BLUEBIRDS assistant boss Ron Needham has paid tribute to the club's fans and hopes the team can soon repay them on the field.

The 46-year-old was born and bred in Chippenham and played as a ball-winning midfielder for 18 years at the club.

He was coaching the club's under-14s when boss Steve White plucked him from relative obscurity and asked him to be his assistant manager.

Needham says he now feels settled in his new role and can see the side making improvements week on week.

The thing that has impressed him the most so far is the strong backing the side gets from its loyal band of fans.

"I have to say the supporters have been fantastic since Steve and I took over at the club," said Needham.

"The Tiverton game on New Year's Day was more like a home match and it was the same when we travelled to Newport in the Dr Martens League Cup. At our home games the support has been very positive and we are just desperate to start getting some wins to pay back their faith.

"These fans deserve a winning team. We have been getting a lot of positive feedback and hopefully we can start putting together some good results."

One of his main roles is to take training alongside White and he feels the players are benefiting from the professional but fun approach to sessions.

"Steve is obviously very professional when it comes to training," he added. "He has great attention to detail and plans every session from start to finish.

"I think we are now starting to reap the benefits from that. The fitness of players is improving week on week, there are great numbers turning out for training and competition for places is growing.

"Training is all about keeping it hard. But although it is hard work we try and make it enjoyable for each and every player.

"To keep it more enjoyable we do a lot of work with the ball otherwise it would just be a lot of running. What is nice is the players have got smiles on their faces and we are building a very good team spirit."

Needham, who lives in Yatton Keynell, added: "I am enjoying things so far and it is going very well off the field," he continued. "I am starting to get to know the players well and they are a great bunch of lads.

"Our performance at Newport can only build confidence. The way we played was exactly how we had asked the lads to play beforehand.

"They followed our instructions to the letter and we were delighted with each and every player out there. On that performance we can match any team in the division and it followed our 1-1 draw with Nuneaton as well."