MARTIN ALLEN: "We don't accept low standards."

This past Saturday, as Martin Allen prepared to see his side take on Boston in Town’s second pre season friendly, Spire Media had to chance to speak to the new manager.

Allen gave some insight into what was a tough couple of training sessions for the Spireites.

“We trained Thursday and Friday. Thursday was a long, difficult, hard training day for the players,” said the Spireites boss. Allen goes onto add how his side had been working on raising fitness levels, as well as working on attacking, defending and set pieces.

“Friday we had to reduce the intensity of the training, after what was a very demanding Thursday. We have to keep an eye on injuries. As well as thinking of the next game you have to think longer term.

Martin Allen also revealed how he has to find the right way to communicate with different players. He said some players have reacted well to an ‘arm around the shoulder and chatting to them’ whereas some have had to receive a ‘short, sharp, shock treatment.’ However the method, the reason is the same. The players must not keep thinking about what has happened at this football club in the past few seasons.

When asked how he was attempting to alter the mindset of those who have experienced failure at this club, Allen said, “We don’t accept low standards. We don’t accept any cliques in the dressing room, everyone gets treated the same. We don’t tolerate people coming up short.

“We can’t sit around feeling sorry for ourselves. We can’t talk about the past and I’ve tried to give them an idea of how to play some good football, but also to win games and not accept being a loser.”

Finally, when asked about the importance of getting the fans on their side, Allen was quick to state how crucial it is.

“We can’t have our supporters shouting abuse at our chief executive. We need the fans behind our players! They’re the important people here.

“Obviously you can’t just say to the supporters, ‘come and cheer your team’. If the supporters have paid their money, they’ve got to see tackles, running, passion, people caring, and they’ve got to see some organisation from the training pitch. If you get all that then I think the supporters will get behind our team.”