Russell Martin sat down with the media ahead of tomorrow's clash against Doncaster Rovers

Russell Martin vowed to "live and die by the sword" when warned he would be sacked by Leicester City if he didn't change his methods. Nearly a week after his latest setback in charge of the Foxes, the City boss is showing no sign of folding.

Leicester were comfortably beaten by Peterborough United last week, and the aftermath of that defeat followed a similar pattern to that of many games this season. Martin's position has been questioned all week. It's understood that, as of now, there has been no change in the club's stance.

That means Martin has been able to spend a week on the training pitch with his players, with the clear goal of securing three points against Doncaster. If the 40-year-old is going to be successful by living by the sword, City must have 12 points by 6pm on Saturday.

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In his press conference at Seagrave on Friday, Martin cut his usual confident figure. Accompanied by fitness coach Rhys Owen, Martin took his position to face the questions he knew would be coming: What has the reaction been inside the building to last week's defeat?

"There's been none really, there's nothing different," he said. "Everyone in the building has worked so hard, whether we win, lose or draw. They've been great, players and staff on the same page.

"Everyone's frustrated and a bit hurt after last weekend, which I think is normal and natural. But now the only reaction that matters is about tomorrow, when we step over the white line and we have to go and perform against Doncaster.

"I can talk to you until I'm blue in the face about the reaction this week, how we trained and all that stuff, but it will really matter tomorrow when we kick-off. So in terms of the building, nothing's changed. We work hard, stay focused, understand what's hurting us and make sure we improve."

In the immediate aftermath of the loss to Peterborough, Martin hinted that his players were failing to deal with adversity. It's a problem that City have failed to deal with for a number of years and, despite the squad being new, it has yet to be addressed.

"We haven't responded to conceding first very well," he explained. "When we score or the game is nil-nil, the team looks fine and really close to what we want it to be. We have to try and be more clinical and get the first goal.

"But if we do have a setback, we have to deal with it in a much better way. I said at the start of the season to you guys, it's about how we respond to tough moments [that] will define us and right now, we haven't responded well enough to them.

"It's something we've tried to address and I think mentality is something that can be measured. So it'll be stuff that's really important to us as a group and I think the players are really clear on that."

Throughout his short tenure at Leicester, Martin has been criticised for refusing to take blame or responsibility for what are perceived to be issues within his team. That isn't accurate and, before tomorrow's game, Martin admitted that the individual moments of madness are his responsibility.

"We have to be better at what we do," he continued. "Even with the individual mistakes, it's my fault, I'm the coach of the team, so I have to find a way to eradicate that. It's not the players not trying, but in really tough moments at the minute, there's behaviours that come out that are not us and not going to be us.

"We have to find a way to change that because the players are trying so hard. But when we have a bad moment or a tough moment, the team looks very different in the way it performs and the energy it has."

He added: "You can't coach it tactically [mental side of the game], but I think we can coach and develop resilience. I think we can develop robustness, toughness, character and personality. We'll continue to try and do that."|

Everyone in the room at Seagrave knows that if Leicester can get the mentality and robustness right, they will jump a hurdle that is keeping them back this season.

By the next time Martin sits down with us, Leicester would have played two games. The feeling certainly is that six points is drastically needed.