Pitchero Non League

.....to ‘do a Leeds United’ in the wake of Saturday’s 3-0 opening day defeat at Boreham Wood.

Having splashed the cash on a host of quality signings during the summer, Baird is all too aware that the knives will out for his title favourites if they don’t bounce back with a decent result against Basingstoke Town at the Silverlake Stadium tonight.

But as veteran of over 500 professional appearances as a player with the likes of Southampton, Portsmouth, Leeds and Middlesbrough, the former striker is long enough in the tooth to know that such setbacks can quickly be overcome.

“Saturday’s result was massively disappointing and we know that the daggers are out and everyone wants to criticise,” he said.

“But like I said to the players, I was in the Leeds United side that won the old Second Division championship in 1989/90 and on the first day of the season we got beat 5-2 away at Newcastle – and it should have been 15-2. “That put the pressure on for the next game at home to Middlesbrough and we scraped a 2-0 win and went from there.

“It’s the same for Eastleigh. If we get a result tonight, Saturday will soon be forgotten about.

“Rome wasn’t built in a day and we always knew we would have our ups and downs. But we’ll be okay as long as we stick together and learn to deal with the fact that, because of all the speculation and diatribe about us, sides will raise their game against us week in, week out.

“We were poor defensively on Saturday and conceded three horrendous goals. But it’s not about pointing fingers and blaming the defenders. We defend as a team and we attack as a team.”

Tags: News | Eastleigh

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