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" It has been a tough time for the club and a lot of the things, especially the latter part of it, was not good. We have got to now turn that around, it has gone now, we can't forget about it completely but we have to put it to the back of our minds. We have to look forward and try to do something about it very, very quickly.
" We have got pride in our jobs and we have got pride in our players and pride in the football club. So a run of results like that will affect anybody, I am not going to dwell on that though. That is partly history now, we have got to be positive, we have got to look forward now and we have got to try to turn this thing around as quickly as we can.
" I think that in the last two weeks of John (Ward's) tenure he was different, he had gone very, very quiet, very insular. He didn't want to share too much, I think that that is a bit of pride on John's part, he wanted to take it all on board on himself. Maybe sometimes in adversity you should be able to share things and spread it around a little bit. Everybody does things in different ways though and John chose to do that. I think that that is the pride that he had in his time as a manager. Whether it is right or wrong who knows, but there were a lot of people there willing to help and we would have done so.
" I think that you can't fail, the Stockport game, I think that the fans had been very, very good, they were very patient. There were obviously grumblings at some of the games but really the Stockport game was the only time that I ever heard real vocal shouting for John's reign to end. So in that sense you can't be too critical of the fans support to him, I am not sure how much it affected him, only he will be able to answer that one. "
" On Monday he had a brief meeting with the owners, and then he came in to tell us that his time had ended. He said to me that they were going to ask me to take it on for the initial period. He thanked us all for our support, and he is impeccable in things that he does like that. The way that he left was perfect, he spoke to the players, he was perfect and he left with a bit of dignity, a lot of dignity. They are never good occasions but quickly you have to pick yourself up and take the thing forward.
" The bad form is a difficult one just to put your finger on it. We think that we know a lot about the game but to see a slump so quickly from where we were at the back end of last season, even at the start of this season. It is very difficult to explain, possibly the confidence one is a big one, every time you go a game without a win every win gets harder.
" The next game you lose it gets harder and harder but the belief and the confidence are probably two of the biggest single factors there. Players don't become bad players in anything, in any life, if you lose your confidence in what you are doing then you don't become as effective. I think that was a big problem in what was going on at the moment.
" Rumours that players don't want to play for the club are only rumours and you are going to get all sorts of rumours. I don't think that that is the case one little bit, and you will see from performances tomorrow, regardless of a result, whether they are going to be prepared to roll their sleeves up. If they don't want to play for the club then they won't be here much longer because we will certainly not accept players going across that white line where people matter. A lot of people matter how they perform and they are representing a hell of a lot of people and I certainly for one wouldn't accept that. "
" What we have got to do initially in the short-term period is to get some results and the results will then enable me to go and speak to the board and discuss players contracts. We can't leave and wipe our feet too long because these players then know that they have got freedom of contract and that they can walk out of the football club for nothing. So we don't want to disrupt everything that we have got but initially the main priority is to get a couple of results on the board and then we can go talking to these players and try to tie something up, certainly before the end of December.
" I think that players have just got to be honest, everybody has got to be honest in this situation at the moment. At the end of last season when the players were doing really well everybody was patting them on the back and everybody was saying how good they were. They took that on board, they took all the good things that went with the job and at the moment things aren't going quite so well for them.
" They have to have a little look again and think that partly bits and pieces of that are down to them, are they doing their job, can they be brutally honest and say that they are giving everything that they have got. Can they become better than they are at the moment, can they do anything to help the team. If they are realistic in their own mind that they are underperforming to an extent then we can put that right.
" It is when players are dishonest with themselves and won't hold their hand up and won't look in the mirror but say that they are actually doing alright and it is his fault or it is his fault. What I don't want is players making excuses and players pointing their finger at other people. What we have go to do is be brutally honest with each other, look at each other and be brave with each other. To say that they are not doing their job or that they are not doing that or you were doing that.
" I think that if we can get that, without making excuses, excuses really do upset me because it is easy to do that. It is hard to do something about what they are not doing right and I hope that has come across in the right way to the fans. Because I think that once they show honesty then everything will kickstart from there. "
" Again the body language is a confidence thing and the not winning situation does affect players. People all of a sudden have a big weight on their shoulders and it becomes apparent to the eye. People say that they have not been trying, they have been trying but they have not been doing what they do naturally in better situations, in more confident situations.
" They won't go for a ball that they would have done a few weeks ago and they won't make that incisive pass that they might have done. They play safe passes, they play pedestrian passes is what I call it, passes that make play predictable and easy to cope against. Nobody is brave enough, or hasn't been brave enough to really be positive and take the game to the opposition. They shy away from doing the things that they have been doing when the team was doing well.
" I was involved in John's managerial set-up and how much responsibility I take is a question that I should be able to answer because it is one that I have been asked it four or five times this week. Basically as an assistant manager that is what you are, you are there to assist a manager. The manager issues a brief of what he wants you to do, you do what the manager wants, so I go out and do what he wants on the training field and assist him in everything that he does.
" In regards of other major decisions the buck stops with the manager. We will have our opinions, I will say one thing and sometimes he will say another. Sometimes we will agree and sometimes we won't agree, but ultimately on team selection and players coming in and out of the football club and what we are doing with tactics.
" Out and out the manager has the last say in that and obviously when we were doing really well at the end of last season the manager takes all the praise for that, and then ultimately if the team doesn't do well then that goes with it as well. That will be the same with my stint, whether it be short or long. Ultimately I will get praised if we do well and if we don't do so well then everybody knows what will happen to me as well. "
" I can understand that some fans will not think that I am the right choice and I won't be the right choice if I don't get a few results under my belt in the near future. I will be the right choice though if I do carry on from where I left off in my stint when I was really disappointed that I wasn't given an opportunity the first time around.
" There will be that though, there will be rumours, there will be speculation, there will be arguments for and against all sorts of positions. I just have to get on with what I have got now in front of me and that is the chance to take the club forward and win some games and hopefully be given an opportunity to do the job myself.
" There might be a slight difference to the eleven players defending corners tomorrow, there might only be eight players in the box defending. I do plan to set the team out differently, what we are going to try to do, in football it is all about winning. We probably if the fans had their way, we could probably have a shabby performance tomorrow and if we won 1-0 then they would go away grumbling but reasonably content that we had got a result.
" If we win 5-0 and we play Real Madrid-style football then it will be absolutely fantastic for everybody. It doesn't always happen that way and with respect to Grays, they are going to come and try to enjoy their day. I have played against non-league teams in the FA Cup and have been beaten by non-league teams in the FA Cup, and they really enjoy it. So they won't want to come up here and just roll over because it is the Carlisle United, Greg Abbott and their players getting their first win show.
" They won't do that by a long way so we have to see how the game pans out. If it turns out that we can play our good football because we have got an early goal or they are not closing us down or they allow us to play football then that will be brilliant, we will do that. They might come and steam right into us and play pressurised football and try to stop us playing at every opportunity then we will have to roll our sleeves up and battle away and earn the right to play in the game if they do that. "