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" We were going to go and watch a player but we have been out all week have me and Dennis (Booth) somewhere. I was out again last night, out again on Monday, we were going to one tonight but we decided that it was too much trouble. It wasn't actually in this country, I don't want to give too much away but it wasn't in this country.
" We were worried that we might not get back for the game tomorrow, the players weren't too bothered but we were worried that we might not get back into the country for tomorrow's game, so we let it go. I have been saying to the board that there are a lot of players out there in Spain, Majorca and Tenerife that me and Dennis need to go and see, and we need to see them on a regular basis, but I don't think that they are wearing it.
" We have signed a lad called Michael Liddle, he is from Sunderland, he is a player that Dennis has watched and I have watched. We have probably had him watched six times this season and he has been really, really impressive every time we have seen him. Obviously we brushed up with Graham Kavanagh, we asked him what he thought because he has trained with him day in and day out for the last year to 18 months. We all came up with the same answer that he is ready to play league football.
" I went to watch him again last night, he played an hour for Sunderland reserves and they were terrific. They brought him off after an hour so that he could come into contention for the game tomorrow. He was absolutely excellent, they won 2-0 and he set up both goals from the left-back position. So we are hoping that he can come in and make a big impact and give Evan (Horwood) a little bit of time to get his game back together and protect him on that. "
" So we are really pleased with that one, he is likely to be involved heavily, you can make of that what you want but we haven't brought him into the club to sit around doing nothing. We are hoping that he will make an impact so I would think that at the moment he has got a strong, strong chance of playing tomorrow.
" He (Danny Carlton) has gone back to Morecambe, Danny asked me if I could guarantee him games and could I guarantee him starts. At the minute there are not many that I could guarantee starts, we have got a squad that we like but the competition is fierce. With the results that we have had we might have to shake things up, we might have to do things a little bit different.
" To say to Danny that I could guarantee him games, the answer was no, and what I didn't want Danny to do was to languish in the reserves when I knew that Morecambe were interested. He can go there and he can get his games, and if he scores three or four goals whilst he is loan at Morecambe, he comes back to me a far better player with a lot of confidence. He can then become part of my squad again, so it is a move that I think helps Morecambe, it helps me and it helps Danny Carlton.
" Chris (Howarth) has found himself at number three in the pecking order. I don't want players, I am not a nasty bad manager to people. I don't want him sat around doing nothing kicking his heels when he can be playing games for somebody. If he goes to Mansfield and pulls up trees then he comes back to me a better player. "
" If he goes to Mansfield and does well then he has got another option for himself to move on if things don't work out for him later on in the year. I think that players though have got to appreciate that they are better off playing first-team football then they are just playing in our reserves. Again, it will do Chris good, it does us good and it did Mansfield good, so again I don't think that anybody loses on that.
" Stuart Gray (chief scout) has gone and the video analysis chap (Kerry Morrow) has gone. When I took the post as caretaker I integrated, we got a wider net of scouts, we used four or five part-time scouts who are all ex-professionals, all got 500 or 600 appearances under their belt. All know the game inside out and all know their own part of the country. The board said to me if you got the opportunity to do it then what would you do, I would do it my way and that is the way I have decided to go.
" We are going to coordinate all the scouting from the football club and then all these part-time scouts will work in their own area, they will tell me what is going on in terms of games watched and players watched in each different part of the country. We are splitting up into the North-East, the North-West, the Midlands and Yorkshire, and then we have got somebody working in London. That is how I see is the best way for us, for me personally, to put my scouting network together.
" We had a real open meeting, well it was open in the fact that the players were entitled to their opinion and entitled to have their say. They didn't say too much because I think that a lot of the stuff that we were saying they agreed with. We are talking about the whole lot of discipline, the way that they train, the way that they live, the way that they prepare for matches, what they do away from the ground, what they do at the ground. It was a really constructive meeting where I want standards to be realised. "
" I don't want people just to talk words, words are cheap, all that I want is a complete overhaul in terms of players coming in and preparing themselves properly. As well as being ready to train and ready to play matches and get better results out of them. The diet thing was something that I think was important to me that straight away after training, instead of just having their sandwiches which they do and some lads even just going straight home without eating.
" We are going to open up one of the rooms upstairs at the football club and the full-time chef is going to put on a proper dietary meal with all the pastas and the carbohydrates and the drinks and all that. So the lads can refuel, rehydrate straight away and then they can get themselves on their way back to wherever they live. So I think that they were really important things, maybe only little things but we think that all the little things will contribute to make big things and will see us back in terms of improving results.
" We are looking OK team-wise, Dolly (Neil Dalton) has had a really busy period in the treatment room, I think that he has missed a bit of peace and quiet in there. To be fair we want him to have a really quiet life and a really nice relaxing week because it means that nobody is in his treatment room getting treatment.
" Most of them were out on the training ground today, there was just Peter Murphy and Scott Dobie. There are a couple that are a little bit short of match-fitness which everybody knows and it is well documented. I think that we have got Paul Thirlwell near to being ready for tomorrow, Chris Lumsdon and Michael Bridges, Michael might play some part of the game tomorrow in terms of being in the squad. Lummy needs a little bit more but the whole thing is a lot more encouraging than it was a week ago. "