Statement from chairman Paul Baker on Cheltenham Town's current run of results:
I share the fans’ concerns and I have always said that first and foremost I am a fan of the football club and have been for years.
I am equally concerned and worried about the recent run of the results and the impact it is potentially having on attendances and our league position.
We fought for a long time to get into the Football League and while we are only a couple of wins outside the play-offs, we know we are not playing well and we are letting in lots of goals and not picking up many points.
If we hadn’t had the Swindon Town result (5-0 win) in the FA Cup first round things may have come to a head more quickly.
I think there are extenuating factors, but this sort of run is not down to one injury, or one player being recalled from a loan. There does seem to be underlying issues and I am not sure what they are.
As a board, we need to try and understand what that issue is and it’s important we do what we can to address those issues.
We are not able to invest large sums of money in the squad. We had a meeting with Mark Yates and Shaun North last week and brought in Kane Ferdinand on loan, but the last two results have been especially disappointing.
The sending off (of Lee Vaughan) against Wycombe on Saturday didn’t help, but that disguises what we felt would have happened anyway, with the way the team is set up. There are some basic things wrong with the team at the moment in terms of pace and mobility, but it’s nothing that can’t be fixed. How we fix it is the crucial thing and whether Mark is able to fix it, nobody knows at this stage.
We have been in difficult situations under Mark's management before and pulled through and his overall track record has been good.
Who is to say he isn’t man to take us out of this difficult phase? We will discuss it as directors and come to a view.
The fans have to trust the board to make decisions on their behalf, but we always listen. We see what the fans see and we are not that removed. I was at Stevenage and at the Wycombe game and the team we are seeing now is very different to the team we saw at the start of the season.