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PN
The JPT is a competition of course that is often much maligned in the early stages, but as a manager I would imagine that results like Tuesday night do you and the side absolutely no harm whatsoever.
GA
Well scoring four goals is a massive plus for us. Looking at the results on the evening you could say that League One teams never took it seriously or you could say that they are harder games than you think. But we have got through, we scored four goals, got a good win and we take that forward into tomorrow's game, so it is all plusses for me.
PN
How difficult are those kinds of games when you are up against lower league opposition and smaller crowds?
GA
Well we have been beaten before and I don't like getting beaten in football games and nor do players. Often you say your attitude is right and then you turn up on the night and the crowd is low, it is the Johnstone's Paint Trophy and the game becomes very difficult, nobody enjoys it and you get a lot of negatives with the evening.
But as far as I am concerned on Tuesday night the players were rattling, they wanted to win, I wanted to win, the club wanted to win and the fans wanted us to win. We went out and did that and we scored four smashing goals in the second-half along the way so only plusses for me as far as I am concerned.
PN
And Scott Dobie's confidence must be as good now as it has been for some time?
GA
We have given him a lot of support and now he is showing everybody that he can score goals as well as do the other things in his game, which we all accept, his hard work and his energy and his determination. But he has got six goals now in about eleven or twelve games and that is a really terrific striking rate.
He is full of confidence now and we hope that he can go on and score even more. I have challenged him to come up with 20 goals this season because he thinks it will surprise everybody. But it certainly wouldn't surprise me, I think he is capable and let's hope the run of goals he has had gives him that confidence to go on and do that.
JP
It took you a while to get that goal on the night which has been something that has been happening this season, but how pleased were you with the reaction when it started going right for you on the evening?
GA
Very, because you could say I was very, very disappointed to go in 1-0 down. Again I thought the way we played first-half was terrific, the way we passed the ball, we created chances and it was one of them. The crowd are getting frustrated, I am getting very frustrated because it is one of them that we have seen it all before. I don't want to keep talking about missed chances but on the night it was another one of them wasn't it when we dominated the play.
But the first goal went in, which Matty (Robson) has got us out of jail again with his first goal because that is the all-important one. And after that we could have run up a healthy number even in the second-half alone, forget about the first-half. But we got another three in quick succession and everybody goes home relatively happy after that, but up to then it was a bit frustrating.
JP
And you are coming up against a side who are in form of their own, of course Carlisle United on this unbeaten run are as well, but Norwich are in good form as well coming into this one.
GA
Well you would expect no different from a size of the club that they are and the resources they have got and the fanbase that they have supporting them, I think 23,000 or 24,000 every week. They have got some good players, Paul (Lambert) is a good manager, they have got a good squad remaining from last year and they have added to that well.
So it is a really tough game and the obvious comparison possibly - Grant Holt and Scott Dobie should they both play the game. I know Grant has got a bit of a hip injury but I think he is almost certain to play, I would be so surprised if they left him out for this one as he will be keen. So it is a big game for us and one we are going to go into with every bit of confidence having not lost in the last four, which were all tough games in their own right.
JP
We have talked about the fact that Carlisle have become harder to beat recently, but is there a bit of pressure now to turn those draws into victories?
GA
Yeah, without doubt. You have got to start somewhere and we started off, we thought last season a lot of games we rolled over too easy, they were too comfortable victories for the opposition. If they are going to beat us they are going to beat us over dead bodies is a bit of a motto and we are getting that level. Maybe the Oldham second-half apart we have been very tough this season to beat, we have conceded some soft goals but we are getting better with that.
If we can eradicate all that side of game, the draws we are getting against good teams will soon turn into 1-0 wins or odd-goal wins if you like. Then we can go on and win handsomely which we did on Tuesday night, but you have got to start somewhere and being hard to beat is the first obstacle. Then after that we want to build on that and get some positive wins and get some points under our belt.
JP
You have had some bad news on the injury front in defence today haven't you?
GA
Yeah, David (Raven) is not going to get through this one. It is an injury he has had before or a problem he has had before with his hip and his groin, it is all combined. So he is out of the team but we have to deal with that, that happens at every other club with injuries. We will find a way of dealing with that and hopefully tomorrow we get through and that is not a problem.
JP
David Raven and Paul Thirlwell then your only injuriy certainties, everyone else is looking like they will be in contention tomorrow?
GA
Yeah, there is just Dennis Booth who is not going to quite make it, he is having a problem with his weight at the minute so he is going to miss out tomorrow. But apart from that we are in good shape.
JP
At this stage, given the right-back situation and given other areas, any plans to go into the loan market or are you OK on that one?
GA
Well we have to see what we have and how we deal with it and if it works or not. We think we are going to be OK but you never know in football. But hopefully the scenario tomorrow will be fine, if it is not then we look at that afterwards. But we are not going to panic just yet, we need to see if the squad we have got is able to cope with that, if it is not then we will have to do something about it. But at the minute let's give it a chance and we will see where we are at with it.
JP
And just finally, you have let Andy Cook and Tom Aldred go out on loan today. How do you see the short-term future of both of those two players there?
GA
Well good for them because I am critical at the moment of the reserve team set-up that we have got. The standard of the games are not good enough for our players, they are not giving them the chance to develop, they are too easy. We have got a pretty strong reserve squad and they are coming up against possibly other teams' youth teams, Rochdale and Bury and people like that and Burnley. They are youth sides we are playing against and it is not testing our younger players and we need to find out where they are at.
Going to Workington and going to Barrow respectively is going to give them proper football in a really tough environment. If they come through that and do well then it tells us a lot more about those players and that is the reason that both players have agreed to do it and it is really good for their development.
Certainly Tom Aldred has come on leaps and bounds in his month at Workington and I owe a little bit of gratitude to Darren (Edmondson) for allowing him to play and get that game-time that he needs. It is a tough league as Tommy (Cassidy) will know, and you have covered them yourself, and if he does that and he does it well then it really is a big boost for him. Andy at a higher level in the Conference, it is a really tough league and if he copes with that then all the better for it.
JP
One question that had slipped my mind altogether, Vincent Pericard is a player that the club have been linked with over the last few days, is there anything in that at this stage between you and the player?
GA
Well apparently he has trained with us this week. If he has then he must have been pretty quiet because nobody noticed him, he certainly wasn't at the training ground. So that is all I can say about that, he has not been in at the club this week and I don't know where these rumours do come from.
PN
Just before you go, it is a question everybody wants to know, you mentioned Dennis Booth there, have you finally got some shorts that fit him now? Because he has had one or two kit problems apparently.
GA
Yeah, he has, but they are problems that I think the crowd has seen and he is coping quite well with it. He is finding it a little bit hard to deal with, he is sat next to me, he is on slimline Stella Artois so he is doing a lot about it to try to get those shorts to fit him.