Tim Usasz

Barking coach keen not to give up on club’s survival chances

Barking head coach Tim Usasz insists he’ll fight to the very end as the club look to avoid the drop from National One.

The Goresbrook side dropped to the bottom of the league after Saturday’s 48-12 home loss to Macclesfield to extend their losing streak to 10 games, but Usasz insists he won’t give up on survival until it is mathematically impossible.

“We are running out of games fast, but first of all we cannot afford to look at more than one game at a time,” said Usasz.

Build on

“We cannot look beyond each week and we just need to give ourselves a chance, get ourselves a win to give us something to build on.

“But you aren’t going to see me give up, I will continue to give it my all, and I will be trying to instil that into the lads. I won’t give up until it is mathematically certain that we are down.”

The American international brought four new players into the starting XV last Saturday, and though he feels that might have made a contribution to the loss, Usasz believes changes are necessary.

“Bringing new players in does mean things could take time, but these are players that have played a level higher in the Championship so should be able to adapt quickly,” he said.

“But I have been forced to make these changes because the existing squad isn’t good enough, we have players who are not playing to the potential that I know they can.

“I know Charlie Armstrong from my time at Nottingham. He came into the starting XV after not playing for six months.

“But I was pleased with his performance, he worked really hard and was willing to give it his all and it is something other players could take something from.

“Steve Wood is one of our smallest players but made 30 tackles and they were all effective, some players are fighting tooth and nail for this club.

Lift

“The hope is that some of the new lads can give the boys a lift. But I am continuing to look at bringing others in and hopefully we can bring one or two more in over the next couple of weeks.”

And all Usasz is worried about is his own team going into their clash at Coventry this weekend.

“At the moment I couldn’t careless about who we are playing and we can’t look too far ahead in the fixtures and say that one looks like a loss and the next one looks like a win,” he added.

“There is too much inconsistency in our own camp to worry about who we have got next as we have to sort out our own game before we can start looking at how the opposition play.”