Notts County boss Keith Curle spoke to his club's official website ahead of his side's League One match against Carlisle at Brunton Park tomorrow afternoon, Curle hoping for a reaction from the Magpies after losing two games on the trot:
“Training was a little bit quiet on Monday, we got that out of them and had a good lively session on Tuesday, and also Thursday’s session was bright and had an air of aggression about it, which is pleasing. Obviously, having a reaction in training is important but we need a reaction on Saturday in a difficult fixture away at Carlisle, that is when we will get judged on that. It is how you respond, with all good teams it is how you react to defeats, the easiest job at the football club when you are winning matches is the manager, very easy.
“My job now, this is when I earn my money is by turning negative results into positives. But, the pleasing thing is that no matter what the results are, the coaching staff and my mentality doesn’t change. We still want to play football, we still want to get the ball down, we still want to play in the right areas of the pitch and we want to hurt teams as and when we can do with the football. So, that doesn’t change, there is not a knee-jerk reaction to say that we have lost two games so let’s change the way we play and change our philosophy, let’s bang the ball forward and play negative football.
“We are not about that, I think we have been lucky that we have had played some very good football and we have reaped the rewards. We have had two negative defeats now but we haven’t been outplayed, there have been individual errors within both games against Stevenage and against Tranmere. We had an opportunity to have a look at Tranmere, top of the league, flying, I didn’t think there was a lot of difference between the two teams and up until the goal I thought we were the better team.
“I think if you look at the amount of away victories in our division this season it is on the upward climb. I don’t know exactly what the stats are but I am pretty sure there have been more away wins this season in our division than there has been for the last couple of years. So, we need to make Meadow Lane a fortress, we need to make it a difficult place to come and play. But, likewise we have earned the respect that teams are coming to us now and they are more than happy to get a point. They are coming in and parking the team bus in front of goal and playing two banks of four and saying to us come and break us down."
“That has posed us in the last two games a different question to what we have been posed before, because before teams have come and played an open and expansive game and trust ourselves. Now they have realised that we have been playing well at home, so they have changed their tactics to come and nullify us. So, what we need to do now is when teams come and take a step back, we need to take that step forward and score early and get in the other team’s face, but still play the way we want to play.
“I look at videos of games and the disappointing thing probably on Saturday was that we had lots of ball retention but we didn’t get the ball into the areas and move the ball quickly enough to hurt the opposition. But, Tranmere were well organised, disciplined, played on the counter-attack and caught us open at times, but we are young team that is coming together and we are learning and we are going to get setbacks, you are going to get negative results but it is how we respond.
“Sometimes you need the introduction of youth into your team that gives you that gay abandon that and that naivety in their game because they don’t understand pressure, all they want to do is go and play football. Sometimes the older you get you hear the same old shouts and a little bit of discontent and that can have an effect on older players. But, we have got a good group, we have got a good mix in the team and we have got some good ability.
“Preparation for Carlisle is slightly different because it is an overnight trip, we won’t train this morning, we are going to travel to Carlisle which I think is about a four hour journey. We have got a training venue up there that we have hired for a couple of hours, so we will do our set-plays and our preparation up there. It is a fantastic playing surface up there, they are a team that likes to play football, and again, a team that has got strengths and has got weaknesses.
“It will be an opportunity for a lot of Notts County fans to see Mike Edwards again, I think he has just got himself back in the team. He was an excellent servant to this football club, and a generally nice person as well. So, I think some of the lads who are still here from last season will have the opportunity to say hello to Mike, but hopefully we are able to test him and stretch him on the field of play.”