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" We are just sitting waiting to go in for our evening meal, the boys are coming down in about quarter of an hour, so I am just sat nicely in the lounge. It is quite busy in here so it is a bit noisy but there you go. The journey has been good, we set off early at 8am this morning. We stopped at Luton's training ground, Mick Harford was very good, he let us use it, he stayed to meet us all and we had a good crack with Mick the Luton Town manager.
" The boys got off the bus at about 1.30pm and trained really, really well, really bright, really sharp and it broke the journey up. Then we arrived at the hotel at just after 4pm, so we are in good shape. They are just having a nice rest now and then they are just on their way down for their evening meal. We have done a fair of bit of travelling at the moment haven't we so we need to make sure that we prepare right.
" Today though the boys looked really fresh to be honest, and we don't want to make too many excuses about the long travel. We just want to do the thing right, wake up in the morning, we have got a pre-match meal very early at about 9.30am and then we set off to Grays for the kick-off at 1pm. We just want to get stuck right into this cup tie and come away with a victory. We are in a really positive frame of mind and the boys now know what to expect, so we are just looking forward to the game tomorrow.
" We have got one or two little niggles, with Paul Thirlwell and Simon Hackney, we are going to have to look at them tomorrow. Thirlwell has just got a bit of a tight calf from the problems that he has had, and the same with Simon, he has got a tight calf, so we will look at that tomorrow. The boys trained really, really well today though, so whichever of them we put out we are hopeful that we can progress in the FA Cup. "
" He (Chris Birchall) is a versatile player, he is one that at our level when you haven't got bundles of money to spend you need to have players that can adapt to different situations. He is equally at home on the wide areas or down the centre of the park, so he gives a bit of cover all over. He has got a lot of experience and he is a good footballer.
" We have the option to make it permanent, I think that his situation with Coventry is that he is not going to figure in their plans. So he is obviously looking for somewhere else to play his football. It gives us a good opportunity to have a look at him in this month period, and then after that we will see where it takes both of us.
" Jakub Hottek is an under-21 international with the Czech Republic who is looking to progress his career. It is a contact of mine, the lad is going to come in, it is not going to cost us a penny. He is going to play in the reserve game on Monday, so we don't lose anything by having a good look at him. He must have had some quality though, he is only 24, he is 6'1 and he has got a bit of pace and a terrific left foot.
" We will just have to see how he does, I haven't seen the lad play obviously but he has come recommended and we are just going to have a look at him. It won't cost us much money, if it comes off then fantastic, if it doesn't then we just send him back on his way, but it is an avenue that we just can't ignore.
" I think that you have just got to make sure that the situations in football favour you, and at the minute those two situations favour us. They are not going to cost us an extortionate lot of money and it gives us a free look at them, and we will see how they go. "
" First and foremost I hope that Luke (Joyce) plays tonight and I hope that he does really, really well. It gives him a chance to play really competitive football, reserve team football is no good to Luke at this stage in his career. We thought that if we could get him out and get him some games at a good level, which it is, and Dave Bayliss has been terrific in the dealings that I have had with him. Hopefully Luke will get the chance to play some games and then show people what he can do.
" The Josh (Gowling) situation is very similar, we have got four centre-halves, Peter Murphy is coming back to fitness and he is going to play in the reserves on Monday. What we don't want is Josh idling in the reserves, we need him to get competitive games and Hereford are going to give him that opportunity.
" It is a constant procedure where we are always looking to bring in better players than we have got, and that is the nature of the game. You always want to improve on what you have got, and hopefully the ones that we have got are doing that at the moment, with Tim Krul, and little Michael (Liddle) and Chris Birchall. The ones that we let go, we have got to make sure that the people we bring in are better than them.
" They (Grays) have been terrific to be fair, the one thing is that our players will be well prepared now, they know what to expect, it is going to be their cup final. These non-league games, they don't lie down easy do they. We have got to make sure that we are on our mettle but we have had a really fierce session today where I have been a little more aggressive than I normally am. Because I can't stress the point big enough that we need to go and battle and scrap first and foremost.
" Once we do that then hopefully our football and our superior ability, which it should be because they are league players, should come through. Unless we scrap and battle though we might not even get that opportunity, so the message is - roll your sleeves up, dig in, go toe to toe with them and after that we will try to play some football. "