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JP
How do you feel about that then today, the reaction from your players?
GA
Delighted to be honest, I am absolutely delighted. This is a big day for the club in terms of where we are as a group of players and a backroom staff and we have reacted to what was an obvious disappointment. We have listened to criticisms and we have listened to the mistakes we have made and we have listened to what we are not and what we can't be and what we won't be.
But do you know what, we have got a decent group of players, we have got a decent group of players, that wasn't easy today off the back of last week to perform like that. That is probably our best performance of the season, we absolutely battered Bristol Rovers today and should have had more goals.
They are a very, very good side and Paul (Trollope) will be disappointed but today is a day that I am going to heap praise on the players. Because I thought they were fantastic in light of what happened in terms of their performance after the build-up to what should have been a lovely occasion. But I thought today they were outstanding.
JP
It would be very easy for critics to say that Bristol Rovers were poor, but you made them look ordinary today and that was what was important.
GA
The critics would say that wouldn't they but Bristol Rovers are a very good side who still had a chance of the play-offs and now they haven't got a chance of the play-offs. So you have to give credit at times, we took the defeat last week on the chin, massively on the chin right and we didn't make too many excuses.
We took the criticism together as a football club and I certainly took the criticism at the head of it as the manager. Today, don't start telling me Bristol Rovers aren't this and aren't that, it is what our players have done today that has made it such a good victory and that is all I am going to talk about.
I thought they were terrific, they deserved their praise because character-wise that is a big tough ask for them today and they have all responded. Every one of them to be fair has put in a tremendous shift and shown a hell of a lot of character, and I am delighted with them.
JP
In the build-up to the game we talked about whether it would be the backlash from Carlisle or maybe the hangover from Wembley. How did you get this out of them today?
GA
Well nine times out of ten it is a hangover, I will tell you because psychologically and mentally they were very down after last week. We have had a really good week of training in terms of not the amount of work we have done but the quality and what we have done and how we have done it.
As a group, Kav (Graham Kavanagh), Dennis (Booth), myself, Dolly (Neil Dalton), Tony (Caig), the backroom staff have worked very, very hard to get these players back to believing what they are and what they can be. There were a lot of young players out there on our side today and we know what we are doing, we know how we are trying to do things.
We are still up against it with obstacles in the way but we might be just safe with that result today. I am not talking about safe as an achievement, I am talking about with seven games to go we have got a chance of maybe maintaining our position in the table which has got to be an improvement.
We are building and we have got some young players there and if we can just get the fans to buy into everything we are doing and take sometimes disappointment and sometimes make mistakes that we are obviously going to make. Because of where we are and what we have got available then we have got a great chance.
But everybody has got to come together and we all win together and we all lose together and we all build together. But today I am just so pleased for the players who were very, very down after last week.
JP
A number of very good performances within your squad, you wouldn't on most days pick out any individual from that, but a young man (Tom Aldred) who you gave his debut to today. He got man of the match and what did you feel about his display?
GA
He was outstanding, it has been a good game for him to play in because he is up against two strikers (Paul Heffernan and Jo Kuffour), to be fair the two strikers today will give him a different problem to other strikers.
They are not the ones that are big and quick, they are clever, Heffernan has got a fantastic goalscoring record and Kuffour is a busy clever player. But he has headed it, he has tackled, he has shown good composure when he has got the ball and his positional play was good.
But it is only a start and we mustn't get carried away with him, we need to tell him it is a really good start. He has got another 550 of them to go and then we will be talking about him being top class. But he has to enjoy it and we have to enjoy the fact that he has come in and done very well, and well done to him.
JP
In the past, even outside of the first team, people have suggested that he has maybe got a bit ahead of himself, do you have to work very, very hard now to temper that enthusiasm? Because it was a good day for him.
GA
I can't temper his enthusiasm, what we need to do is make sure his feet just come back down. Because he will make a mistake in the next three or four games or whatever, there will be a mistake there and he will feel a bit lower. That is what football does to you, football built us up last week didn't it, didn't half football kick us in the teeth last week as well within 24 hours.
But that will happen to Tom and that is when we need to be around him now, we are telling him he has got off to a good start, we are giving him all the encouragement he needs. What we want to do now is make sure he comes in and continues and gets a consistency. That is what defending is all about, a consistency and a reliability and not making mistakes that cost you goals in games.
JP
Do your words suggest that he might get more of a chance then in these final games now?
GA
Well it would be very, very difficult for me to leave him out after that performance wouldn't it. But we have said to all the players there, there will be chances, we need to find out about all our squad. We need to find out if Danny Livesey gets injured next season, have we got a player that can come in and play on that right-hand side?
Today it looked like we have and if he can do another six or seven of those performances it will tell us that we definitely have and we don't need to do anything about that. We can say yes, there is cover there on the left with Peter (Murphy) and Hartey (Ian Harte), there is cover on the right with Danny and Tom. Happy days, we can move on and start looking at other areas of the squad that we do need to improve on.
JP
One real moment of concern, Matty Robson coming off, what is the latest with him with his injury?
GA
I am not sure what it is, it is where he has had an injection a few weeks ago. He said it is strained and it is not quite right so that is a concern. But I thought that Ben Marshall was absolutely outstanding, his best game since he has been with us today, terrific, and he can do that job on that left-hand side.
He is a bit like Kevan Hurst, they can cover left and right, and Scott Dobie has come in and put in a hell of a shift. We have brought him off with a couple of minutes to go to save his legs, he said he wished it had been 15 minutes. But we wanted to win the game and we have done that.
JP
And also Jason Price who you brought off as well, what an influence he had on the game, involved in the first penalty, won the second penalty and scored the middle goal as well.
GA
Most laid-back man in the world isn't he you know, but he is a nice guy. I think the crowd have taken to him, his contribution so far has been excellent, he likes it here. I thought he gave us a pivot to play off, I thought Adam Clayton working around him was outstanding as well. He is clever, he sometimes gets too confident with his own play but we looked a good side today didn't we.
It is a really frustrating sort of occasion, later on tonight I will think about why we couldn't have dragged that back seven days and done it before. But listen, that is all gone now, this is forward thinking now, today was a good day for everybody.
JP
Just one further point on the Southampton game, of course though the individual mistakes, of course it is the occasion but do you think you maybe missed one or two too many players who were ineligible.
GA
Let's just talk about today, terrific today.
JP
I was just talking in terms of how well they performed though today just with those couple of players back in?
GA
Yeah, let's play hindsight in every position on the pitch and we have got a great team.
JP
Looking forward now, Charlton on Bank Holiday Monday, that will be a very, very big game for you I suppose because it is an opportunity to go down and take on another of the big boys.
GA
Well they are sort of in good shape now, they can go there and have a really good go against another really good side. But today the way we played, we can compete can't we, we showed we can compete and that was the disappointment for last week that I thought we were going to win the game. I really believed we were going to win the game and we haven't done but let's look to Monday now and try to do it again.
JP
A big stage of course against Charlton, it is a ground that almost deserves Premier League football, do you think you can go there and humble them?
GA
We will try, you can guarantee that, that is all I can guarantee that we will try.
JP
And just on the walking wounded, people have seen David Raven wandering around here outside again. Great to see him back in action, might he be in competitive action before the end of the season?
GA
He might be, he might be, he has had half a game in the reserves so he will probably have another spell in the reserves on Wednesday and we will go from there with that.
JP
And anyone else who looks like a doubt for Monday?
GA
Probably just Matty Robson I think, and obviously Danny and Kevan are out and little Bridgey (Marc Bridge-Wilkinson) has ricked his neck. So probably they will be doubts but the rest of it will take care of itself.
JP
Joe Anyinsah, what about him?
GA
No, again, we played him too long last week. We know we needed to change things but because we brought him on 15 minutes too early he is probably going to miss the majority of the rest of the season with it.