PAUL Cook has stressed that Accrington Stanley will need time to adjust to his new regime after the Reds suffered a shock 4-0 home loss to Plymouth in his first game as boss.

Cook officially started work as the club’s new manager on Wednesday, three weeks after the departure of John Coleman and Jimmy Bell to Rochdale, but endured a nightmare start to his reign as the struggling Pilgrims coasted to victory at the Crown Ground.

The Reds slipped a place to 10th in the League Two table – four points short of the play-off spots – but the former Sligo boss has asked for patience during a transitional period.

“Sometimes that transition between managers can be difficult for players,” Cook said. “They’re so used to hearing John and Jimmy’s voices and now sometimes you might be telling them a thing or two different.

“We got punished for every mistake we made but we didn’t play well. We wanted to start the game for the first 15 minutes playing in their half, squeezing the game and being hard to beat, but we were the opposite.

“We have to go away, analyse what we’re doing and try to move forward.

“At the minute we’ve got one of those problems managers have, we’re conceding goals and we’re not scoring. That’s a manager’s job. These jobs are not easy, it was the same when I went to Sligo for my last job.

“John and Jimmy have done a fantastic job but there are a lot of very competitive teams in the league.

“My job, with Leam and the rest of the staff, is to get the lads playing the way we want. I guarantee people will see goals here, I just hope they’re not against us every week. They’re supposed to be more in our favour, but it will take time.”

Stanley, though, are back in action in a rearranged game at Crewe tomorrow night.

“You don’t have much time to work with them and that’s the hard part, so it’s a case of regrouping and lifting the spirits quickly,” Cook said.

“Certainly at Crewe we want to be stronger defensively, we’ll worry about scoring goals later.”

The one bright point of Saturday’s match was the performance of substitute Jamie Devitt, signed on loan from Hull a day before the game.

“I thought Dev looked really bright, he showed possibly the only glimpses of real quality we had,” said the Reds boss. “We’ve got a few players that we’d like to try to bring in.

“Our squad isn’t the biggest and we do need a bit of help but we’ll just keep working away.

“We don’t go around punching the air when we win and we’re certainly not despondent when we get beat.

“Under me we’ll be very steady, we’ll work very hard and we will improve.”