POOR attitudes are a thing of the past at Fairford if manager Paul Braithwaite has his way.

The Cinder Lane boss believes that certain players harmed the Reds’ Hellenic League Division One West form in the opening months of the season but now following departures, feels his side are gathering momentum.

Braithwaite takes responsibility for the way his team have performed and is confident that their fortunes are on the up.

“We’ve had a bit of a mix-and-match season so far, to be honest with you. Part of that has come down to me,” said Braithwaite.

“We had one or two players at the club who maybe weren’t there for the right reasons.

“They were there to play football, have a laugh and do what they wanted and they probably looked to a few other lads.

“I think a lot of managers sometimes have that delusion about good players, but unfortunately good players don’t always bring good attitudes and we have suffered with that a bit this season.

“We’ve lost to two or three other teams and when you look back on it you think maybe you should have played the players who were there every week doing the right things and doing what you asked them to do.

“I think that’s let us down a little bit and I’ll take that on the chin.

“It’s something that as a young manager I’ve learnt from.

“You want players that want to be there and not players that think they should be.

“Since we’ve had that funny spell with a couple of lads leaving for various reasons, I think we’ve settled quite nicely.

“I think we’ve lost three in 14 in all competitions and that’s not bad.

“I’m hoping now that we’ve turned a corner and settled, just like we did last year. At the moment I’m happy, I think we’re just there on the edge.

“I would say to people, just keep an eye.

“We’re on the edge of that little group at the top and we’ll certainly be looking to sneak in there and we’ll see what happens come the last week of the season.”

Fairford, who have a Floodlit Cup quarter-final to look forward to, are at home to Old Woodstock tomorrow in the league.