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Ward: We Believe in the Manager and in His Philosophies
Friday, 15th Jan 2021 10:33

Town veteran Stephen Ward is adamant that he and his colleagues are firmly behind boss Paul Lambert despite an allegation this week that there is a dressing room mutiny at Portman Road.

That claim, made on the Football Insider website, was firmly denied by the former Republic of Ireland international defender today when he was asked if it was true that there was disharmony behind the scenes.

“No, not at all, 100 per cent,” insisted Ward. “We believe in the manager and we believe in his philosophies and what he wants us to achieve.

“What the manager is asking of us is only what we should be expecting of ourselves. He knows the quality of the squad and he’s as frustrated as we are because we’re not delivering what he wants.”

Town travel to rock-bottom Burton tomorrow after slumping to a 3-2 home defeat last week by a Swindon team that came into the game just one place off the League One basement and having taken a solitary point from their previous six games.

Ward, 35, added: “As a squad, especially over the last few weeks, we’ve won games but not played as well as we can. Sometimes that can be a positive but I think it probably caught up with us last weekend.

“But everyone here is completely on the same page. There’s not one bit of disharmony and everyone wants to achieve promotion. That’s how it is.

“Of course, people are going to be disappointed with themselves and there will be harsh words to each other when they’re not doing the business.

“But that’s only because people want to win and want to achieve what we want for this club this season.”


Asked how the Swindon setback had affected dressing room morale, Ward continued: “As you can probably guess it has been a tough week in terms of getting our heads round the performance that we put in.

“Everyone was very disappointed, especially after we hadn’t played for a few weeks.

“That only enhanced the disappointment because we were desperate to get back to playing.

“We were on a decent little run before we got hit by the virus and we wanted to keep it ticking over.

“We all knew it wasn’t good enough on Saturday as a group of players and we’ve addressed that this week.

“We’ve had a look at the game again and seen where we weren’t good enough and where we need to improve. It has been a good week in terms of that.

“Everyone put their cards on the table as to where we need to improve and get better, and what we’ve not been doing over the last five or six weeks.

“Obviously, in terms of getting players back, it has been a good, positive week and it has given us a real lift on the training pitch. The squad now looks as if it has real depth to it and that’s something we’ve been missing for a long period of the season.”

Ward not only revealed there had been a clear-the-air meeting between manager, staff and players, but that he and a number of team-mates had conducted their own get-togethers in an attempt to find solutions as to why the Swindon defeat — with the first-half display described by manager Lambert as Town’s worst this season — had been so below par.

He added: “We all get together, we’re all really close and we’ve got a real good team spirit. It’s a real good dressing room and we’re not naïve enough to think that the performance against Swindon was anywhere near where it should be for a club and a squad like this.

“We’ve had sit-downs over cups of tea, just generally and outside where we can, and chatted away about where we need to improve.

“We also had a general meeting with the staff, which was very positive in the end because I think it’s as clear as day when you can see the images of the game and it shows where we need to improve and also what we’ve not done well over the last few games.

“All in all, I thought last week’s result was a negative one but this week has been positive in terms of getting everybody’s cards on the table and seeing exactly what we need to be doing going forward.

“The league is very strange this year. It’s very tight and if you go on any sort of winning run — three or four games in a row — it completely changes the picture again.

“We’ve still got 27 games left so it was the perfect time to sort of regroup and see exactly where we need to improve and what we need to do going forward.”

Ward also revealed he was one of the eight Town players laid low by the recent Covid outbreak at Portman Road, which forced the cancellation of four league fixtures.

“It’s a strange season for everyone,” he said. “If you look at the results in recent weeks there have been some really strange ones with teams you would have expected to win not being able to do it.

“There’s no excuse culture at this club — the manager wouldn’t let that happen — but when you look at what’s happened over the course of the season we have had a lot of injuries and we had the virus that interrupted the mini run we were on.

“We’ve got a lot of bodies back in the squad, a lot of key players that we were missing, and that’s got to be a positive. Training has been really sharp this week and the squad is much stronger than what we’ve had over the past seven weeks or so.”


Photo: Matchday Images



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OsborneOneNil added 10:41 - Jan 15
We can look forward to a win tomorrow then. Nice.
2

unknown100 added 10:43 - Jan 15
Not sure I believe that somehow, there's players there like holy, Nsiala, Jackson and Hawkins who have been dropped? Woolfenden, mcgavin, Norwood who have been publicly called out for being poor? Not to mention the players who must be put out by judge and sears starting a head of them in weeks when they've been poor

Lambert can't be a popular man?
1

WonTheCupin78 added 10:44 - Jan 15
I don't really understand his philosophy at the moment.
0

MrJase_79 added 10:44 - Jan 15
"We're behind the manager" - except all the players that aren't.

"We had a big meeting and cleared the air" - Just like all the other meetings we cleared the air in.

"We looked at what we haven't been doing and where we went wrong" - Just like we always say we do when we roll players out ot the media.

"We know we weren't good enough" - Just like every other time we failed be competitive against a top 6 team or in general.

Anybody else really tired of this garbage?
2

Kesblue66 added 10:49 - Jan 15
You creep a,,s.Just wants to keep his place in the team.
2

TimmyH added 10:49 - Jan 15
I don't believe in the manager and his philosophies he's got a terrible track record since managing Norwich - typical piece of propaganda from one of our players to the media backing up the 'gaffa' that we've seen numerous times over the years, you can guarantee there's unrest in there somewhere.
5

Dockerblue added 10:56 - Jan 15
Wonder if our No4 held his hands up for all three goals Swindon scored? Doubtful and put money on him being in on Saturday. We need a complete shake up at the club, manager, coach, captain all need to go along with at least half a dozen players.
2

SheptonMalletBlue added 11:00 - Jan 15
You believe in the managers philosophies? You must be as mad as he is!!!!!!
0

Razor added 11:01 - Jan 15
Of course you support the manager-----you are 35 with nowhere else to go.

Us fans are not idiots!!
-1

hadleighboyblue added 11:03 - Jan 15
There was always going to be someone wheeled out with all the normal meaningless comments .
Did anyone suggest to the manager that playing 2 up front might improve our chances ?
-2

dirtydingusmagee added 11:03 - Jan 15
lol nearly choked on my coffee.
-1

DurhamTownFan added 11:06 - Jan 15
I would actually say that a ‘clear the air' meeting and smaller meetings between factions suggests a lot more disharmony than Ward is taking it to mean! Worrying signs. For me, PL has lost it. The recent Star article on his past jobs was terrifyingly accurate: especially his done at Villa... get him out now so we can start the rebuild
0

PortmanTerrorist added 11:13 - Jan 15
Quote 1: ".....last week's result was a negative one but this week has been positive in terms of getting everybody's cards on the table and seeing exactly what we need to be doing going forward"
Quote 2: ".....it was the perfect time to sort of regroup and see exactly where we need to improve"

So WTF was going on in the month before when we had no games?!

Just cheap talk again and it is sad that a new and experienced face this year is falling into the losing culture and rhetoric. Obv hope there is a reaction tomorrow, maybe the threat of players getting fit and replacing the current bunch will help, but please just shut up now and play !
1

Nobbysnuts added 11:14 - Jan 15
What a croc of sh#te 💩💩💩
0

raycrawfordswig added 11:14 - Jan 15
Lambert going for the award of Worst Town Manager ever.
0

wewerefamous added 11:23 - Jan 15
On this basis, nothing less than 3 points in the bag tomorrow Mr Ward & Lambert!!!
1

heathen66 added 11:24 - Jan 15
Not sure what anyone was expecting him to say to be honest.
He cannot really say 'we do not believe in the manager' especially we he knows he will be playing on Saturday...for that same manager.
The proof will be in the performances not only against Burton as this is a must win against statistically the worst team in the league, but going forward.
If there is a change of formation and a change in attitude then the talking has worked.
If we continue with one up top and all the same underperformance then there are fundamental issues and something needs to be done asap.

On a side issue I am interested to understand what 'decent little run' he thinks we have been on 3 wins in 10 games before the enforced break !!!
3

bluelodgeblue added 11:28 - Jan 15
Unfortunately the body language and commitment of the players on the pitch just doesn't back Wards comments up?? Action speaks louder than words!
1

Linkboy13 added 11:44 - Jan 15
Ward's another player who's performances have dipped under Lambert seems to be an ongoing theme at our club. How many players are actually performing too there full potential at the moment. Does Lambert get the best out of his players. Answer's on a post card please.
0

Karlosfandangal added 12:04 - Jan 15
We need to turn poor Burton over........if we come away with a 4-0 win or at least a very comfortable win I might start to believe you Mr Ward.

I don't expect the Chuckle Brothers for the first 30 minutes.

To me to you to me to you
-1

itfcserbia added 12:13 - Jan 15
By now, based on the amount of statements such as this one, our players must be pretty sure they aren't good enough. So we have two options:
1. Get rid of them and get new players or
2. Get a manager that can make them believe they ARE good enough
1

Blue_badge added 12:24 - Jan 15
"We were on a decent little run before we got hit by the virus" - erm, no you weren't, not for a promotion aiming side!
1

blues1 added 12:48 - Jan 15
Dockerblue. You wont be able to, but love you to explain how Chambers was at fault for the 2nd goal last saturday? It's not his job, as rb, to close down their central midfielder. It should have been either dozzell or woolfenden attempting to close him down. He may still have scored but to blame Chambers for that goal is pathetic.
0

MonkeyAlan added 13:07 - Jan 15
Utter BS again. Not interested. Evans you muppet.
0

SonofSonner added 13:52 - Jan 15
Using 'philosophies' in the plural is a bit worrying. How many does have?
1


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