PERHAPS Lord Justice Leveson should be tasked with trying to ascertain whether Paul Groves wants to become Cherries’ next permanent manager.

Poker-faced Groves has continued to play his cards close to his chest regarding the role and again gave away nothing following his seventh game as caretaker.

Although he spoke eloquently and at length as he addressed the media during his post-match press conference, there was little substance to his replies.

Appointed alongside Shaun Brooks to steady the ship in the wake of Lee Bradbury’s sacking last month, Groves was asked whether there had been any developments.

“It’s a case of we’re here until the end of the season,” he replied. “We take it game by game and that’s not really changed from that point of view.”

Asked for his thoughts on the squad the new manager would inherit, Groves said: “There are a number of players with good ability that are capable of playing at this level and performing well on a consistent basis.

“It needs consistency in terms of the messages that are being put across on a regular basis on the training ground, a structure and a way of playing that everybody is familiar with and their habits are good.

“Whoever gets hold of the group, it will take time to fashion what they want in terms of how they want to play.

“Whoever takes charge needs to be patient, needs to give people time to develop their ideas and work with the players and get them across so they are consistent and the players know what they are doing week in, week out.”

A return of seven points – and as many goals – thanks to one victory and four draws is hardly a ringing endorsement of Groves’s credentials.

However, it must be remembered that he took on a squad which was, and still is, heading towards writing an unwanted chapter in the club’s history.

Since the turn of the year, Cherries have mustered only 25 points from the second half of the season, one of the lowest totals since they joined the Football League in 1923.

It is a sad indictment of a season that improved steadily and took Cherries to within one point of the top six in mid-February, only for it to end by mid-March.

A talented squad, added to with some big-money signings in January, simply started |forgetting how to win as the play-off dream turned into a nightmare.

Sharing the spoils against League One draw specialists Scunthorpe encapsulated perfectly what will be chronicled as |an indifferent and trying campaign.

In the ascendancy for long periods during the first half, Cherries paid the price for failing to turn their superiority into more goals at Glanford Park.

A series of chances went begging before the impressive Donal McDermott finally found the target with a left-foot strike three minutes before the break.

However, the hosts, whose blunt approach play had resembled Cherries during the final stages of Bradbury’s reign as manager, profited from some ponderous defending to carve out an equaliser.

Although the build up had been slick, Stephane Zubar was culpable of switching off, his hesitancy allowing Garry Thompson to nip in front of him and apply the finish to Cliff Byrne’s cross 11 minutes from time.

While Groves felt the four changes he had made to the Cherries starting line-up had “livened it up a little”, he also admitted fatigue may have set in during the closing stages.

“Unless somebody produces some top-level skill or there is a fantastic strike, you will always look at goals you concede,” said Groves.

“There are always areas you can improve on and we will continue to do that.”

Lyle Taylor, recalled along with Zubar, goalkeeper Shwan Jalal and goalscorer McDermott, knew he should have done better with a 17th-minute opportunity, his post-miss exasperation telling the whole story.

The striker clutched his head with his hands after he had hooked the ball high over the crossbar, with Simon Francis’s pinpoint cross picking him out unmarked and in space around 10 yards from goal.

Taylor went close to atoning when he showed tremendous athleticism to meet a Wes Thomas knockdown with an acrobatic scissors kick, his effort flashing narrowly past the upright after 32 minutes.

Groves said: “We got ourselves into good areas to work their goalkeeper which has been pretty much the same in some of the other games. Sometimes, we haven’t been able to execute that final pass that gives us a better chance.

“The more times you get into those situations, the pictures become better.

“The players become more familiar with that and then I think you start to see more of those chances executed and that will be the difference between winning and drawing.”

David Mirfin missed a gilt-edged chance to equalise for the Iron and Jalal saved smartly from Mark Duffy after Thompson had levelled.

Succinctly summing up Scunthorpe’s season, manager Alan Knill said: “If we could |have turned those 21 draws into wins, we would have had some season!”