The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
Chris Rawlinson insists that he’s still feeling positive about life at Spalding United despite the mounting problems both on and off the pitch.
Saturday’s 2-1 home defeat against struggling Gresley was the Tulips’ fourth loss on the bounce – and the boss was forced to take to Twitter to set the record straight after receiving vocal criticism from two fans during the game.
Throw in the recent budget cut and the departure of key man Jordan Lemon to Evo-Stik NPL First Division South rivals Leek Town, and you could forgive the Spalding supremo for being down in the dumps.
Rawlinson concedes that he and a few colleagues have done some soul-searching since the weekend, but he still believes his squad is capable of staying at step four of the non-league ladders.
“Everybody that has paid to watch us is entitled to have an opinion,” said the Tulips boss. “To be honest, I think it was just one or two people having a pop.
“Perhaps it has been blown a little bit out of proportion.
“To be honest, everything was a little negative from the moment Gresley equalised. The atmosphere wasn’t great and we all played a part in that.
“The off-field problems have passed now, but it’s not like we’ve got a team of old heads here. We’re quite young and some of the lads aren’t used to dealing with this situation.
“From a managerial point of view, all four of our losses have come in a different manner. Maybe I need to have a different approach moving forward.
“We’ve done some soul searching and I think we need to focus on not losing games, rather than chasing them. If we’d have settled for 1-1 on Saturday, maybe things wouldn’t seem so bad.
“It’s all about getting into the mindset of being solid and not losing games. At the moment we’re being picked off.
“I’m still positive, I don’t think any other departures are imminent and I believe we have enough quality to get the points we need to stay in this league.
“At the moment we’re in mid-table – which is maybe where we deserve to be right now.”
This Saturday sees Spalding make the trip to Belper Town (3pm), who are only behind them in the table on goal difference.
Defender Neal Spafford could return to the squad after injury, while Rawlinson is keen to get talented winger Cenk Acar more involved in games.
He added: “Belper away is always tough. I’m confident that the squad can go there and get a result. Saying that, we need to get Cenk more involved than we are at the moment.
“He’s the kind of player that can make things happen for us.”
Belper, who are currently without a manager, won 3-1 at Loughborough Dynamo on Saturday.
