LAST Saturday’s defeat at Bradford City was very frustrating.

We had talked a lot beforehand about the game and how we wanted to play against them but in the first-half we didn’t do what I had asked for us to do.

That is the really frustrating part of it – I had asked the players to do a particular job and they hadn’t taken that information on board.

After half-time, when they did use the information that I had given them, they played really well and dominated the game.

Saturday’s game against Macclesfield is a massive one for us.

We need to win two or three games on the bounce to get back into the group again. To do that, you have to stick together, work on things in the week and concentrate.

And that concentration has to be maintained every day that you are working.

We’ve yet to win a league game at home but I don’t believe there is a psychological barrier about it. We simply need a win, whether it is at home or away.

I don’t think we are a million miles away – we have some good players here but we have suffered some disruption. Even last Saturday we had three lads who could have played at full-back who were unavailable.

Those three players would have brought extra quality and experience and are all players who would have played in the first-choice team.

The bad weather has been disruptive but it’s not an excuse for last Saturday’s defeat – we prepared right for the game; we went over to Hartpury College and trained on their 3G pitch so we were all good to go after that.

Our preparation was definitely right so there are no excuses on that front – we were ready for the game, we just did not perform how I wanted us to in the first half.

My old team-mate Steve Guinan has now taken over as manager of Hartpury College’s junior football academy.

He has educated himself while he has been playing football and is at an age where he has taken an opportunity when it has arisen.

Steve’s a great lad and I’m sure he will do very well over there.

There were some results that you would not necessarily have predicted last Saturday but they did not come as a huge surprise.

Our recent games should have brought more points than they did and although the last few weeks have been disrupted for us due to a lot of things – weather, suspensions, Tony James returning to Burton, injuries – I still maintain that anyone can beat anyone else in this division.

After this weekend, we go into the Christmas and New Year programme which, with four games in quick succession, is a massive period for us.

We have players available in the squad that we can rotate to make sure that we keep fresh.

Hopefully it will stay like that – I don’t want the kiss of death on us! – and we will then be able to use all the talent that we have and come through that period with some wins.