Fleming: 'Results have to pick up'

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Interim Head Coach Curtis Fleming spoke to the media for the first time on Thursday afternoon.

Fleming and assistant Jason Pearce will take charge of Saturday's game against Blackpool.

“We can look at the form, but we have to change that," explained Fleming. "There’s no doubt that the results have to pick up - we haven’t kept a clean sheet in 14 games. We need to keep a clean sheet.

“You have to work at that, you can’t just shove it under the table. You can’t go out every game and say, ‘I’ll tell you what, you have to win by two or three.’ You have to work on getting a clean sheet. It’s not just the defenders, it’s the whole team and the substitutes that come on.

“We’re in a battle, there’s no doubt about it," he added. "It’s a battle every day because we have to be in a better position than we are. We think we should be and think we have the squad to be and we are not. The battle is for us to get better.

“I’d rather be looking up than down, but we have got to stand up and say, ‘look, what is happening?’ We spoke to the lads about it again today - words are great, words are lovely but words mean nothing without action. You can say you’re going to do this and do that, but it ends up as hot air if there’s no action. We go away to a very good team on Saturday and we need to be on it.”

Blackpool, who have gained the most points at home in the division this season, come into this weekend's clash having won each of their last three league fixtures.

“They’re a good footballing team," said Fleming. "I’ve played against Neil Critchley’s teams before and they are a goal threat. They play some good stuff and a shape not too dissimilar to us, I think it’ll be a really good game.

"We have to not go away from the fact that we are a decent team as well; we play some good stuff, but we haven’t been as effective as we should be in both the attacking and defensive thirds. We have enough in the team to win it and that is what I will be hammering home.”

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