Ian Evatt has called for a united front to help Wanderers get through a ‘sticky spell’ and sustain their play-off push.
A 2-0 home defeat to promotion-chasing Ipswich Town made it three games without a win and three defeats in the Whites’ last five league games.
But Evatt’s men – who had won five in a row before that – remain in the League One play-off zone with a six-point advantage, and superior goal difference, over seventh-placecd Wycombe Wanderers.
And Evatt wants calm heads and a togetherness to help his side regain confidence and momentum with nine games – and a Papa Johns Trophy final appearance – to come.
“We’re going through a real sticky spell at the moment. Sticky spells are tough but it’s how you manage those kind of spells that really define you and will define the rest of our season,” said the Wanderers’ boss, who takes his team to leaders Sheffield Wednesday next up.
“We need to stick together and re-group. The players are disappointed, I’m very disappointed and I’m sure the fans are disappointed.
“We need to stick together in these difficult moments and we’ve still got a lot to play for. We’re still in a good position. The position hasn’t really changed after today and we have to re-group and go again.
“These football seasons are long, drawn-out affairs and you go through good spells and you go through sticky spells and at the moment we’re having a sticky spell.
“There are some parts of that today I didn’t like very much and we need to be back to us and be back to ourselves and we will work really hard this week to try and do that against Sheffield Wednesday.
“I’ve said this a lot. In challenging times and challenging moments you have to stick together. We’re going through a bit of a rough spell at the moment. It doesn’t mean the wheels have come off. We just need to re-set and go again.
“I believe in the team, I believe in the players and I believe they’ll bounce back.”
Wanderers suffered a first home defeat in 13 games as Ipswich made it five wins in a row and set a club record of six successive clean sheets.
That was threatened when Wanderers were awarded a penalty early in the second half and trailing 1-0.
And despite Evatt’s admission that Ipswich deserved their success, he felt a successful conversion from top scorer Dion Charles could have led to a different outcome.
“Let’s be brutally honest, for large parts of that game they were better than us,” added Evatt after the Whites’ winning home run stopped at six games.
“We didn’t perform to our usual level and standards but for 15 minutes at the start of the second half we did.
“We got on top, we built momentum and we got the penalty. These big games are always changed in moments and when you don’t score that penalty the stadium gets sapped of energy from our point of view.
“It lifts their confidence and drains everybody else and I thought after that we lost all of our momentum and deserved to lose the game. These games are fine margins and today we didn’t take the one big moment we had.
“The disappointing thing for me was the timing of the goals. The first one is right on half time from a mistake and then a set-play and not marking our men, not doing our jobs.
“A difficult defeat to take but for 15 minutes of after half time the game probably would have changed had we scored.
“Over 90 minutes I think they deserved to win but I think if that penalty goes in it’s a completely different game.”