David Leggat: Excuse me, whose fault did you say that was?

What on earth possessed the New Zealand Knights management to call a press conference this week urging everyone to be positive?

Ostensibly, the get-together at North Harbour Stadium was to silence the whispers that coach John Adshead was about to walk, or be pushed. No such thing, chief executive Steve O'Hara and chairman Anthony Lee said.

The man who took the All Whites to the World Cup in 1982 is in for the long haul, they said.

But the big push was to get more positive coverage of their team in the A-League. You're too negative, was the nub of O'Hara's message.

He's copped a mountain of flak since Tuesday, yet he probably got off lightly. In Britain, the United States or Australia he'd have been laughed out of the room.

A couple of things.

First, the Knights are lying eighth in the inaugural transtasman competition. That's putting a positive spin on how they're going.

They are also last. Dead set rock bottom, 10 points behind the second last - sorry, seventh-placed - Queensland Roar before last night's match against the fifth-placed Newcastle Jets.

Seven points cover the top seven teams. Seven teams are, in various degrees, making a decent fist of what is the strongest domestic competition this neck of the woods has seen.

The Knights' goal difference is dreadful, the season is effectively gone. It has been a huge, steep learning curve.

So why call the media to book over being too negative? This is straight from PR Skills, How Not To Do Your Club Any Favours, 101.

There are hints - more shouts than whispers, actually - that the squad is split into factions; that Adshead had certain players foisted on him; that the players don't rate the management and so on.

The best way to silence the grumblers is finding the key to constructing a better second half of the season.

It won't matter a jot in terms of making the top five playoffs, but it will be important for the club, not least in the eyes of the league's bosses across the Tasman.

Another point. You can argue over the merits of importing players from Europe, Asia or Australia versus promoting local talent.

That's a subjective issue (personally, a bit of both seems the right way to go), but how much promotional work was done pre-season in terms of introducing the likes of Ronnie Bull, Ben Collett, Steve Fitzsimmons, Josh Maguire and Sean Devine to the fans?

Part of the Knights' problem is a serious lack of profile of their players. It might not sound much, but it's an example of attention to the small details.

In too many cases, the players are largely anonymous names, unless you're a committed fan, and those numbers appear to be dwindling based on crowd attendances this season.

Better by far to have any sort of profile than none.

There is a genuine sense of goodwill among soccer folk towards the Knights. People want them to succeed. Proof? About 10,000 showed up for their first home game, although a chunk of tickets went to schools as first-up freebies.

There is no disputing it was always going to be tough work in the first season, and lacking a star-quality name such as former Manchester United star Dwight Yorke at Sydney didn't help. But still, the numbers make grim reading.

There are no short cuts and until the Knights eliminate naive defending and find a cutting edge up front, it won't get any better.

But better by far to stick to sorting out what's happening on the field than to try to place the blame elsewhere.