Gary McCann noted that the team have been struggling of late when speaking after the game at Canvey Island. He said, "It has been a very difficult and testing couple of weeks. All four of the defeats have been too similar, though in all of them I thought we were worth at least a point.

"At Canvey, I thought we dominated and thoroughly deserved to be two goals ahead when Luke Tingey scored, and it could and probably should have been more. But we did not hold the two-goal lead for anything like long enough.

"Even then, before they equalised, we failed to take what was probably the best chance of the match. But once they had equalised we were just glad to get into the dressing room level. And, after they scored their third, It didn’t look like we would get back into the game.

"There is a really fragile look to us and we are struggling to replicate last seasons winning mentality. We need to stop the slide.

"Certainly we have not had much luck, and whilst I don’t want to use that as an excuse. Elliot Braithwaite breaking down in his first game back in the opposite knee to the one he was nursing. Also Mark Kirby cutting his foot on the corner of a mirror in the changing room corridor and needing five stitches rather sums up where we are at."