|
GA
He has trained today and he has looked alright, so that is encouraging. He has got through a really tough session today, I think the key is how it settles down. The reaction is the key with his one, will it react tomorrow, so at the minute from where I have seen he looks really, really good. So that is an encouraging one.
JP
I asked you about relief after the (Southend) game on Saturday. How do you feel know? Obviously everyone does build up a game like that but there was a bit of pressure there for you.
GA
There was, people did build up pressure and there is inevitable pressure. I listened to a manager (Brendan Rodgers) talk last night on television under immense pressure and he is probably dealing with it similar to me. You have got to keep believing in what you are doing, you work your socks off as hard as you can.
There is no easy remedy, there is no quick fix, we are in a situation where there have been obstacles in our way over the piece and we have dealt with everything that has been thrown at us. But the result was important and it has probably given me a better weekend and a lot more energy to look forward to get the next win.
JP
With the Southend game, once they did lose their main striker there (Dougie Freedman), they really did drop back and ask you to come and attack them, which at times you have struggled with. I don't expect Charlton will do that this weekend will they.
GA
I wouldn't have thought so, I would have thought Charlton would have already heard of our first-half performance and the energy and the commitment and the tempo that we played at. So I don't think they will come here and go gung ho, they will expect to have a gameplan to try to get something out of the game.
But things got tight and a bit dull and a bit stale in the second-half at times (against Southend) and we had to make one or two adjustments to what we were doing to try to force our way into the opposition's penalty box and get that vital goal. In the end the second-half probably as a spectacle was poor, poorish, but at the time the result for us is probably the most important thing.
JP
You said earlier last week that you are at your best when your back is to the wall. It was a bit like that against Southend, as it was against Millwall last season. How do you get that sort of reaction and that sort of determination from the players when your back isn't to the wall?
GA
Possibly the intensity of the training, possibly the pre-match talks and the way we set the players out. But we have never really had a major problem to be honest in terms of our tempo. We are talking about a season that is nearing a third of the way through and we are only really being ultra-critical of two part performances. The general tempo and the general determination of the players has been very, very good.
I have not been too disheartened, like the manager that was talking last night, he has been quite encouraged by his performances but at the end of the day we have to get results off the back of that. We are not discouraged by performance, we are not discouraged by the tempo and the determination that players have taken out onto the pitch.
We are discouraged by results not being attained of the back of those performances and we are worried and concerned about the couple of games, the first 25 minutes at Yeovil and the second-half at Oldham. Apart from that, largely a lot of the play has been OK and results and goals would have flavoured that to say people are looking at us as becoming a really decent team.
JP
A lot of fans think that Saturday was a very important match to win, but the game against Charlton could be more of anything you get above a draw is a bonus. But in recent history Carlisle have done better against the so-called bigger teams, do you think that can play into your hands this weekend?
GA
Well we don't know because if we knew how games were going to pan out we would be rich people. All we know is that we are going to prepare for the game, we will prepare for how we think Charlton will set up and how they will come at us and how they will think they might get something out of things.
But we are just going to work as hard, we are hopefully going to be as diligent in our defending as we were on Saturday. Hopefully we can create as many chances as we did on Saturday and if we do then I am certain we will be in for a positive result. But we will be really up for the game, there is a lot of determination flying around this club at the minute.
Nobody likes criticism and nobody likes being where they are in the table, but if we can get a result out of this weekend then it takes us into real good heart for the upcoming few games after that. A mini-run with the league the way it is can see you right up to seventh or eighth quite comfortably without doing anything spectacular.
JP
Regarding the goal you conceded at the weekend. Do you talk to your goalkeeper Lenny Pidgeley about that or does he pretty much know the situation regarding that one?
GA
Lenny is a catcher, you have watched Lenny a lot, he catches loads doesn't he. But sometimes when you slightly misjudge and sometimes crosses with the way the balls are at the minute, they move quicker and faster in the air. If you slightly misjudge it you have got to help things on, and what he did a couple of times was he got his hand to it and didn't really get enough distance with his parries.
That is what causes you a problem and he has got to make a quick decision, catch, punch parry. If it is going to be parry or punch you get away from your goal as far as you can. That would be a criticism that you go at him but I wouldn't want to stop him coming.
JP
Back four, how happy were you?
GA
Well if you have just said that their goal has been caused by an individual error, a mistake from Lenny, then you have got to say the back four has done a great job haven't you. Because there weren't too many more attempts on our goal and large credit of that is due to the way that we defended.
To be fair to the back four, we worked Monday, Tuesday and Thursday purely on back four work, on making sure that the same thing didn't happen that happened at Yeovil. So they got a reward for the amount of work they have put in during the week and that is what the game is all about. So it is a massive well done to them and long may that continue.
JP
Vincent Pericard, tell us about that, how happy have you been with what you have got from him since you have signed him?
GA
I think Vincent has given everybody a bit of a lift, I think with his pedigree, his obvious pedigree, and he is still not 100% fit. But he has got through his game at Yeovil, he has got through a full week of training after that. I thought his first half an hour on Saturday was awesome to be honest and there is a lot more to come from Vince.
The good thing is that the lads think the world of him and he has come in here at this football club, you start at Juventus and play under people like (Marcello) Lippi and (Carlo) Ancelloti and other people. He has been very appreciative of everything that has been done for him and given to him and he reciprocates that in everything he is. He is not difficult to train, he is not difficult to tell, he is not difficult to ask to do a hard work shift.
Sometimes when players have been at high levels then they find this a little bit underneath them, but Vincent has been nothing short of a model professional. Very polite, very responsive and appreciative of the work that is going on and I think he will get better, and I think he might be a real, real big bonus for us.
JP
Just a final one on that, do you start to then look at the length of his contract and wonder whether now is the time, or do you wait a few more games before you think about maybe extending that?
GA
The crux of the matter is that we can't wait too many games because if he plays like he did on Saturday and scores again and then does it again the following week, then bigger clubs than us are going to look and think that is a good option. But I have got a sneaking suspicion that if we wanted to extend it with Vince then he will have a look at it and he will view it in a favourable way. Because I think he is very, very happy in his football for the first time in quite a while.