that it probably had a detrimental effect on how individuals are reacting, but from my point of view I do think they are improving, I do think they are taking on board what we are asking of them and I am seeing signs of improvement and again, that is what we are all about."

"In the game against Manchester United (0-3) we got a bit of a pasting in the first half, but once they got into their faces a bit more, we competed and we can compete with anybody.  That was the biggest thing for me, it doesn't matter how much coaching you do or how much technique work you do, at the end of the day in a game of football you have to compete and that was the biggest lesson we learnt over the pre-season."

"We've said this before, results don't matter, but we are very conscious of what the manager says - every game you play you should want to win and that goes without saying, even as a coach I want to win every game we play.  But from the youth team's point of view, they have got to realise that it is about long term more than short term.  If they keep thinking short term, they won't correct some of the problems that quite a few of them have got."

"Even first team players have got weaknesses and you have to try and solve them.  Accepting where you are, dealing with them, working with them and then pushing on."

"I think they have learnt something from all this and obviously it is a big contrast from last year where we set off like a house on fire.  At the start of pre-season last year I believed I had a minimum of two players that could get into the first team.  I can't really say that this year.  There's a possible difference in standard, but that doesn't mean that they are not going to get pro contracts.  It depends on if they work hard, assess where they are, deal with it and get on with it.  They have to work on their weaknesses and carry on with that positive attitude despite some of the results we are getting at the moment."

"We haven't seen a particularly bad reaction from the lads, but from individual's point of view that it is frustrating, like it is for me, Chris Brass and Jeff Lutley, but it is our job to keep their feet on the ground, keep them working hard and like I say, it's about the long term, rather than the short term.  It's about getting a professional contract and I never want to get away from that fact."

"Its character building, it's about dealing with disappointment.  They all have NVQ log books that they have to complete and the psychological side of things is very important to see whether you are going to become a professional football player."

"I also think there was nerves showing going into our first game of the season on Saturday (Click here) but I do think that we have a genuine bunch of lads who want to do well.  How they direct that positive attitude can come out as frustration at times.  Its learning how to speak to and how to deal with people who you think are not doing the right thing, but from a coaching point of view, it's the bigger picture - are individuals performing and are we performing as a team and they are two things that I have got to look at."

"It's back to this word development, and it's always going to be about development.  We want to create winners.  At the moment, we are not winning games.  It's not good, there not a lot of confidence in the camp.  Hopefully that will be a good thing and the lads will work hard and even harder to start getting as individuals and as a team."