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JP
The day is upon you just about, how does it feel? How excited has everyone been for this one?
GA
Well we are here and we are ready, and we have had a tough league programme, we have managed to come through that unscathed and I think everybody has got to go on Saturday and enjoy the day out. We are going there to give a really good account of ourselves but from the club's point of view, directors and staff and fans, they have got to go and try to enjoy the occasion. It is a wonderful club we are going to, some great people working for them, and we have got to go there and make sure we really do ourselves justice and give them something to think about on the day.
JP
What excites you most about the day and the occasion for you and the club and the fans?
GA
Well I am not going to get over-excited, it is a football match for me, it is you people and other parties that build it all up to something special. We are going to try to win a football game and it is as simple as that. That is what the players will be focused on today and tomorrow and everybody else can do whatever they have to do. If there are people in fancy dress and people wanting to go and spend the day in Liverpool over the weekend or what have you then that is fantastic. But it is work for us and we have to go and try to win the game.
JP
They have quite a number of players out for one reason or another, do you just dare to dream at this stage? Everyone writes off you as the underdog of course but what do you feel about it?
GA
Not too much really, again, we are going there to try to beat whatever team Everton put out, give a good account of ourselves, work as hard as we can and try to win the game.
JP
What sort of squad are you expecting to come up against though given those injuries etc.? It is still going to be a top drawer squad.
GA
Well they have got top drawer players so whichever, listen, whichever eleven they put out they are going to be top drawer. So it is pointless wondering if he is playing or he is playing or he is not playing, because whoever they bring are going to be Premier League players. So it will be a really tough team and Everton teams work exceptionally hard and have the right work ethic around what they do. That is why they have been as successful as they have been over the last few years with the resources they have available.
JP
What approach though do you expect from them? Do you expect them to take the game to you straight away and try to kill you off early on or do you think they will maybe pay you a bit more respect given your recent form?
GA
Well I haven't spoken to David (Moyes) to find out what he is going to do, but I would expect them to try to win the game. They have got to be on their front foot because they are a Premier League side playing a lower league side on their own ground. So I wouldn't expect them to sit back and wait and see what we are all about, I think they will have an idea because they will have had us watched. But I would expect them to come and have a right go at us and see if they can win the game, and that is as simple as that.
JP
And how do you look to counter that then?
GA
By trying to stop them winning the game.
JP
But in what ways? When you come up against that quality, you have probably not seen that at the level you have been playing at, what do you try to do? Do you do anything different?
GA
Well we have seen that haven't we, we have seen it in pre-season, we have seen what sort of quality these types of teams have in the likes of the Sunderlands and the Newcastles and the Portsmouths. And people like that we have played before when they have been Premier League teams. So we know what to expect and I am not going to tell you too much about how we are trying to stop that but we will be trying to do our best to stop their quality and impose our game on them.
JP
How pleasing has the form in the build up to this match been so that you are not going into it perhaps seeing it as a bit of a distraction?
GA
The form and the way the club is going at the moment has been terrific. The type of player we have got in there and the type of people we have got in there gives us a chance. We had a completely different performance against Tranmere where the boys had to roll their sleeves up. They came up against a team that were very direct and worked their socks off, and they managed to contain them.
We still enabled ourselves to have two great chances in the game, prior to that we have scored a lot of goals, in the last 10 or 12 games the goals that we have scored have been quite a few and we have kept clean sheets. So we feel, we feel, that we are making strides in how to play the game properly, and that is obviously to defend your goal at one end and to try to score at the other end. Just of late we have done that and we are largely on the right lines at the moment.
JP
Looking at that, was it essential to have a game there otherwise you would have been going more than a fortnight before you would have played this match against Everton? Which is a big game for all your fans.
GA
Yeah, I think that was a key, I think we definitely needed a game, both sides needed a game but certainly the training that we have had hasn't been what we would expect. You speak to the likes of Everton and Sunderland and Newcastle who we asked for training facilities that we could borrow and they have been doing exactly the same. They have been training indoors and it has been disruptive to everybody, so I think for all league teams the game on the Monday was vital.
JP
You have got 6,000 fans going down to this match at the weekend and attendances have been a bit of a problem this year. Is this an opportunity to really put on a display and try to show them what the club is all about and try to get them back through the gates?
GA
I think they are coming, we had an extra sort of 500 against Wycombe, we have had the Christmas period which is a problem for everybody finance-wise. They are going to turn up on Saturday, they certainly turned up against Tranmere which was terrific, I don't know the exact numbers but there was a really big support on Monday.
I think tomorrow we have got probably some floating fans that are there because it is Everton, but we need to try to put on a performance where we can get them back. But I think at the minute results are turning everybody's heads and performances are improving, so that is all we can do, and hopefully the fans will buy into that, which I think they are just starting to do.
JP
What is the injury situation coming out of that Tranmere game? Anyone who is a doubt for this one on Saturday?
GA
You don't have doubts for games like this, I will tell you that now, so we are alright.
JP
The only two out though are (Paul) Thirlwell and (David) Raven?
GA
Thirlwell might even find himself on the training ground today, certainly David is out, but Thirlwell is back in light training. I think he is going to start the warm-up with us today, which is really encouraging. So generally when your team is doing well and there are big games coming up people find their way out of the treatment room.
JP
That day, Saturday, is the final day of Tom Taiwo's loan from Chelsea, are there any developments at this stage on that one? Is there are any more you can tell us?
GA
There isn't, all I can say is the club is doing their utmost to wrap all of them up (Taiwo, Adam Clayton and Vincent Pericard) as quickly as they can and they are doing that as we speak.
JP
There has been speculation though this week linking Pericard with a few other teams. How confident are you that there is what he wants here, what he needs here to finish perhaps this season at least?
GA
Well there is always going to be speculation because of how well he has done and that is a pat on the back to ourselves. We have got him playing, we have got doing him well and that is inevitably going to invite speculation and as we stand that will still be the case. We have done what we think we can do, we have gone as probably as far as we can go with him and the ball is in Vincent's court now.
JP
You did say that there were two who were perhaps more positive than the others, is that still the case or has that situation changed?
GA
The whole thing is ongoing, that is all I am going to say at the moment.
JP
And should that not come off, you are ready and you have got a busy January coming up?
GA
You know that because I always say that don't I. We are always looking at other players, at the minute we are getting people back off the treatment table. Again, we are more than happy with a lot of the things we have got going for us at the moment. The squad is in decent shape, if we feel we need to strengthen in relation to what decisions these boys make we will do.
JP
And just finally on Saturday, you have talked about that desire to lead your team out at Wembley as a manager, how exciting is this on a purely personal level to be taking them to a place like Goodison Park?
GA
Very exciting, because I think the people that run Everton Football Club are wonderful people and I am really looking forward to pitching my wits against them and speaking to them afterwards on how they do things and the way they go about their job. I think they are great football people at Everton, Liverpool - you can count Everton as part of Liverpool - is a fantastic football bed of soccer. We go there and we hope everybody has a good day and we can learn some things along the way.
JP
David Moyes, a shining example of how a young manager can emerge?
GA
Absolutely top drawer for me, the best because of what he has achieved with the resources he has had. I think it is sometimes easy to manage some of these bigger clubs with the amount of money they have got, you try doing what David is doing and get the success he has got, I think you deserve a massive pat on the back. I am hopeful he can spare me ten minutes afterwards to have a good chat and find out how he does it and we can try to replicate that at our level.