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We don't want to make too many excuses and we don't want to give the players any excuses. We have constantly talked about improvement and progression and what I don't want is people to take an easy way out and drop below the standards that they have set themselves.
So as a group, myself included, we have got to make sure we maintain that. On Saturday I thought we did, we certainly showed a little bit more determination in everything we did with and without the ball, and ultimately we got our reward.
PN
I know you don't want to talk about Wembley but do you think perhaps that might have been in the players' minds, which might explain their poor performances?
GA
Well the excuse is only valid if we hadn't beaten MK Dons, because if there was one game which we might have thought would be the trip up one it would have been that. I am not a manager that offers excuses, I accept and take responsibility for three performances, I don't want to keep talking about them but they weren't what I am looking for, even though the standard of the opposition was good.
But I don't want to be talking about too many matches like that, I want to be talking about the MK Dons thing, the Gillingham thing, and continuing our progress. Because at the end of the day we are sitting in a cup final, we are sitting 13th in the table, it is a good 13th at the minute and we want to crack on and improve on that even.
PN
Your reserve team got a rare run out on Monday but I guess it would be probably fair to say that not too many gave performances that suggest they might be knocking on your door this weekend?
GA
Listen, everybody wants to pick my team, everybody wants to say who should be in it and who shouldn't be in it. But I work with the players day in and day out, I watch every reserve game and I watch every first team game. We know what we have got and what we haven't got and we know who is better than who and what we should be doing about it.
On Monday nobody can have too many arguments about the ammunition they gave me to put themselves back in the team. That is not saying there won't be any changes on Saturday, that is just saying that sometimes selection problems are very difficult and sometimes they are a little bit less than that. Saturday I have got a thing in my mind at the moment but we will see how training goes tomorrow.
PN
Has the lack of reserve games, given the weather and the cancellations, perhaps had a detrimental knock-on effect to the first team?
GA
Certainly I have been disappointed with the standard of the reserve league this year and it something for us to think about. Because our players need pushing as hard as possible to keep that edge and keep that drive within them. Playing some people's youth teams, which is what we are getting at the minute at the back end of the season, isn't ideal for the likes of the lads that are pushing for first team places.
PN
What might be a possible longer term solution to that?
GA
I don't know yet, it is something we would have to think about, maybe could we fix our own games up, do we play part and part? But I don't know, it is a matter of looking round where we are at the minute and seeing if we can get enough quality games playing against really good sides and their reserve teams, would that be better for us?
But then you have got the uncertainty of not having a fixture when you need a fixture and you are having to arrange some. But we are looking at the whole thing at the moment, how we can improve things and what we can put in place that will be the best thing for this football club.
PN
With regard to your contract situation with those who are out of deals at the end of this summer, has any progress been made with that?
GA
Yeah, we are getting round the whole issue now. Again, the important thing was the club, again I have never knocked on anybody's door to ask for a deal, that came to me. The players have been similar to be fair, they have got their football or they put their football first. We have reached a stage now where we need to be finalising what we are going to be doing for next season and we are on with that.
Hopefully by the end of the month, certainly early into April the bulk of it will be done. A lot of it will drag on because players exercise their rights as well as us being able to exercise ours. So work is being done and hopefully the quicker it gets done the quicker we know what we have got and what we haven't got for next season.
PN
And in terms of longer term planning ahead to next season, are you part of the way down the line in terms of maybe identifying players you would like to bring in?
GA
Yeah, there are a couple of extensive lists, recruitment is an ongoing thing, it works 365 days a year really. We have got a lot of good names on there, a lot of names that we think if they come available we would like to try to bring to the club. But they don't all become available and you can't always afford to bring the ones you want to the club.
So again, we are hunting and we know what areas we are going to be in. As soon as I know 90% of what we have got to stay and not going to stay then we can start pencilling or pinpointing targets and trying to make efforts to bring them to the club.
PN
With regard to Gary Madine's position, what is the latest on that?
GA
At the minute we are trying to get everything, all the details in my head. I have got to speak to a couple more people before I speak to Gary again. I spoke to Gary and got his side of it but it is something that obviously is at the forefront of my mind to get it resolved. But it is not as easy to get all the facts and things of such and the like.
So what I don't want to do is make any judgements until I do know as much as I possibly can about the whole thing. Then I will sit down with John (Nixon), Steve (Pattison) and the chairman (Andrew Jenkins) and decide what we try to do to wrap it up and give a satisfactory conclusion to something that we are not very pleased has happened.
PN
I guess you will be keen to get a quick conclusion to that?
GA
Being a football manager you want to concentrate on football, but this is something that we have to put an end to as quick as we can. But what you don't want to do is make a judgement and it be a harsh judgement that is the wrong one because you have tried to find things out too quickly.
So, as soon as I know what the whole story and the whole chain of events is then I can sit with John and the chairman and Steve and say that this is what happened. Then propose what we do about it, and let's get it resolved and let's move on.
PN
And your reaction to the sad death of Keith Alexander this week?
GA
Keith has worked at this level all his life, League Two, League One and never had the resources that others have had. But he has always given everything in everything he has done, the best energy and the best enthusiasm you could ever expect. It just puts results and the infighting and the moaning and the groaning and all the heartache to one side when the man won't be with us anymore.
Hopefully everybody will do the right thing on Saturday, well I know they will do, and we can all sit back and think it is a wow, 1 out of 92 is not with us this weekend and there are only 92 managers. That is a massive, massive nightmare situation but his family and his club and all his players and everybody within this football club will wish his family all the best.
Our sympathies go out to everybody, it just is a horrendous situation. He actually was at the game the night before, he has been ill but I don't think any warning to what was going to happen. But to be at the game on a night before and then not to be with you the next day, it is a terrible situation.