NEW Leigh Genesis manager Lee Merricks says he is instilling a hard to beat mentality into his players.

Financial worries meant previous manager Steve Bleasdale and the majority of the first-team squad jumped ship last week.

That meant reserve team boss Merricks was thrown into the hot-seat, and he has put together a young and hungry squad that will not lie down in the face of adversity.

Merricks has added a sprinkling of former academy players to his reserve side, and they performed well before succumbing to a 3-0 defeat against North Ferriby last weekend.

That performance gave Merricks plenty of optimism and hope, and he hopes that bodes well for the future at the Unibond Premier League Club.

“We have to be hard to beat,” said Merricks. “I am instilling into the players that the longer they can keep the game at 0-0 the better.

“If we can stay in games, we have got the ability to snatch a goal and get some good results.

“We are a bit of an unknown quantity to opposition teams, but we can’t use the underdog card every week. We have to pick up results. There is no excuse for sliding down the table.”

Merricks has drafted in 18-year-old Macclesfield striker Kristian Dennis on loan for the trip to Whitby, and Merricks added: “We are grateful to have Kristian here and we hope he can bring some knowledge and ability to the team.

“We have had two or three others down at training this week, one of them a former Manchester United and Manchester City academy player, and we are keen to bring other people in.

“Whitby will be a tough game, we will have to be on our mettle. We played them earlier in the season and they beat us so we have to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”