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JP
In the Northern Section final across two legs it will be Carlisle United against Leeds United, Greg Abbott how do you feel about that?
GA
Excited again, fantastic for the club isn't it. We are a one tie from Wembley aren't we so it is terrific, something again we were talking about for everybody to look forward to. We can put it to bed now this competition for a while, it is after Christmas now, and look forward to it when it comes up. But there is a great deal to play for now.
JP
It looked like you maybe caught a brief word there with your old friend Stuart McCall, what was he feeling about this one?
GA
He will be upset, Stuart will be upset at the minute but that is alright, I have been upset before as well, but he will be OK. I will be inviting him in for a drink, so he will have a glass of shandy with us and then we will talk about what should have been and what shouldn't have been and the whys and wherefores. But it is a nice night for us, and again, another victory.
JP
What were the whys and wherefores of it tonight then in the match?
GA
We have just said to the players there, we have gone again and it is only two in 13 or 14 games now in which we have beaten. We have won a game 3-0 that is difficult, scored three goals, kept another clean sheet, we have progressed to the final of the Northern Paints.
And we are still having a little bit of a go with the players saying that we still think that we can be better. We still think we can do things better than we did do at times tonight, and that just shows the progress we are making and the standards we are trying to set.
The players are in good mood in there, they are confident and they know we can play better. But these games, they are tough, they are not easy, they are not straightforward, they never are. We have come through comfortably in the end and won a game 3-0 so we can't be too critical and we can't be too down on ourselves, it is another tremendous night really.
JP
In the end, the scoreline is obviously very good, the result is very good, you are very happy, it looked like you were doing just about enough to beat Bradford, but I am sure you would like to do a bit more than that?
GA
Well you look at the chances we had as well and you look at the initial 10-15 minute period at the start of the game. Matty Robson has got down the left and tortured the full-back (Simon Ramsden). You look at the second-half and the ball is flying across the face of the goal and Vincent (Pericard's) shot, the one that the keeper (Simon Eastwood) saved, and the chances that we have had and missed.
It could have been really, really a comfortable victory but Bradford are spirited and they are tough and they don't want to give up. They have given us everything they have got tonight and that is why the game is hard work at times. We have to make sure that when we have got the ball we don't give it away as cheaply as we did at times, and we would have won probably a little bit more comfortably.
JP
Looking then on the match as a whole, two turning points, the sending-off (of Ramsden) and the introduction of Scott Dobie, talk us through both.
GA
Well the sending-off is a sending-off, it is as simple as that, you can't do what he has done.
JP
But did it change the match though?
GA
Not really, we were doing OK against eleven and it is never easy when you go up against ten. Everybody gets a bit anxious and the crowd are expecting us just to go and score three or four goals really, really quickly and that doesn't always happen.
But we got the goal at a good time and we got the second at an exceedingly good time. Because Bradford were having a decent spell and they were rolling their sleeves up, a la Morecambe when they were 2-1 down against us and they came back with ten men.
So what we have done is won the game in a comfortable manner but not without a few scares along the way. Credit to Bradford for not rolling over when they were down to ten, but it is not always that easy to play against ten men. But we have done what we had to do and that is win the game, clean sheet, three goals, and we are progressing. So we can't be too down on ourselves.
JP
Your one-time top scorer, and still second top scorer Scott Dobie though, bit of a fallow period for him but he has come in and he was an absolute livewire having come on.
GA
Well this is why we have got players within the club now that I enjoy really working with and have got I think plenty to offer. There are eleven playing which is fine but there are also four or five after that, that have got massive roles to play. Who knows what will happen in the second-half of the season?
Things change very, very quickly in football and what we know is that the likes of Peter Murphy and Scott Dobie and little Bridgey (Marc Bridge-Wilkinson) can come on and be really effective for us. And who is to say they don't earn the right to start in the future, in the near future. So what we have got is a squad now all fighting for playing situations.
JP
Was Graham Kavanagh rested tonight?
GA
Yes.
JP
No injury problem?
GA
No, he is fine, but he has had a lot of games, played a lot of football, done awfully well for us. We just feel that games Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday-Tuesday for a period takes its toll on him. So we left him out, give Tom (Taiwo) a chance to get the illness he has got out of his system, so he has had 60 minutes.
Probably in that situation everything has worked out well for us, we rested Vince for ten minutes and obviously you have seen Dobes get his 20-odd minutes and be really effective. So in that sense the gameplan was excellent.
JP
Likewise, Lenny Pidgeley coming in goal as well, was that just a rotation to give him some game time?
GA
Well we need Lenny to be sharp, when Lenny was playing regularly we used Adam (Collin) in this competition. I thought that he needs his games and I don't want to send him to Accrington tomorrow which will be a non-event in terms of tempo and seriousness of the game. So he has had his game tonight and again he has kept his clean sheet, so again there is more food for thought there.
JP
But you would expect Adam Collin would be looking to return for the Colchester match?
GA
That is something we will look later on in the week.
JP
I thought you might say that, injury situation ahead of the weekend, anything picked up tonight and anything that might improve?
GA
Nothing tonight and I think the ones that have been out up to now will probably miss Saturday, but certainly Joe Anyinsah should be with us shortly.
JP
And Marc Bridge-Wilkinson just finally, nice to see him getting some action out there after such a lengthy lay-off for him again?
GA
Again, important, our squad is not the biggest and we are trying to get everybody fit so the competition is there and we can things round when things aren't quite going right. Which they weren't tonight and Scott has come on and done a terrific job and after his introduction we went on to bigger and better things for us.