As the pressure mounts on Mark Hughes, SAM Stubbs insists that all fingers should be pointed at the players.
After the 3-1 Valley Parade defeat to Walsall, the City manager was booed once more.
The trip to second-from-bottom Tranmere tomorrow appears to be a crucial encounter for Hughes, whose position is under increasing pressure.
Stubbs, who will lead the club again on Saturday with Richie Smallwood on the bench, admits that the team, not the manager, let the fans down.
“There will be no excuses from us,” he declared. “The formation was fine, we’d watched them, we’d won well last week so this was 100 per cent on the players.”
When asked about the criticism he received at the final whistle, Hughes responded, “That’s not for me to comment on.”
“But, as I’ve done throughout my career, I’ll look at myself individually, watch some clips, and see what I could have done better.”
“If every player does that to a man and increases their performance by 10 per cent, that question probably doesn’t get asked.”
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City suffered their first home defeat of the season. Following the draws in Grimsby and Harrogate, the fans who stayed to the end gave it their all.
Stubbs could understand the enraged audience reaction.
“They should be annoyed. It hasn’t been the ideal start, and as players, we must accept responsibility.
“We have to improve. They want to see a standard and results, which are not forthcoming at this moment.
“But all I’d say, and it probably sounds a little sarcastic, is that we as players must try to keep the place as positive as possible.” That is the only option for everyone.
“There will be ups and downs throughout the season, and we will need the fans.” When we are at home, our most powerful weapon is to use them.
“But we need to give them something and we never did that.”
City’s home defeat came as even more of a surprise after winning 4-1 at Newport the week before.
Stubbs was dissatisfied with the style of all three Walsall goals, two of which came from corners.
“We’ve got no excuses,” he declared. “We’ve got Cooky (Andy Cook), who is fantastic in the air, myself, Platty (Matty Platt), Kev (McDonald), Gilly (Alex Gilliead), and some big boys with height.”
“I’m sure we’ll look at it as a group and address it in training to see what needs to be done.” From our perspective, it should be improved.
“There’s no getting around it. We haven’t been fantastic from set pieces and need to improve, so we’ll look into it.
“It’s not an excuse, but it’s League Two in terms of things never being easy.”
“However, we need to improve because our highs are extremely high and our lows can sometimes resemble Saturday.”
“The team that manages that the best throughout the season will rise.”
“However, people will be perplexed as to how we can win 4-1 one week and then play like that the next.” It was a long distance away.
“There isn’t much you can say. It will happen throughout the season, and it is not pleasant when it does, therefore there must be a response tomorrow.”
