Colchester United boss Steve Whitton insisted today he is not ready to turn his team into thugs to halt a winless home run that stretches to eight matches.
The U's manager, an advocate of passing football, was speaking after watching his team throw away a one-goal lead for the second successive week.
The U's also squandered a second-half penalty when losing 2-1 to an in-form Crewe Alexandra outfit that moved up into the Second Division's automatic promotion places.
Congratulations - Micky Stockwell celebrates his first-half goal with his team-mates
Whitton said: "We couldn't get nasty even if we wanted to.
"We haven't got any nasty players with the kind of aggression and physical and mental toughness to mix it with the more successful sides.
"To bring those type of players in, both in defence and attack, we'd have to splash out a fortune we don't have.
"We'll just have to keep striving to get things right the same as we always have with plenty of hard work and training.
"I'd love us to be able to bring in a couple of big guys capable of putting themselves about, but the truth of the matter is we were only beaten by a couple of our own mistakes in this match."
Whitton said that Crewe deserved a lot of credit because they passed the ball around well and as hard as it is to stomach he and his management team can accept honest mistakes from their players.
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Published Monday, January 13, 2003
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