AFC Fylde manager Dave Challinor believes his side look bereft of confidence after a suffering a fifth winless match in the National League.
The Coasters let a half-time lead to slip in the 2-1 home defeat to Woking last time out and find themselves just one point above the bottom four.
A frustrated Challinor had his troops for training in the following day and felt it was important to get a few ‘home truths’ out of the way as soon as possible ahead of Saturday’s trip to Leyton Orient.
Challinor said: “We have had plenty to work on this week. I was displeased with our reaction to going behind at the weekend. I don’t think the lads showed enough desire to get back into the game.
“There has been a knock in confidence recently due to how results have been going and the fact that our points tally doesn’t reflect our performances.
“But we have to get on with it because we can’t afford to waste time. We wanted to get a few home truths out of the way as quickly as possible after the game.
“That way can to draw a line in the sand rather than have players dwelling on the situation. That way we can get back at it and start working to improve.
“We have used the time productively and the lads have been working hard but we haven’t been physically battering them. They have had to take on a lot of information and that will continue up until the weekend.
The Coasters have dropped points late in games this season but Challinor isn’t putting it down to fatigue: “We covered more in the final quarter of the game against Woking than at any other point in the match so we can’t put it down to fatigue. The thing we were lacking at the weekend was belief that we could get back into the game.
“So it wasn’t for the lack of trying but we didn’t put them under enough sustained pressure. The benefit of the GPS trackers we have on players lets us know everything we need to know.
“Using the Bromley game where we came back from 2-0 down as an example, I had a real pop at the lads at half-time. The distance we covered over the two halves was very similar but the intensity we worked at in the second-half was twice that of the first.
“It’s not easy when you haven’t been winning games or getting what you have deserved, but we need people to be over-ruthless. There is a tendency in life with some people to just ‘do enough’.
“We can’t settle for getting one goal or two, we have to keep going and kill teams off and that has been our downfall at times. I don’t want them to be stunned into action after we concede or go behind, it has to start from the off.
“We have to give everything from the very start of the game.”