First game in charge, and against the leaders Maldon & Tiptree. Always going to be a tough one wasn't it?
Yeah Saturday's game was always going to be a tough one to start with. They are flying and full of confidence and we were thrown together and had no real time to work on any patterns of play, set pieces etc.

What was your overall thoughts on the game?
Overall I thought we competed well for 70-75 minutes then it showed that a few of us haven't played a lot of football recently. Maldon & Tiptree deserved to win the game no questions about that but I didn't think the scoreline was fair on us & I told the lads that afterwards. I thought there was some very pleasing performances, Harley in midfield was excellent as were Josh & Kye in defence. Losing Josh was a blow, just because he had that little bit more pace to cover Ringo, who was marking their best player, and who hasn't played 90 minutes since last March I think.

Supporters saw the commitment, passion and effort from the players. Was this everything you expected?
Yeah I expected that, I expect that every week. We are in a relegation battle so we need to show some spirit, effort & desire. We have to work harder than the opposition and then hopefully the quality I know these players have will come through. But first we have to earn the right to play.

We appeared to struggle in the final third. Do you believe this was attributable to a well organised Maldon defence, an under par Rovers performance in that area or perhaps a mixture of both?
I think Maldon & Tiptree defended well but I also set us up to be difficult to breakdown. We only had Abi up front on his own & I thought first half he competed well but again tired in the second and he was isolated too much. But saying that I wanted us to be in the game still after 15-20 minutes and going in 0-0 at half time was very pleasing. We have to be hard to beat we need to keep clean sheets in order to pick up points, so on Saturday I probably did sacrifice our attacking play to ensure we were solid defensively.

What positives will you be taking from the game?
Loads of positives to take from it. We aren't too many players away from having a side good enough to climb the table. I am pleased the group took on my instructions and they nearly executed them to perfection. The effort & commitment was also pleasing, plus the fact that the lads were disappointed to lose but also positive about the way things have gone in our first week together.

Is there anything you'll be taking from the game and working on during training?
There is lots to work on in training, patterns of play, set pieces as I have already mentioned. Fitness needs to be worked on as well. We have Basildon United in the Essex Senior Cup on Tuesday which I will rotate the team as I need to see a few players in a competitive fixture plus I need to give people minutes to get their fitness levels up. There is also an Under 21's match on Thursday which I will be watching and will have a few players play in, again for their fitness levels.

Is there any new players on the horizon?
Yeah there will be, I'm signing Rhys Fatt from Southend Manor tomorrow, he scored a lot of goals for them last season & is a player I've tried to sign previously. Also we have a couple of 7 day approaches in place that I can talk to early this week so fingers crossed there. Plus I have a couple of other names I want to speak to as well.