"It's very, very disappointing. As I've said in previous interviews, you feel straight away for the fans. In my view, in competitive sport, your habits always catch up to your performances and from pre-season, from the first game onwards, this club has been chasing its tail a little bit and the writing has been on the wall for some time. It was just a matter of when and if.
"It's a tough pill to swallow right now, but we've been there before and we've always come back stronger. It's important we come together in many forms, in many departments around the football club.
"Having to run with probably 64 per cent of the availability of the squad for a large part of the time I've been here in the Championship, as competitive as it is, is a tough challenge.
"As a manager, you always want to leave the place better than when you found it. You always try and control the controllables, but there have been many things out of my control which I'm trying to take control of to move forward and be proactive.
"I spoke to the chairman within two weeks of getting the job to give my views and there's nothing that hasn't happened that we didn't speak about. He's very buoyant, he's got a plan for the football club and going forward together, I'm sure we'll be stronger."