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" I think that we approach it in a really determined way, I am in a determined mood at the minute. I have been like a bear with a sore head, yesterday I have just raised the roof with a couple of players. It is now 9.45am on Thursday morning and I have already had a couple in and said what I want, what we expect, what we demand. A very senior player has just shook my hand and said to me that we are in it together and that it is a united thing.
" That filled me with encouragement and optimism, I knew that was the case, the dressing-room is really tight, it is really wounded but it is going to come out fighting, that is all that I can say. It is going to come out fighting on Saturday and we are going to be in slightly different modes, we aren't going to get carried away in terms of going over the top but we have got to come out with a real determination and a real collectiveness together. I anticipate a good performance on Saturday.
" Words are cheap, I am hopefully going to say the right words and I am hopefully going to give the players the right information. When we make some of the elementary errors that we made in the game the other night though then we are always going to have problems. I am not being funny, you have to sometimes say that to the players.
" I have been playing the game since I was six or seven years old and from six or seven years old I was told never to play square passes across the face of the pitch. Because if they get intercepted then players are out of the game and you put yourselves in a bit of trouble. We got punished for it didn't we, we did it and it was one of our most experienced players.
" Do I hold that against Michael Bridges?, no I don't, Michael has made a mistake, he holds his hands up, he has come in and apologised and we get on with it. They are things though that we have got to eradicate as a group, we don't individualise, we don't put any amounts of pressure on anybody. Because when we concede a goal we concede a goal as a team and I will stick by that. There are individual errors, there are things that make things difficult four you. "
" As a manager when we miss the chances that we miss then you sometimes wonder if it is your day or is it going to be the same old story. They have a couple of chances and put them in the back of the net, we have five, six, seven, not half-chances but unbelievable chances. That is the difference between being a good side and a poor side, being a good manager or a bad manager.
" I have to take the responsibility and I will stand and take all that responsibility, but what I want to say to the players is to eradicate the things that are shooting us in the foot. Eradicate those poor decisions that are made in games, they cost us goals, and then until we do that then we will be a struggling side, if we do that then we could end up being a very good side.
" Collectively we are all in this situation aren't we, me at the helm of it and the players who are part of it, so collectively we have to do something about it. I think that by the end of today, and certainly by the end of Tuesday night, the players were in no two minds on what we demand. Dennis and myself spoke at length with the players afterwards to say that this is now a very, very serious situation. There were a few more words in there as well, but that was the message that got across.
" I think that the joking has to stop, the inadequacies have to stop, the excuses have to stop, and players now have to start rolling their sleeves up and doing what they are asked to do. If they don't do that then we are in serious trouble, if they do then we get out of this situation and we go on to become a decent side.
" I think that we can become a decent side and I know that the supporters do. They have gone away upset, angry, disappointed, frustrated, all of those words and I have too. I will tell you now, the Tuesday night and yesterday weren't nice days for me, today is a nice day. Today is my day because I have got to now say to the players, this is what we are going to do, no, not what you want to do or your idea.
" This is what I am doing, what I want to and what Dennis (Booth) and I believe in to get us out of this situation. Words you say are absolutely cheap as, they have got to go there, gameplan today, gameplan tomorrow. Do it on Saturday otherwise we have problems and the players are going to find themselves having problems as well.
" I think that it is in our own hands, because I think that if we win five or six games then we are safe aren't we, so in that sense it is. I know that mathematically you might say that it is not but it is in our own hands, because if we win on Saturday and we win the next Saturday and we win the Saturday after that then we will be OK. So in that sense I think it is because I think that if we win three games then we are safe, so I think your point is that mathematically it isn't, but I think that realistically it definitely is.
" He (Paul Thirlwell) is in with Dolly (Neil Dalton) now, he has got to have, obviously he needs 24 hours to settle down, I would think that there is no chance for Saturday. So we just wait now and see what we have got, I am not even thinking of my team at the minute, I am thinking of my team but I am letting the players pick the team because we are going to have a hell of a training session today.
" It is going to be at match tempo, it is going to be of an upbeat attitude and we will look and see who wants to play. I will look them in the eye and see who really, really wants to play. If you ask the question then they would all put their hands up and say that they want to play. I want to be the manager, who really wants to be playing on that field on Saturday in front of a crowd of expectancy, and they are going to demand a performance from us. "
" I have only just seen him (Peter Murphy) this morning, he went for his injection on Tuesday night, so he didn't get to the game, he did it on Tuesday evening. He was told to rest yesterday, to rest for another day today and we will have a look at him tomorrow. I don't think that he is going to be in contention for Saturday but that might change, it is down to nature with that one, we will have to wait and see.
" I have given Grant (Smith) his opportunities during the season to prove that he is fit enough and able enough to do the job. I think that we have agreed that Grant at the end of the season will be moving on, so we look at something else from there. That is a decision that, you have asked me and I have told you, so maybe Grant's heart is not in it just at the moment and he has not had his opportunities. He can give whatever excuses or criticisms he wants but I have sort of put my cards on the table with him, he has put his cards on the table with me and we look down another avenue with that.
" I have just said that I haven't picked the team yet, I am going to have a look at the training today, the players are going to pick the team. I am going to look at players in that centre-half position, I am going to look at Tom Aldred in that position today, I am going to see if he is up to the task. He is going to train with us today, he is going to play centre-half. Is he up to it? Has he got enough experience? Will he deal with the pressure?
" Questions that I have to ask of him and I have to think to myself. Am I exposing him to a situation that might just set him backwards? Will he come and rise to the occasion? So he is in the frame, Gareth Taylor is in the frame, Richard Keogh is in the frame, David Raven is in the frame, Tony Kane is in the frame. I want to see how they perform today, I have given you all the names, I have given you all the ammunition. I have to go and see what happens now on the training pitch. "
" I don't think that the fans want me to offer excuses, what the fans want is an honesty. In adversity all the criticism that was labelled at us on Tuesday night might come back and work for us on Saturday. Because my pride is hurt, I am wounded, and I know that those supporters want to cheer us. I absolutely know that those supporters want to pat us on the back.
" At the end of the day yesterday I went for a quiet drink on my way home, into the Border Gate, that is where it was if anyone wants to know. If I am giving too much away, if I am not allowed to do it, then I am. I went to read the paper, one of your papers Jon and I am not criticising you. The barman, a 50-year old season ticket holder, I didn't know that, told me not to read the paper, he took it off me and put it underneath the shelf.
" He told me to just concentrate on what I am doing and doing well, and that is getting my players creating chances, but he told me to make sure that they score them and that I would be fine, and absolutely good luck to me. Do you know what, I don't think that anybody could have given me any encouragement more beneficial to me than the gentleman serving, the 50-year old season ticket holder.
" I don't know his name and you can print that and I hope that you do, but he has given me belief to think that we have got support, they just want to see us do things right. I think that all the criticisms will then die away, these are words again though, these are words, actions have to take place on Saturday. "