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It is looking a bit healthier, Richard Keogh has started light running and Tom Taiwo has come back from Chelsea. They had to send him down there to see the medical people and his ankle looks in better shape. He has joined in today and he looked nice and bright so we are looking like we might have near enough a full quota on Saturday to pick from.
Tom certainly but not Richard, Richard has just started light jogging today, he will probably be still another fortnight I would think without putting a black and white timescale on it. He has still got a couple of weeks yet.
PN - And again, Tom's return this weekend could give you a nice headache.
GA - Yeah it is good isn't it, it is nice to have nice headaches for once rather than real stinking bad ones, Tom is back in training though so we will see how he is at the end of the week, but it looks like there is a selection problem there for me for sure.
PN- How much of a relief was it to get that first home win on the board at the weekend?
GA - I think in a way it is a big relief but I didn't ever doubt it was coming because of the way we have been playing. The way we have been playing would always suggest that we were going to get a comfortable good victory at home, which we did do, but the longer it goes on, the harder it becomes. You are anxious because you want to see our fans share the excitement that I am feeling now on the way the team is playing and starting to perform. Saturday has gone a little bit of a way to show people that we are making progress.
PN - I was reading a stat which suggested that your team has created something like over 100 chances in your six games, more than the leaders Charlton, that must give you plenty of encouragement?
GA - It is nice when you come up with a good stat, we have been used to getting some shockers by the way, but that is a good one isn't it. It is a double edged one that isn't it, it might tell you that we are playing some really good stuff but we are not as clinical as we might want to be. That is what we have been saying without making too many excuses, you make the chances then you have got to take your fair share, but we look like we are going to be in good shape.
PN - In terms of that Tranmere game, do you have a degree of sympathy for John Barnes given his situation?
GA - I don't think sympathy is something John Barnes would want from me. He won't want me to sympathise with him and to be fair I have had my fair share of problems myself in terms of criticisms and getting results and how tough this job is. It is a tough industry and I think what they have got to do with John is give him a bit of time and patience to see if his way does work.
If it doesn't then ultimately everybody knows what happens, that is the way that football is run, there is another manager has been sacked today. But I think John Barnes needs patience and time and support from his fans and his board.
PN - Is there perhaps a tendency in football, managers or players with reputations are given jobs because of who they are rather than what they have done, sort of worked up the hard way if you like.
GA - It may be so, certainly I thought that Ronnie Moore was doing an unbelievable job and I think they were one minute and something seconds away from getting in the play-offs. Now for him to lose his job in those circumstances seemed very, very harsh and the job hasn't improved has it this season, they are facts at the moment.
So I just think sometimes, horses for courses, people like Ronnie Moore and myself and all those have been around this level, Championship, League One, League Two all their careers and know it inside out. They know what type of players it is, know the type of players that are around there that you need and maybe that is something for some people to think about, I don't know. John Barnes knows the game though, that is obvious, he has played at the top level, but whether they can produce that type of football at this level remains to be seen.
PN - With regard to yourself, do you feel as though you are proving a point now?
GA - I would say to who? Because I have always felt that I needed time because when I took over, the first time I was caretaker I think it was an easy job to do. We were flying, we were doing well, the team was running well, the quality we had was excellent. Second time around you are coming off the back of one point in ten games, very difficult, it really is a difficult job.
I knew that we had to make some changes in personnel and it takes time to do that. We have done that and certainly all of the stuff I have done I have believed in and I have always known what was required to improve the job. That remains to be seen whether I can do it over a longer period but at the moment things seem to be working nicely for us.
We have worked exceptionally hard on all aspects of this football club. Andy (Hall) who has been with us as a kit man now knows it in terms of recruiting the right type of players, in terms of the work we have done defensively and the work we have done as an attacking force. We create more chances, we are leaking less goals and we have recruited good players.
So that must tell everybody that this ship is going in the right direction, we haven't got anywhere near where I want to be and what I want to achieve, but we are on our way and we think we are doing OK. We have a few obstacles in our way, that is the type of the club and the size of club we are, but we want to make sure that we give of everything we can and compete at this level with everybody else, and we think we can do that.