|
" The FA Cup is a fantastic draw, it is a brilliant draw for everybody connected to the football club, but it has now been put to bed. As far as I am concerned we need to now start looking at our league position. Without putting a downer on the thing at the minute we have some massive league games to cope with before that.
" That is what we are aiming to do now, I have got to try to make sure everybody focuses on Hartlepool United which is our massive game because it is our next one. And not get drawn into this thing that the FA Cup and the Everton thing is going to be something that is the be-all and end-all. Our league position and our league points is our bread and butter and that is what we have to make sure that everybody is focusing on at the moment.
" All I am thinking about at the minute is league points, is league form. Because if we can turn our league form into the same sort of quality of results that we are getting in the cups, we are looking forward to a fantastic second half of the season. There is so much to be optimistic and enthused about that we are playing ourselves into a really terrific second half of the season.
" The performance against Norwich is the one thing now that we can take a lot of heart from. In the second-half if you look at the situation regarding injuries and suspensions at our club, and who we were playing and what type of club we were playing. That second-half performance, if you are going to call the Swindon one as bad as it has been since I have been here, which I did do. Then that rates as one of the best with the situation we were in at the time and the predicament we were in, as I have said with injuries and suspensions. The second-half was an absolutely fantastic effort from all the players.
" I have been pleased with the reaction since Southend to be honest. If you go back as far as Southend and you look at the Southend, the Charlton, the MK Dons, the Norwich, the performances like that, even the Bristol Rovers performance when we got beat. There has been a massive fantastic reaction to a pressure situation at this club. Looking at Saturday it is turning peoples' heads again, people are now looking upon us, I actually heard somebody say it was a freak result at MK Dons. "
" Well, what I am going to say is that I think now we are earning the right to say that the Swindon game was a freak game and a freak result. Because everything this side and the other side of that game has been superb. What we have got to try to do is make sure that is in the minority and more of the other performances are in the majority, then we can sometimes get to where we want to be.
" We have kept the performances high, I keep saying that in the last nine games we have won six of them and drawn one so we are keeping them high. What we have got to try to do is get another nine game run like that, get another six wins and another draw, and we will probably take two defeats out of the next nine. Because that will mean that we are going to be flying right up the league and we are going to be progressing in the cups, which is what everybody wants, but we are looking in a really confident and positive vein at the moment.
" Hartlepool will have noticed what is going on at this football club and they will have noticed the improvement and they know how decent we are because they are only round the corner if you like. It is probably our nearest local derby and they will come here knowing that they are going to have to scrap and battle. That is what we have got to make sure they have to do, if they are going to take anything anyway from this place then they will have had to earn it.
" Because what we don't want is teams to come here and not have to be at their best to win or get draws on this ground. So they will be a big test because they will know how well we are playing and they will know that we are in a good vein of form. They will be doing their homework and maybe they will be worrying about us at the moment, which is a good sign of the progress we are making.
" There always are players to look out for in an opposition side. So we take care of that, we do our homework, I have got the reports on my desk, I have had them there for a week or so. We know a lot about Hartlepool, we know a lot about their background, we know that the games are always reasonably tight, they are local derbies, but hopefully they will be worried about our players at the moment. "