I'm sorry to say the Exeter match was rubbish. We were shown up, really.

You’ve got to give credit to Exeter, though. There was a gulf between them and Carlisle. The two lads on the flanks, Nicky Law and Randell Williams, they kind of ran the show last Saturday.

It doesn’t matter how many hours you spend on the training pitch. At the end of the day, it’s got to be produced in a game.

They’ll be trying different things in training. Steven Pressley will have good ideas.

But it seems there’s nobody really taking responsibility on the field, waving a fist to gee people up, trying to alter it. They’re kind of accepting things. It seems as if everybody’s gone into their shell.

They don’t seem to be talking. They’re 11 individuals. Nobody’s making it happen. They’re just looking at each other, hoping something will happen.

You see the odd flash, but they’re not putting teams under pressure. At our corners and free-kicks, there’s no variety. Nobody coming short or defenders arriving late in the box. Not enough movement or imagination.

After the game, Pressley criticised a few players. When I played, there were managers who would say their piece.

But it was done in the dressing room. You can understand Pressley’s frustration.

You hope he’ll have named players who he thinks will respond in the right way. I used to respond if team-mates like Peter McConnell or Willie Carlin told me to do something or told me I wasn’t doing enough. It spurred me on.

Some fans say Pressley is too inflexible in sticking with 4-3-3.

People go on about systems. If you’ve got a lad that’s good enough to be a professional footballer, you can adjust. You can make it happen. It’s not just Carlisle. A lot of blame is attached to systems. I think it’s an excuse to cover the rest.

If you’ve got 11 honest lads on the field, you can make it work.

We signed players quite late and, to me, it’s still showing. You’ve got to question if the squad is good enough. Exeter wasn’t a one off. At Scunthorpe the previous week, we were poor and lucky to come away with a win.

When you’re in a rut, it can be difficult to get out.

We’ll get out of it, but Stevenage tomorrow is already a six-pointer. It’s a good opportunity: a team second-bottom who haven’t had a win. Ideally, start by putting them under pressure and make the home crowd turn.

They’ve got a new manager in the dugout, so that’s a fresh start for them. Everyone will be trying to impress.

We’ve got to go with the right attitude. If you don’t get a result, your problems are going to mount up.

This is where you look for lads who have played a lot of games to come to the fore. It’s easy to criticise. But as a player or manager, you’ve got to accept criticism. You take the good and the bad.

We’ve got Forest Green at home next Tuesday. When I played night matches, the crowd was always up. I think it’s unfair on the EFL for Champions League games to be televised on the same night, which happens a lot now. Against Exeter, there were under 4,000 home fans. We can’t afford to lose any more.

I’m concerned with how we’ve started the season. If results go badly this weekend, we could be three points off the bottom.

There’s no buzz around. It seems as if the place needs a lift. The only way to get that is results. It’s got to happen quickly now.