Brian Flynn addressed the gathered media ahead of the visit to Stevenage on Saturday, and admitted that he was not shocked at the fact that he had taken charge at the club.
“There’s no surprises whatsoever in football, the shock it that is nice to be taking over a team at the top of the league, for me personally that is.
“The two occasions I’ve gone into a club as a manager, the teams have been rock bottom and I’ve been fire fighting for a long time.
“It’s been a pleasure, I’m saying it’s a shock possibly that’s the wrong word; it’s been more a pleasure then that. It’s been enjoyable because there’s nothing broken here so it’s been an easy ride in that sense for me.”
“I haven’t spoken to many of them, but I think the players realise the situation and that Dean has done particularly well here building a really powerful squad. There was always going to be that temptation that another club would come in and that’s how it’s been.
“He’s a quality manager and he’s proved that, it was a difficult time last year which was blatantly obvious for everyone to see but he managed to start again in pre season.
“I came here in August to help him and Brian and it’s worked well - now can we take it a step further? That’s what we are looking at.
When asked about the key objectives he wanted to achieve, Brian admitted, he is only looking ahead game-by-game and his aim was to win against Stevenage.
“Simple to win one game,” he said
“Who knows what will happen in football? Funnily enough I was talking to someone this week who became a caretaker manager, a good friend of mine, we roomed together at Leeds and he became caretaker manager at Leeds.
“That was Paul Hart and he was looking forward to the game on the Saturday, and two days later George Graham took over, so he was only caretaker for two days. I can’t look beyond Saturday in terms of what the club’s intentions are - It would be unwise of me to do that.”
Brian also spoke about characteristics required by any potential manager at the club.
“Continuity is important, players here know their jobs, if a new manager comes in who wants to tweak thing, even a little, that could upset the rhythm that they are in now –It’s a hell of a position to come into with 20 games to go.
“Well I can tell you, and I have firsthand knowledge of this, that there are some pretty damn good managers out there who are out of work. I can tell you that a lot of them would be very interested in taking up this position for certain.”
Moving onto the game on Saturday, Brian spoke about the possibility of a record breaking game.
“Saturday is a big one to keep the momentum going and also to break the record. It’s nice to break records as a manager, player and also as a club. We also need to keep things rolling and ticking over as we are doing
“The away form has been spectacular hasn’t it? The results have been absolutely fantastic away from home; having watched Stevenage against Crewe last week, I believe we are capable of doing it.
“It means nothing if we don’t get that key word promotion at the end of it. The chairman came in the other day and addressed all the staff, not only does he want promotion he wants to win , which is really positive from the people at the highest level at the club.”
Brian has been impressed by the way Rob Jones has taken to his new role and admitted that he believes that he has the qualities to become a good manager.
“He’s been very calm to be fair which is a good sign. Obviously when we discussed taking over here together, we both agreed that the most important thing for him was to concentrate on playing because he’ a key figure for us out on the field and all the other things surrounding management and running a football club will come eventually - he has shown me the qualities of in the future becoming a really good manager.
“Decisions are joint that’s for certain, there are certain times where we might disagree on something, but we haven’t disagreed yet. I’m here to help Rob as well, to guide him through certain things, but Rob is his own man, that’s for certain.”
After watching them various times this season, Brian has been impressed with their organisation and commitment of Saturday’s opponents, Stevenage.
“I think they have done particularly well, I’ve seen them a few times this season and every time I’ve seen them play I’ve been very impressed with them. They’ve been very well organised, got a lot of good commitment, they’ve got more than one or two talented players who can win a game.
“So defensively we are going to have to show the same qualities that we have shown for all the season really. When you’re top of the league you’re a scalp, people want to beat you and that’s another pressure that the players have to deal with.”