Boss Paul Jewell admits that the longer the run of defeats continues, the more the pressure on him and his players grows. Last week’s home loss to Watford took that run to seven games with the Blues hoping that they can halt their slide when they take on Barnsley in a live Sky game at Oakwell on Saturday (Sky Sports Two/HD2 5pm).

Jewell, who continues to enjoy the backing of owner Marcus Evans and chief executive Simon Clegg, is under no illusions: “The longer you go without winning, the more pressure it puts on the players, manager and everybody to try and get a win.

“But, if you can’t deal with pressure, don’t be a football manager, or a footballer because footballers have to deal with pressure as well.”

While he admits the performance during the recent 4-0 defeat at Turf Moor was well below par, he felt his side were unfortunate during Saturday’s 2-1 loss to Watford: “Against Burnley we were abject, against Watford we were really unlucky. Things didn’t fall for us and the players worked ever so hard.

“I don’t like to blame luck because we’re not in the position we’re in because we’ve been unlucky in all the games, but I felt on Saturday we were desperately unlucky.

“The goals we conceded were bad goals, but at the moment any deflection in the box is falling to one of their players and vice versa at the other end. It’s only us who can get ourselves out of it. We can’t hide, that’s for sure.”

Jewell knows a win has to come soon but feels once one comes, Town, currently 21st, can start climbing the table: “It can turn around very quickly in this league but I understand we can’t keep on losing matches. If you can get one result it can very quickly turn into three or four and everything looks different.”

The 47-year-old concedes that while he has always looked at his Town tenure as a long-term thing, he may have tried to make too many changes at once: "We're trying to build for the future, not just this season. I think one of the mistakes I made was try to cram everything into one year. Longevity is the answer.

"You need to get players who will be here in three to four years and get them settled. Maybe that's one area I haven't got it quite right."

Photo: Action Images

h32 added 21:07 - Dec 8 itfcham - let's see some inspiration on the pitch and the backing will follow - only an idiot (and there's always some) would cheer (and in doing so condone) - the sheer rubbish that has graced the pitch recently.
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jas0999 added 21:10 - Dec 8 WarkyWonderLand - completey agree. PJ talks about a 'long-term project', yet this season his signings have been very short-term i.e. as you say most of these players won't be here next year, let alone the year after. Signing older players means we will be back to square one next season. I fail to see how anything PJ has done so far is for the 'long-term' good of the club. No doubt someone can tell me ... Cresswell perhaps. Anyway, best of luck to the boys on Saturday. Let's hope this abysmal run comes to an end. Yet, when it does PJ will be under pressure to deliver at least another six results to make up for the utter rubbish he has delivered in the past 7 games. He may blame 'bad luck' last week - yet Watford actually had 54% of the possession whilst both keepers pulled off decent saves. Bottom line is if the most positive thing we can think of is we 'should' have beaten an abysmal Watford team - then things really are bad. Forget luck , we should have played them off the park. We didn't as the stats suggest.

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jas0999 added 21:18 - Dec 8 bedsitfc - I don't think 'most supporters' believe in PJ - according to recent polls on other forums, 67% want him OUT! That said he is going nowhere, so we may as well support the players! Personally I thought and still think PJ was a very poor appointment. However, I think most want what's best for ITFC - although I don't believe that's PJ (results don't lie) - we must hope he can turn it round.

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rexron added 21:19 - Dec 8 Go figure
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catt added 21:29 - Dec 8 JOG ON JEWELL!!!!! excuse excuse excuse fed up with it just go
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sirburley added 21:40 - Dec 8 just went and cheered myself up watching shefki kuki and darren bent scoring goals for fun on youtube....proper entertainment
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mostyn55 added 21:42 - Dec 8 People make mistakes, managers definitely do and PJ has for sure! But we can't turn into a club that sacks managers before they've had at least 2 seasons in the job. PJ now knows how important youth and excitement is to us, realises the older guys haven't done it so now can concentrate on the development of Carson, Whight, Lawrence, Marriot, hopefully Hyam and bring in the players with the calibre of Cresswell who can learn from the older guys who still want to put the shirt on. Trust PJ through thick and thin and back him to turn this mess he hasn't fully created around. COYB

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h32 added 22:01 - Dec 8 mostyn55 - 'hasn't fully created' ?? - the mess is his team.
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Sindre94 added 22:07 - Dec 8 PJ in!
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VanIsleBlue added 22:22 - Dec 8 Clegg out! End of the season the bad signings of; Ellington,Ingi, Bowyer will be gone Loans of Collins, Andrews, Murphy,Wabara, Stockdale will be gone Edwards, Priskin, Peters will be release Leaving PJ to start all over probably in Division 1 Needing a goalkeeper, CB, RB, CM, CF. Wasn't this the same one year ag0 The only positives could be Cresswell and a fit Sonko. I would play Martin as well

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itfchorry added 00:23 - Dec 9 Taxi for Clegg
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churchmans added 00:28 - Dec 9 need a win badly i am wondering if pj really has lost it and cant take the heat? he couldnt take the heat of keeping wigan up everyyear! so he resigned after a break went to derby who lets face it were phucked anyway dint work out he got sacked! now he's with us had an okay half of season in charge made signings and okay we had a purple patch west ham away and few draws and a couple of home wins against average teams WOW! we took some right beatings which we all now the teams against . i think if we lose tommorow pj should do the hounorable thing and resign

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delias_cheesy_flaps added 00:30 - Dec 9 Another pearl of wisdom from PJ.... ''The longer you go without winning, the more pressure it puts on''.....NO SH*T SHERLOCK Talk about stating the bleeding obvious! It's no small wonder we find ourselves in a right mess with a doughnut for a manager and a buffoon for a CE who thinks 'we've progressed under Jewell'? I'd hate to think what state we'd be in if Clegg thought Jewell had done a crap job?

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churchmans added 00:34 - Dec 9 BURLEY would be brilliant or joe royle or even glenn hoddle NOW HOLD ON! glenn hoddle has been englands best manager since robson and when i hear him analise on sky sports and the respect he gets from the fellow pundits not to mention the football school he has in spain for rejected footballers who he retrains if you like and finds them new clubs im thinking yeah he will do. dont want to see sacked managers like steve bruce here!! mark hughes would be a good one also

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delias_cheesy_flaps added 02:18 - Dec 9 How about Jesus as our new gaffer Churchmans....we need a miracle worker! Seriously Hoddle might not be a bad idea, just one small problem we still have 'the master of stating the bleeding obvious' running the team. Unless we get a tonking of Barnsley on Sky tomorrow!
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singingtheblues added 02:32 - Dec 9 "The Longer the Run, The Greater the Pressure" - well that's not exactly true is it? - at some point the care factor goes out the window & the pressure comes off - that's why relegated teams start winning at the end of the season!
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bobble added 06:12 - Dec 9 jewel and the players have got a severe case of performance anxiety thats all, they just need a good root to put their minds at ease and come to the realisation that they can play with the ball , harden up and thrust forward at every opportunity which will no doubt lead to a hot sweaty finish and a spent members but they will have shot and scored in the opposing teams end and will have come out on top what more can men ask for ?

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bluearmy4life added 12:33 - Dec 9 I don't think there is enough pressure on PJ. There should be with this unacceptable poor run we are on. The club, Some fans are too easy going and if we are not careful we will playing football in the 3rd tier.
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tomisamos added 15:09 - Dec 9 nice one, bobble. Agree with jon 456, good young players don't grow on trees, it takes time to build a team and had this particular bunch been winning, complaints about their age wouldn't have been a factor at all. We need a tv performance like the last one against Conventry. A bit of belief in front of a wider audiance. Or else our job is going to get considerably tougher!

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