Caretaker-boss Chris Hutchings says the players have let themselves down as much as departed manager Paul Jewell. The one-time Chelsea full-back is taking control of the Blues for Saturday’s home game against Sheffield Wednesday and any other matches prior to the appointment of a new boss.
Asked whether the players let Jewell down, Hutchings said: "I think they’ve let themselves down as well.
"Players under-perform. We might get five or six play OK, one or two all right. We haven’t got a consistent seven out of 10 all the way along.
"We’ve got to start being a lot more consistent, people knowing their jobs, not that they didn’t before but it needs to be reinforced.”
Despite this, he believes the club’s new manager will inherit a decent squad at a "fantastic” club: "We’ve got some good players.
"It’s a very, very good job. You look at the facilities, look at what’s around you, look at the ground. Why wouldn’t people want to take it? There will be a lot of big names who want to take this job.”
Hutchings says too many errors have been made which have cost points, something he says he’ll not tolerate during what's likely to be a short tenure as boss: "The players have made individual mistakes and we’ve got punished for them. You can’t make mistakes, it’s as simple as that.
"You make one mistake, you may get away with it. You make two you get punished. That’s what happens at this level. You make one mistake in the Premier League and you get punished.
"It’s about players. They go across the line. What are they going to give you? They’re going to make mistakes. If they keep making mistakes, they don’t stay in the team. That’s the way I work.”
He says he has outlined that approach to the players: "I didn’t lay down the law, I just told them how it’s going to be - what I expect and if you haven’t done it before, this is how it is. There’s going to be no grey areas.
"They’ll all know their job on Saturday. Everyone. And if they don’t do it, they’ll be off. There won’t be any hanging about. My job’s on the line.”
He believes the squad is well capable of being much higher in the table: "Whether it’s me in charge or anyone else in charge, we’ve got a good set of players. We’ve got to get the best out of them.
"We’ve made mistakes, I’m not going to say we haven’t, but we’ll get the best out of them on Saturday. Whether that’ll be good enough to get a result, let’s wait and see. But the effort will be there.”
In terms of the team he’ll field for Saturday’s match against Sheffield Wednesday, he hints that it could differ from the sides Jewell picked: "We have a lot of the same ideas but it might not be the same personnel.
"I’ll pick the team and I’ll pick the team which I think will win the game, simple as that. I’ll get no interference, I’ll speak to my staff, but ultimately it will be my decision.
"All my staff are right behind me at this moment in time as I’m caretaker-manager and they’ll be fighting in the right direction.”
Regarding any further details of his selection, he was remaining tight-lipped: "You’ll have to wait and see.”