Manager John Coleman spent several hours meeting with supporters on Monday
Manager John Coleman spent several hours on Monday afternoon meeting with supporters who took up the invitation to meet him in person.
The Gaffer sent out an invitation last week via the official website offering fans the chance to meet him at Spotland to air their views and frustrations.
There was a good response to the invitation and Coleman spent almost five hours meeting with supporters on a one-to-one basis, something he believes was a very worthwhile exercise: “I’m glad I did it as it gave a lot of people a chance to air their views and frustrations, while at the same time let people hear my side of the story and let them know what we’re trying to achieve here.
“There were some good points made and I answered all the questions as honest as I could. It is always good to hear the points of view from supporters, and for them to hear first-hand from myself instead of speculation, so from that point of view it was good to put things straight.
“I believe that the fans are the life blood of any club; they’re the ones who keep us ticking over. These fans give up their hard earned money and time on a weekly basis and yesterday was about getting across to them that we are trying our best. We are not infallible and we do make mistakes, but we try to learn from them and I think they appreciated that.
“It is easy to speak to people when you’re winning but I have never been one to hide away from things. I have never been one to shy away from hard work or go into my shell when times are tough, I always come out fighting. I’ve been through a lot of adversity in my managerial career so far and I have always come through it; I believe the same thing will happen now. At the end of the day we’ve lost four games, but the first of those four games was to go third in the league, so it’s not all doom and gloom. I think everybody knows where we need to improve and once we do that I think we can certainly climb the table.
“One thing that came across yesterday was how passionate I am about football. I will talk to anyone for as long as they want about football – I love it, it’s my life and it’s Jimmy’s life. I think we may give off the wrong impression sometimes as I know I can come across as being a bit miserable and because of that I don’t think supporters realise how much we care. I think when people get to know me they realise that I’m not a bad egg.”