With Gary Ansell being named as Rovers 10th manager since 1990, it was good to hear about his last two games in charge leading up to his appointment as well as his thoughts about his first game in charge as manager this Saturday.

The Barkingside game we saw a group of players that appeared to have little enthusiasm and moreso no desire to wear the Rovers shirt. Would you agree with some of the supporters comments around this? What were your thoughts on the game?

Sometimes during a bad run of form/results it is easy to become disillusioned with the game and perhaps as a unit we needed a lift or a lucky break from somewhere to breathe life back into us.

To be honest other than 4 individual errors I thought we did fairly well, especially with our ball retention. The penalty miss during a good spell for us was a big knock back, compounded by conceding straight from the clearance.

We saw a different group of players at the Waltham Abbey game. What did you say to them in order to get the reaction from them after the Barkingside game just 4 days previous?

It was a fairly easy team talk; with DT resigning the fear of the lads and management not being together at Great Wakering Football Club was something no one in our dressing room was going to let happen.

The boys were aware that the last few weeks hadn’t been good enough, not from a results perspective, but more the commitment and attitude side, we know that if we get that right our ability is a match for most teams in this league.

Are the players behind you and the club?

I think you can see from the reaction of the Barkingside game, that the players are. Against Waltham Abbey and Witham we saw performances all over the pitch.

At the Witham game we had probably the smallest amount of possession in recent games yet came away with a 2-0 win. What were your thoughts on the game?

When you are so fired up for the battle and want to leave everything out on the pitch it can be hard to change down the gears and relax whilst in possession.

The more confident we become in ourselves again, the more we will be able to dominate both the work rate side and the football side. This was evident in our first 7 games of the season.

It must have been nice to register a clean sheet, the first for a few games now?

Yes definitely people put their bodies on the line against Witham and they got their reward. A clean sheet will give Adam a big lift too.

Jake Gordon was given Man of the Match on Tuesday evening. What did you think of his performance up front?

Jake is tenacious, not letting defenders settle on the ball and gets into some great attacking positions. I'm looking forward to seeing Jake and Jay Nash forge a good partnership, they both have good abilities that should complement each other very well.

A lot of supporters have also noticed the amount of work that Jacob Cleaver gets through on during the game. Is he one of the fittest players in the squad to cover the ground he does during the match?

Jacob has a very good engine and I think we have found a position that suits him well. Previously he played upfront or out wide which didn’t really make use of his fitness, now starting from deeper he can utilise his strengths by going past people and he then recovers quicker than his opponent, ready to go again.

How will you be approaching the Soham game on Saturday?

We have a couple of long term injuries and a few players feeling the effects from 2 highly competitive games; however the players (credit to them) have set themselves a high bench mark of competitiveness recently which is now the level I expect them to attain in every game. We'll obviously be looking to gain the three points and build up a bit of form in order to push on further.

As Rovers new manager, results and performances will be key. Do you believe you have what it takes to push the players onwards?

From a management perspective, I will do everything in my ability to improve the players. I already know the strengths and weaknesses of players so I'll ensure that we play to those strengths and work on the weaknesses.

Luckily in Rob Polkinghorn we have a great coach, he will be able to educate and get our message across to the lads on the training pitch. They have respect for Rob and will take on board the information he gives them and try to put it in practice on a match day. I am so happy that Rob has agreed to continue working with me as assistant manager. This can only be a good thing for the club in the long run.