McGhee speaks out

The Seagulls' manager insists the job he is doing, under unique pressures, warrants the tacit support he is receiving from the majority of fans.

He says critics should be pointing the finger at Lewes District Council for delaying the Falmer stadium plans, rather than at him or chairman Dick Knight.

Albion go to Plymouth tomorrow in the Championship relegation zone, five points adrift of safety with ten games to go, following five defeats on the trot and seven away defeats in succession.

Those are the sort of statistics which usually have fans calling for the manager's head but the Withdean faithful have demonstrated an understanding of the difficulties McGhee faces.

The only opposition so far has come from a vocal minority on radio phone-ins and website chatrooms.

McGhee, although appreciative of the fans' general backing, believes it is no more than he deserves.

"I am grateful in a sense but I think I should expect that, because I have worked to the brief that I've been given since the day I got to this football club," he said.

"Understanding the difficulties, I have worked with the club, I have worked with the chairman, I have accepted being manager of a team that is not going to win that many games until we get an injection of cash that allows us to improve the team.

"I've accepted that we had to sell Currie and Cullip, Harding and Virgo. I've gone on doing my job tirelessly to try to keep us in this division. We did it last year and at the moment we have still got a chance of doing it.

"That is not to say that along the way I haven't made a bad decision here and there. Of course I accept that.

"But so does Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger and Jose Mourinho. Chelsea lost 3-0 the other week at Middlesbrough.

That doesn't make him a bad manager.

"Given the brief I accepted and the circumstances I've worked under, then I think I should expect people to be reacting the way they are reacting.

"In saying that, we still have to give them our best. We can't just say 'well if we go down it's because of that', we have got to make the best of what we have.

"I think mostly we have done that. Not being able to bring in a striker when the chairman has allowed some of the budget to do that has been disappointing and that can be a criticism.

"But we have looked everywhere and we have done our homework and we have made decisions on the information we've had or seen. So far we have not been able to improve in that way.

"That has been a major disappointment but we have been looking for that player since I got here and we've not been able to afford it.

"We found it for a short time in Adam Virgo but he was sold and we've never replaced him.

"It's not about the players that are here not trying, it's not about them not being good enough, it's about us having to ask too much of these players.

"Dean Hammond, for instance, has run himself into the ground for the cause this season. He's had a fantastic season and if we go down it will be a tragedy, given the effort a player like that has put in. We've not been able to give them any rest, to take him out and put somebody else in as good.

"Had Charlie (Oatway) and Chippy (Richard Carpenter)

been fit at the same time we might have been able to do that.

"In the striking positions we've not come up with a solution that has worked for us and got us regular goals.

"There have been things which have been disappointing but they have not really been of our making, they've just been what we've had to accept, what I've had to accept.

"What do fans want me to say? I hope people want me to say, if that is the situation then I'm the one to do the job.

"It's a helluva challenge but it's still a helluva good club to be with and I'm hoping that we will see our way through this period regardless and things will improve.

"If people want to point the finger they should be pointing it at Lewes District Council, not at me and not at Dick."

It is no coincidence that the sides with similar crowds and financial restrictions, Albion and Crewe, are at the bottom of the table. Both are punching above their weight playing in the Championship.

McGhee said: "Crewe have not spent any money on the team since they sold Dean Ashton (to West Ham), because they need that money for the club to survive.

"I accept that here but, in accepting that, other people have to then realise the circumstances I am working under. I think I can look people straight in the eye and know I've done the best I can.

"I don't think there has been much more to be done, other than maybe we could have found a striker somewhere."

If Albion go down McGhee expects to be given the chance to continue assembling a primarily young squad.

"Absolutely," he said. "I don't have any doubt about that. I think it would be outrageous if it wasn't the case.

"Otherwise I would have been making a song and dance and saying 'it's ridiculous, I haven't got any money, if we go down I'm going to lose my job'.

"I've understood that was not the criteria. The criteria was work with what you've got, we've not got any money, we have to sell Virgo, Harding and Currie, we've got a s***

ground, do the best you can and we'll just keep coming back whatever happens.

"That's fine, I can do that, but people have then got to appreciate that and stay behind me.

"The young players have come on, I think there is a whole different mentality at the club in terms of their preparation, training and lifestyles.

"I think they are better than the day I got here and that is a big progression we have made.

"Next year we have another plan to move it forward again and I want to be implementing that.

"I think it is a unique job, because of the circumstances we find ourselves in.

"It's been like this, remember, for seven years, the pattern has been established.

"Until something changes, and the change is the stadium or a big financial input, the pattern will remain.

"We have done unbelievably well to maintain the level we have and be competitive, to still have a chance of staying in this league."