HAKAN Hayrettin said he wanted to “stay and fight” on as Braintree Town manager, but he insisted that changes needed to be made at the club to learn the lessons from their relegation from the Vanarama National League.

In particular, he wanted everyone at the club to accept their own fair share of the blame for the situation that they had found themselves in.

The Iron’s drop out of the top-flight of English non-league football was confirmed by their 2-0 defeat at Aldershot last weekend and players and staff have spent this week digesting how that happened and ways to move forward in a positive fashion.

Hayrettin, who joined as boss last October after the departure of former manager Jamie Day, said he was keen to continue in the role as he wanted to lead the fight at the lower level.

However, he wanted to ensure that things that went wrong this year aren’t repeated and wanted everyone at the club to be “transparent” over issues that may have hampered his and his team’s bid to stay up.

The former Luton Town coach said he had received personal abuse from fans believing that he was the sole blame for their club’s demise, but he said there had been problems outside his control that lengthened the odds against their survival.

And he felt everyone associated with the club needed to be honest over their own roles in the relegation this year.

He said: “I want to stay; I want to fight and I want to prove to people that we can do this.

“I’m up for the challenge, but I don’t want people to lambast me when they don’t know the truth.

“People are pointing the finger at the manager, but I feel I need to set the record straight.

“There needs to be transparency at the club and people need to not let the manager take all the flack.

“I have worked tirelessly hard and I want us to learn from this to take us forward into next season.

“Everyone needs to be transparent and I want people to stand up and say that we have collectively made mistakes.

“We need to fight to get this right, but I’m the one being lambasted left, right and centre.

“What I’m saying is honesty and transparency is the way to go as lessons have to be learned on and off the pitch.

“Let’s be transparent, be precise and support rather than lambast.

“I’m proud of myself and I’m proud that we almost achieved the unachievable as people have told me that we were already down before we came.

“Unfortunately we could not get it over the line, but we almost did.”

Hayrettin said a key problem had been with the squad that he inherited and having players who weren’t what he felt he needed but who were on contracts that meant he was unable to move them on to free space in his budget.

The Iron boss said he used loan players to try to turn things around in an affordable way, but when those players returned to their parent clubs and when injuries in key positions - particularly the goalkeeping berth and in central defence - hit, he was unable to make changes he wanted to and needed to as his hand was tied by tight finances.

With the club struggling and average attendances lower this year, the club’s income was down from what they had hoped for and that meant prize money earned from the FA Cup and FA Trophy runs and the sale of Simeon Akinola to Barnet - totalling between £70,000 and £80,000 - had to be allocated in areas other than Hayrettin’s playing budget.

He also felt the lack of better training facilities than the pitch behind the main stadium at Cressing Road were something that held back attempts to prepare for games and he was also frustrated by people associated with the club being critical on social media throughout the campaign.

“I knew the rules when I took the job and I did my best, but now people need to see what has gone on this year,” he added.

“We had a group of players who were put together (last summer) when they were unfortunately not the right bunch.

“It was difficult for Jamie (Day) and I know he tried with the players that he brought in, but they couldn’t do it.

“When I first came to the club, I identified problems, but we got players in to rectify that and half of the season, the impact was clearly good as we were riding high in the form guide.

“Players had been signed because the original manager thought they could do the job, but when you have those players on contracts and you then get injuries like we did, Braintree is not the type of club where you can just deal with that.

“Look at Southport, Guiseley, York and Maidstone; come transfer deadline day, they all signed players, but we could not afford that.

“Our chairman has been the best that I’ve ever worked with, but people need to be told the truth.

“York had a £1.7 million budget with a £700,000 parachute payment from the Football League and finished one point above us, while Guiseley’s budget was double ours.

“I did my best, but we had players who were on contract.”