FRUSTRATION was there for everyone to see again on Tuesday, which made it painfully clear the manager situation needs sorting, and quickly.

The goals have dried up and I can see by the way the team are playing they need a bit of leadership and direction.

The longer it goes on the more it will affect the players and the supporters.

I thought it was interesting what the Bury captain, Andy Procter, said about playing to impress – either the caretaker boss Ronnie Jepson or whoever the new manager will be.

If you do that then you are playing falsely – more as a collection of individuals rather than as a team.

Of course, they should be trying to impress every time they play – the manager issue shouldn’t come into it. They should always go out to win three points.

If Procter is coming out and saying something like that then that will affect the mindset of the team, and add pressure to their performance, again highlighting how important it is to get the new manager in as quickly as possible.

The players will be thinking Kevin Blackwell signed me, so the new man may not fancy me, which is unsettling.

I also noticed Ronnie says he reduced the numbers of players training with the first team to just the matchday squad of 18.

That is the right thing to do, but Blackwell has created a problem by signing 27 players in the first place.

David Moyes is having the same problem at the moment. He used to operate with a small squad at Everton because that helped with team spirit. Now he is at Manchester United he is struggling to create that same atmosphere with a much bigger squad.

So I can see why Ronnie has trimmed it down, but now he has got 10 players on the sidelines who know he doesn’t fancy them.

That will cause him problems down the line if he does get the job as he may have to call on those players.

Saying that, you can tell the players in the team, and the fans in the stands, want Ronnie to do well, which accounts for the frustration on Tuesday night.

The supporters were desperate to get behind the team and spur them on to three points.

But it was telling that Mansfield were able to dictate the tone and tempo of the game.

For me, the home side should be stamping their authority on the match. Bury should be making Mansfield play their game, but without that leadership or direction they don’t seem to have a style of play.

That is what the club needs now – someone to stamp their own identity on the team and give them an identity out on the pitch.

The longer it goes on without that, the more perilous Bury’s position will become.