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"It is the longest trip we will do in the season and given our away record there will be a home win on every coupon throughout the country but that is something we can use to the players advantage. No one fancies us there, no one fancied England winning the rugby World Cup in difficult circumstances.
"They will be playing this weekend and giving it a go and in the end, whether there will be three or 300 Gillingham fans going up to watch the game, they will deserve and expect a performance from us. We will take away the excuses of us having to do the long journey by setting off early. We will get up there and do our preparation and we will get ourselves fully ready for the game.
"We will be travelling on the Friday and staying in a hotel. We will do our pieces before the game and then have a chat about Carlisle and look at the report we have got on them and play to our strengths. In terms of preparation, they are professional players and we have all been there for long enough to know that the creature comforts that you have at a home game, you cannot have in a hotel.
" That is part of football, it is not a problem and we will not have an excuse for that. We have always known that we have 23 away games and that this is the longest in the season so we will just get on with it. The away form has not been good enough and it is about time that we put that right.
" Matters off the field are irrelevant to me, and if they are irrelevant to me then they are irrelevant to the players, and when they cross that line they have a job to do and they know that. You can pick the bones out of any situation but the game is still about the ones who paid to go, the fans, and the ones who are out there, the players.
" The rest of us, and me to a certain extent, are in the margins of everything and that is what it is about so we just make sure that we are well prepared and give the fans something to cheer about. "
"Chris Dickson has come in, waited for his chance and has taken it very well but lets not forget the other strikers and let's not diminish the role that Delroy (Facey) has played, leading the line well and the other two strikers Gary Mulligan and David Graham have been smashing trainers. That has kept me awake more than anything, because there is a case for any of them being in the team so I am delighted with them.
"We have got other areas of our game to work on and do better but up front I am happy. Chris has offered us something different from what we had. He is unpredictable, which can be frustrating at times but you accept that because he knows where the goal is.
" Mark Bentley has had a little bit of flu this week and has missed a couple of days of training. We will assess Andrew Crofts before the game after his midweek international duty and we are mindful that he has been on planes and travelled to a number of places over the last week-and-a-half. After that, aside from Steve Lomas, we have a clean bill of health.
" I have seen some reports in the local press recently that, with the Rugby World Cup Final on at the weekend, that it is not even worth us going up there and that would motivate me a little bit but I don't know really. You can make a case of whether it will or won't, but what really matters is what you do when you cross the line. They will be prepared and know their jobs and we go there positive and trying to get a result.
" When I say result it is not code for "we are after a draw" because you cannot set your team up for a draw; there are too many variables. We will be going there to win the game and if we get a draw then it is not a bad result but we will set-up to try and win the game. There is enough within the team and enough firepower in the squad to go on and do that.
" I have said that I have got my hands full at the moment and I said downstairs that I would be driving the bus but then I decided that I'm not too good driving a car so I won't do that! Aside from that there won't be too much change. I'll speak to the players one-on-one and get into their minds a little bit and try to help them focus and we will do that over the next 24 hours or so - that will not change. "
" We just have to get the monkey off of our backs because we haven't got a point away from home and that is not good enough, we know that. To begin the process may take a journey like this and a game like this to change our fortunes.
" When you look back at past Gillingham teams and the teams that were successful they were teams that, when I played here, were hard to beat and it was not often where they would concede many goals. That is something we need to address because that it is the bedrock of a successful season.
"The strikers get the headlines, which is what they should do because you pay the money for them. We need to get back to keeping clean sheets if we are going to be successful and whichever way we have had success, to get any measure of it you need to be solid.
" When the younger ones go away it is always a little unfamiliar to them but sometimes they go without that fear. The mind can play tricks on you and if you were in that situation a year ago, as an experienced player that can affect you whereas the younger players don't have that fear, it is all new to them.
" I suppose in the make up of the team it is that blend of youth and experience and we have got the personnel in the squad and it is something that I will look to utilise on Saturday. It is still a game of eleven men against eleven, ninety minutes. They are not super-human, we have not become duds over night. If we could pick up Priestfield and move it up the M6 that would help, but we can't.
" It doesn't change, and it shouldn't change because it is a game of football where the teams are evenly matched on paper, if you look at the team sheets. The fact that they have started well shows that it is a tough place to go to. Carlisle is always a tough place to go for any team just like Gillingham is tough for them to come to. We know it is going to be difficult but I wouldn't be here saying anything other than being positive if it was not something that I believed. "
In squad news from the Gillingham camp the visitors will definitely be missing one player, that being veteran Northern Ireland international midfielder Steve Lomas with a hamstring injury. However fellow midfielder Mark Bentley, who has been suffering with influenza this week, should be available for selection, also on the plus side yet another midfielder in Andrew Crofts is back in the Kent outfit's ranks after being on international duty with Wales this week.
Two Gills loanees, those being Adam Nowland from Preston North End and Chris Dickson from Charlton Athletic are likely to be selected in the visitors starting eleven. Striker Dickson, who has scored four goals in his last two games, has recently extended his temporary spell away from the Valley into a second month while midfielder Nowland plays the last match of his current one-month agreement.
The referee for tomorrow's match is David Foster from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and he will be assisted down the lines by Lancashire officials Russell Green and Lee Metcalfe. Meanwhile the fourth official will be Dave McCallum from the Tyne and Wear area.