Confidence is key

By Alex Inglethorpe Exeter boss and BBC Sport columnist

It has been a disastrous month.

We have lost four league games in a row and are trying to find out which of the players has run over a black cat.

Confidence in football is such a hard thing to get and such an easy thing to lose

You lose games for a multitude of reasons and we have probably managed every one of them in the past few weeks.

Sometimes it has been down to poor play on our behalf, sometimes because of poor decisions that have gone against us and sometimes it is maybe because we have been too attack-minded.

I have experienced a run like this as a manager and a player and I think there a couple of things that are important to remember.

When we were at the top of the league we were not jumping around thinking we had arrived. We have always been very sensible as a team.

You did not have to scrape us off the ceiling when we won a few games, and in the same way you do not have to scrape us off the floor now because we have lost a few.

We won our first four games but did not get carried away and we will do the same now.

It is disappointing - but there is no such thing as the business end of the season. Every game matters in the same way.

Towards the end of season it is important to maintain your form but if we had not had the start that we made, then we really would be out of it.

Our home form has become a concern for me though.

It is a double-edged sword for us at St James Park because we are privileged to have the best support in the Conference by a long, long way.

That means when things are going well they can be an incredible force behind you and can be the difference between a draw and a win - which is fantastic.

But of course, if you are not playing well in front of a big crowd then that can work against you.

We are a young squad with an average age of 22 so they have not quite seen it all yet - and it is something they have to get used to. Supporters are entitled to voice their opinion in any way that they wish.

People would love to think that you psychologically whip players after losing games. I cannot see the logic in that if it is a confidence issue.

The players are working hard and it is not that we do not train hard or prepare for games properly.

It comes down to the fact that the players have a different mindset now to what they had a month ago. The only way to get that positive mindset back is to try to repair their confidence.

But confidence in football is such a hard thing to get and such an easy thing to lose.

Read Alex Inglethorpe's column every month on the BBC Sport website