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" I wouldn't have thought that the game is in doubt, the pitch is a really good drying pitch. As long as it doesn't carry on like this all through the morning tomorrow then there shouldn't be any problems with the game. I think that they were a little bit concerned with the Elton John concert last year and a lot of work that they wanted to do didn't get done until later, so I think that was a factor. I think that this year though they have done that and it looks like it is going to be OK. Dave (Mitchell) the groundsman is optimistic.
" It was a bad time for everybody really last season, we thought that we were nearly across the line and then we ended up in the play-offs. Then after the first leg you think that you have got a great chance of progressing, but it wasn't to be. Then you do wonder how the players are going to come back and how they react.
" I have said before many a time though that we have a fantastic spirit and a great camaraderie within the squad that we have. The ones that we have added as well to that have been no different and they have just got on with the job as if nothing had happened and they are hoping to play themselves into the frame again this season.
" Disappointment hurts everybody, it hurt me, it took me quite a while in the summer to get over that because it is a big leap to the Championship. It is a fantastic achievement and I think that all the players and all the staff worked tremendously hard to do that. Competing against a lot of fantastic well-resourced clubs and we really were so close to getting there.
" We didn't though and I know that John (Ward) and myself were concerned, but on the first day back of pre-season the spirit is there, the banter is flying and the boys are working very, very hard. Then you get yourself through pre-season and we had no doubts then that they would start off again and have a right good go again this season. "
" I was nearly throwing myself off a cliff this time last year when I didn't get the job as manager. So you could say that I am a little bit ambitious, but personally it was a disappointing time, but I would never let my disappointment spread to the players. We tried our best whilst I was in charge, hopefully we kept the ball rolling, we did OK for the club, I think that we only had two defeats in 11 or 12 games. So were happy with that and then the club decided that they wanted to go the way that they have gone.
" It seems a long time ago now really but always you have got to be ambitious and I am still that, but I am enjoying my time here. I said that the players are my main focus at the moment, I have a good relationship with them and they are probably the key reason why I am still around. They are a great group to work with and with hard work, with their co-operation and hopefully a bit of help from John and myself we can compete again this season.
" You don't set out to just attack for the sake of it, what we are trying to do is score goals in games. I think that what we have got now is that we have a got real strong attacking threat from different areas. We have got it from midfield in (Marc) Bridge-Wilkinson, we have got it from the wide areas with the pace that we have got, whether it be Scott (Dobie), whether it be Cleveland (Taylor), whether it be Simon Hackney.
" Then you have got four top strikers in (Danny) Carlton, Danny Graham, Scott Dobie as well can play down the middle there, not forgetting Gary Madine and Michael Bridges as well. So I think that when you have got those sort of players in your squad you can actually say to keep as tight as we can at the back and then let them run havoc going forward. "
" I think that if anybody comes here and wants to play open football then we have got players in the team that can really hurt them. As the two teams that have come, and Bristol Rovers themselves, have found out already this season. To be fair long may it continue, if people want to come and play open football then we can handle that, we can deal with that and I think that we are quite good at it.
" I think that a lot of players are confidence players. What we need to remember is where Danny (Carlton) has come from, he has come from the non-league, up until he came here he hadn't actually played a league game. So we have got Danny in the team a little bit last season and we have got him playing this year. He has come full of confidence and he is justifying his place in the side and he is a real handful for defenders with his hard work and his energy.
" I don't think that we paid Yeovil a little bit too much respect, I think that sometimes you start off slowly, that happens. We want to start quickly in every single game though, we want to really get out of the traps and go at people. Sometimes it doesn't happen that way though, through the way that other teams set up against us. Yeovil set up with us to stop the ball getting out wide which is one of our strengths, which they have done their homework, we couldn't get the ball out wide.
" We played into their hands a little bit, into (Marc) Bircham trying to hit the ball down the centre of the pitch too long too early. The lad (Bircham) that stepped in front of the midfield, he just picked everything up, it stopped our flow of football and that is what I am saying. Sometimes teams open up and that is fine, if they don't and they play a tight system then we have to find ways of getting around that. It actually took us about 60 minutes before we actually started playing our real best attacking football.
" That is when we got a goal, which obviously change the way games pan out and then we started getting the ball into wide areas and we were cutting them open at will come the end of the game. So we have to understand that teams are going to come here and think that we can attack, that we are a strong side and that we are formidable sometimes on our own ground. So they are not going to play into our hands, they are going to play very difficult to beat and we have to find a way of breaking that down. "
" I think that what Steve (Tilson) at Southend has done, he actually doesn't know his best formation or his best side at the moment. He has got a lot of good players but he doesn't really know how to play them at the moment, I'm not decrying Steve, he is just unsure with the results that they have had, he is a little bit unsure of how to set up.
" The one thing that Southend have though is a lot of good players, you look at their teamsheet, there is a lot of quality in that side. So if they get a foot in the game then they are going to be tough to beat. So we have got to, again, without giving our gameplan away, we need to start bright, we need to get right into them and try to put them on the back-foot from the off.
" I think that without being a little bit big-headed, and trying to be as modest as we can, I think that I don't really care how the opposition play. If we play on our own pitch, it is different when you go away, but if we perform on our own pitch how we can then I think that we are going to give everybody a game.
" The gaffer (John Ward) looks at the strengths and the weaknesses of the opposition, I look at the weaknesses because I want to exploit them. The gaffer actually sets something up on a Friday though and looks at their strengths and says that this is what they have got, this how we need to stop them playing. Then he hands over to me and I tell them what we can do. "
" On our own ground, as last season was with the fantastic run that we had we have got to be thinking that we are favourites. Without being relaxed about the opposition, we have got to be thinking that we are the favourites, we have got to be thinking that we can win games and have a real positive slant on how we start the games. I think that we are doing that at the moment and teams are finding it difficult.
" We were lucky enough to have a bye in the first round of the Johnstone's Paint Trophy, so I think that we come into the draw which is on SKY Sports tomorrow at about 12 noon. So the draw is tomorrow, we are definitely in it and hopefully we'll get a good run at it next year.
" I think that team spirit is massive where you haven't got massive resources. The type of player that you bring in has to fit, I think that a lot of the success that we have got is the camaraderie, the spirit and the togetherness that we have got. Remember that a lot of those boys have been together since the Conference, so they know each other inside out and it is a real close family in there.
" When the eleven players go out on a Saturday afternoon you know that they are going to die for each other and give everything that they have got for the cause. So I think that it is vital, for me it is massively high on priorities of players that we bring in, that they can fit into the group. I think that a lot of people don't do their homework, a lot of people have more money than they know what to do with and they are loose with the signings that they make.
" Once you get players into your dressing-room and into your club that don't work and don't have the same work-ethic and don't want to be as committed as others then you have got a big job on your hands. You look right at the top end of the Premier League, the top teams in the Premier League and there are some players there that really are disruptive. Teams don't get where they want to be because they have got players in there that won't fit in. "