Andrew Crofts believes the under-23s have taken well to what he and joint-coach Shannon Ruth are trying to implement.
Today marks a month since the pair were put in interim charge following the departure of Simon Rusk, and Crofts is thoroughly enjoying working closely with Ruth.
“Shannon and I have got a really strong chemistry, we complement each other well. He's probably sick of me – as soon as we leave the training ground I am on the phone to him. He might block my number soon!” Crofts said.
“It's a real team effort and there are some really special people at the club that just want the best for everyone. Shannon has been brilliant and we want to give it our all between now and the end of the season to get the most out of the boys.
“You are learning about individuals every day and they're probably learning about me. What we want is the players to be the best version of themselves, to want to improve.
“We try and set the highest possible standards. With that comes real honesty and that's what I pride myself on – sometimes they might not like it, but I will be honest and hopefully offer a high level of clarity.”
The under-23s have taken five points from their four matches under Crofts and Ruth, following Sunday's 0-0 draw at Chelsea in Premier League 2.
“In the West Ham and Leicester games we believe we deserved to win both but we won the first and drew the second. Against Manchester City the performance was decent, but we had a couple of penalties go against us.
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“So to go away to Chelsea and get a point where it was a bit of a different game to the others was really pleasing. The boys have taken to what we're doing and their togetherness is what earned us the point.
“The boys defended really well, probably too much if anything. We would have liked them to relax and get that first pass away when they initially won the ball back, because when we did that we hurt them on the counter and we created some good chances.
“Carl Rushworth was superb. To keep a clean sheet and to defend our box as well as we did was a really pleasing factor in the game.”