Knill looks to a brighter future

Knill, who has guided his team from the depths of financial despair and out of the bottom four after a ten point deduction at the start of the current campaign, spoke to Premium TV about life down Millmoor way.

He explained: "With those 10 points to make up, I wanted us to be in this situation by Christmas. So all credit to the players, they've done a great job and they deserve all the pats on the back they're getting, especially for winning four games out of four in a great October for us.

"But now we have to guard against complacency - there are another six months of the season to go and all we've done so far, great effort though it's been, is given ourselves a real chance of staying in this division."

Speaking about the previous regime and when he stepped in, knill went on: "When Mick (Harford) left last season and the board asked me to take over," he says, "I was a bit reluctant. But I knew we had good players, and it was a matter of getting the confidence and belief we needed to stay up.

"A few weeks after I'd taken over we were told the club was on the verge of being closed and that was terrible, but it actually worked in our favour as a team - it brought everyone together and there was a tremendous unity.

"We could have taken the 10-point deduction last season and accepted that would mean relegation, but I thought 'we're not having that.' I was sure we could stay up, and although it went right to the last game of the season we did it.

"Once we knew we'd still be in League 1 we had to deal with the reality of having the 10-point penalty, and part of that was having the budget cut by £800,000. We lost nine players and brought in eight on less money.

"It was a challenge I relished though, and the players we brought in were also up for the challenge along with the rest of the squad. So far it's gone well, particularly in the last few weeks, and we're only eight points off the Play-Off positions".

As for the future, Alan concluded: "I'm not looking too far ahead and I'll leave it to others to ponder what we might eventually achieve this season. I'm just concentrating on trying to win as many games as possible and see where that takes us."