Teddy Bishop has confirmed that he and his team-mates remain solidly behind beleaguered Blues boss Paul Lambert, even if the vast majority of supporters have joined the call for him to be dismissed.
Town go into tomorrow’s home clash with Oxford United having won just one of their last six league games and amid growing dissent from fans who believe club owner Marcus Evans should be looking to replace Lambert at the earliest opportunity.
The inconsistency does back a lot further, of course, with Town only achieving five wins from their last 16 league games — or, put another way, collecting just 19 points from a possible 48. No matter how much you sugar-coat the stats it is form that indicates the current campaign looks like ending in disappointing fashion.
But Bishop is quick to defend Lambert, stating: "At the end of the day the manager can only say so much. When we cross that white line it’s about performances and ultimately the performances from the boys haven’t been good enough.
"Everyone is behind him and still playing for him and the club. We just want to turn this form around. The manager doesn’t play in the games so it’s about the 11 players on the field. To a man, the performances haven’t been good enough recently and we need to turn that around.”
Asked if the players were feeling the pressure and that was affecting their displays, Bishop added: "I can’t speak for everyone in the group but I suppose it is quite evident to see the confidence isn’t there and there is a lot of pressure at the moment. But personally, I feel confident at the moment and I’m ready to go.”
On the subject of fans’ feelings, Bishop continued: "I try to stay off social media really so I wouldn’t say I’m in touch with supporters. But you obviously hear a lot of the stuff that is going around and frustrations are understandably high at the moment.
"We shouldn’t be where we are — we’re a lot better than that — but the important thing is that there are still a lot of games left and we’re in a position where we can push for the play-offs.”
Bishop burst on to the first team scene at the start of the 2014/15 season but almost seven years later he has only managed to clock up a total of 114 senior appearances, due in the main to horrendous luck with injuries that have seen him spend long spells on the sidelines.
Now, with his 25th birthday on the horizon, he is one of the more senior members of a Town squad littered with younger, less experienced players. He laughed: "It’s funny because I never say that I’m still young — it comes from other people I suppose — but that’s just because I should have played a lot more games than I have done throughout my career.
"I am maybe a lot more experienced than some of the other players so I look to take that on to the field with me and try to lead a few of the lads.
"I do a lot more talking on the pitch these days than I ever did in the past. You could say I’ve found my voice and that comes with confidence. But there’s another kind of leadership that you can have and I felt it before I got injured this season.
"If we need something to happen, people will look to me. They will give me the ball and I’ll go and try to make something happen.
"That’s another way of leading and imposing myself on the game. I’ve never really doubted my ability, it’s just that there have been a lot of bumps in the road for me over the last few years. I believe in myself and I still believe I can be a really good player for the club.”