Chris Hargreaves said he still believes he is the man to lead Yeovil Town away from the National League relegation zone despite them dropping to a point clear of the bottom three.
The Glovers dropped to 20th place with a 2-0 defeat at Oldham Athletic on Saturday, their fifth defeat of the campaign with 14 matches played with the boss subject to shouts from the 144 travelling supporters at Boundary Park at the final whistle.
Asked by BBC Somerset’s Sheridan Robins whether he doubted he was the right man for the job, he immediately declared: “I believe I am the man for this job otherwise I would not have taken it. We are in a situation where we have to show some serious amounts of resilience, I get that and there are players in (the dressing room) who have not been in that situation before.
“I get that fans are frustrated and there is unrest and myself, the players and the staff thank them for coming. It was a long journey which cost them money. Second half I don’t think the players gave up, they kept trying and they will always do that, but there was just a lack of final third quality.
“In the league we had lost one in six before this game, but we haven’t won enough games. The performances we have had in those draws have been good but we haven’t been able to win the games.
“But there’s a lot of games, a lot of points still to be won and there’s a lot of fight still in there and the fight is still the same with me from the day I walked in.”
Having persisted with playing a five-man defence with Jamie Reckord and Sam Pearson in wing-back positions, the manager was asked whether he remained confident the formation was working.
He replied: “It has done in previous games. It is a case of having quality to be able to deliver no matter what shape you play and that’s not going to change at any club up and down the country. It’s about having players who make the right decisions at the right times, no matter what shape you play.”
There were four changes made from the FA Cup exit at Taunton Town on Tuesday night including the return of Malachi Linton up front in place of Alex Fisher, and Ollie Hulbert came off the bench in place of Gime Toure at half-time and put in a lively second half performance.
Hargreaves said afterwards that he was still looking to bring more players in having said to before the trip to Greater Manchester that the club was trying to register two players currently training with them.
That push will continue as the Glovers prepare to host Aldershot Town, who leap-frogged them with a 2-1 home win over York City at the weekend, on Tuesday night. The Shots sacked manager Mark Molesley following their exit from the FA Cup at the hands of lower league Chelmsford City and placed veteran Terry Brown in temporary charge.
He said: “We need some recruits and we know that and we’ve been working hard to do that, but you can’t just go and sign players on vast amounts of money who will give you that immediate result or immediate performance.
“It is a case of still looking which we will still be on Monday leading up to the Tuesday game and that will not stop.”