|
JP
You must be delighted with that news?
GA
Yeah, we are, we have worked tremendously hard, everybody at the club. It has been a reasonable progression in the last 12 months for sure, and what I have done now is tie myself to the club along with the rest of the backroom staff.
We are just waiting for bits and pieces with the other four so that we can announce it all together before everybody puts pen to paper. But, more or less it has all been agreed in principle and we are all delighted and we want to keep continuing the progression we are making and keep taking the club forward.
JP
In getting this sorted now what does it say about the ambition of United?
GA
Well, I know what they want and they know what I want. The goal is obviously to move right the way up to the top of this division and out of it and it is a goal that is achievable. Clubs the size of ours have done it, Wigan have done it in the past, Blackpool have done it and Scunthorpe have done it, so we are working on those types of models because they are the most similar to ours.
But, I think that the chairman (Andrew Jenkins) and the board want that, they know the difficulties it brings and so does everybody else, but we are going to fight through them. We are not going to make them excuses, we are going to try as hard as we can to do what everybody wants I think.
JP
You have scrapped it out at the bottom, you have fought well in the middle and you have got into great progress in the cups, but now some pundits are tipping you for promotion. How ready are you for that sort of challenge?
GA
We would probably like to be the silent ones, we would like to come through the back door but somebody asked me the other day where we would like to be if we had the choice, and everybody would like to be top because that would mean we have got the most points. So, it is a different type of pressure to deal with but the players, the group we have got, they are pretty level headed, and I think I am the same.
If we can keep them believing in themselves and looking at other clubs and what they have achieved and continue the type of results and performances that we are getting at the minute. Then confidence breeds good play and it spreads and it is a momentum, and I think if we can do that then there is no reason why we can't get right up in the top part of this league and stay there.
JP
And just finally, bottom of the table Walsall tomorrow, everyone expecting you to win, how confident are you?
GA
That is the one that is probably trickier than last week where everybody thought it would be a really tough game. But, in a different way this will be just as tough, but, listen, we have got to go with a lot of confidence of the goals we have scored and the results we have just picked up of late.
We have got them (Walsall) on the back foot a bit so it is a good one for us but we have to be prepared and everybody needs to be aware of how hard they will try. If we are all right and everybody is on top of their jobs then we would hope to get another good result to keep this little bit of a run we have got going.