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" It's amazing isn't it, before Friday's game everybody is talking about the play-offs and now suddenly it's two defeats in a row. The disappointing thing about today is that we've come to a team that is second in the league and personally I don't think that they were any better than us. It's down to mistakes and we got punished for the mistakes today.
" As I've just said to the players there, it's about belief as well, it's how many of them wanted to go on and get into the play-offs. It's about characters, winning breeds confidence, we went into the Forest game full of confidence but suddenly maybe one or two have probably just dipped in form a little bit. At this moment we are probably having one or two who are probably playing not as well they have done.
" It's like for the Forest game, I'm not blaming the referee for the performance, I'm blaming the referee for the fact that we didn't get a point, or maybe go on to get the three points. Winning does give confidence as it's shown today, Carlisle I would say are no better than us. It just shows with this league, I've always said that Swansea are probably the best team in this league.
" I'm looking at Carlisle today though, in the home and away game they have not really pushed us or threatened us. I can't see, I don't think that Bunny (Mark Bunn) was overused today or anything like that. So it just shows the gulf is winning and it just breeds confidence. You get a belief and I would imagine Carlisle have got an unbelievable belief at the moment.
" The pitch doesn't help but we know that is how the pitches are going to be at this stage of the season. More often than not now the pitches have got Rugby games that are going on them. The pleasing thing is that the Sixfields pitch is a nice pitch but it's the same for both teams and you have to play to the conditions. "
" I thought that in the first 15-20 minutes Carlisle played to the conditions, a strong wind, they got the ball in behind and I think that we had to defend about eight or nine corners in the first 20 minutes. We weathered the storm though, and defining moments in the game. Obviously when they have got their noses in front then Giles Coke has had a great chance to get a leveller. Then suddenly a mistake by Mark Little on the back-pass and we're now chasing the game and we're 2-0 down.
" At the end of the day it is a fantastic run by Giles and a good pick-out by Jonathan Hayes, but we had to juggle things about. We lost Gabor Gyepes with a bit of a hamstring problem so we had to just jig it round with the shape of the team. I just said to the players that if you keep giving the ball away then it becomes very, very difficult. I just felt today that we probably made more mistakes than Carlisle did.
" (Mark) Hughes is struggling, we've had to have his dead leg scanned so he's not recovering as quickly as we want him to. Gabor again, hopefully I think that he might be touch and go for Cheltenham next week but we've got Brett Johnson and we've got Chris Doig coming back. The last thing that I want to be doing though is putting pressure on them in the team. My only worry is suddenly if Wolves call back Mark Little so that would leave us a bit short.
" I made the double substitution at half-time because I just thought that we looked a bit one-paced. The pitch was a dead pitch or whatever but I'm not using that as an excuse, I just felt that we needed a bit more energy and a bit more legs to go forward. So that was the only reason for the change, I just felt that at the times that we got into good areas we just didn't have enough penetration.
" I've just said to the players, keep looking high, you never know what happens in this game. If it goes down to the wire, because all the teams have got to play each other and everybody, you've probably surprised me a little bit by telling me that we are still in 12th today. "
" So we've just got to keep believing, and the most important thing is that we don't just let the season fizzle away because I won't accept that. There is no way we can do that because we owe it to the supporters, fantastic support again here, the people that have travelled very far to come up and support us so we owe that to the supporters, and we owe it to ourselves as well.
" Forest was a key one that we had to win, the disappointing thing is that on the back of the Swansea game I picked the same team. I saw Forest play at Southend and Colin (Calderwood) will have been very disappointed with their performance, their work-ethic and things like that, and the performance itself. Then I saw us against Swansea and he'd have been panicking, well I saw Forest against us, all eleven were at it and then when they got the sending-off all ten were at it.
" We had three or four lads that just didn't perform, whether it was the occasion, whatever, or just a bit of confidence, or lack of form. I picked the same team that played against Swansea though and we were all buoyant, so that was the disappointing thing. Like I said, I won't blame the referee for the performance but I would maybe blame the referee for the penalty incident that has maybe cost us a point, or maybe to have gone on and got the three points.
" What I've just said to the players there is that Cheltenham will probably be the hardest game this season because I know how Cheltenham play. I saw them on Saturday play against Luton and they are the most honest hard-working bunch. What I've said to them is that if they don't match their work ethic then they'll get their backsides spanked.
" So you've got to do that and then obviously ability comes out on top. So the most important thing is, like I say, we can't let the season fizzle away. People have given us plaudits but like I've always said, we've achieved nothing, all we've done is that we've got 54 points. What I've said to the players there is that there are still 18 points to go for so let's go for them. "