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JP
You have fist pumped on your way up here, that shows what this meant to you tonight?
GA
Yeah, only because I am so pleased for the players and the fans that have put in an unbelievable shift. Them for getting here and supporting us and spending their money and their time and the long haul, and the players for a fantastic response to the half-time talk that we had.
Coming out and really showing us what sort of side we are and what sort of players and types of people they are. That is why I have got my fist clenched because I am delighted with them, and I love good people, and we have got some good people connected with this football club at the minute, fans included.
JP
You did so much in the second-half, just look at the array of chances you had and the underlined ones are the good ones. It looked like it wasn't going to come but you took it at the end, you kept on going?
GA
Well, that generally comes with good honest endeavour and appetite and determination, it gets rewarded. I don't think anybody can go away from the stadium and say that we didn't deserve it. We are disappointed at the minute that we haven't won it, but in the way that the goal was scored and the timing of it then the draw we take. It is a long trip back with nothing on a Friday night.
JP
We had a couple of Colchester fans behind us who were quite game with us all the way through the commentary tonight, and the first thing that they said was that Carlisle deserved at least that, and I guess that is testimony to your work?
GA
Yeah, there is no question about that, we always give as honest an assessment of stuff as we can. We deserved the point without a doubt and it continues that momentum, it continues that belief and the fans are with us all the way. You go over there and 300 maybe? Absolutely, outrageously fantastic and that is for them, I am telling you now, because the lads in there are talking about them, they haven't talked about how we have ground it out.
We have been in these situations before in the past and gone under three or four, this team isn't going under cheaply and I hope they are not easy words that come back to bite me. But, I think there is a lot of determination, a lot of character and they showed it tonight.
JP
Well you say 300, four and a half thousand was the gate tonight, we reckon you had the half of that, we reckon you had the 500, that is a great effort from so far away.
GA
I have to apologise for not counting the crowd then. But, if there are 500 they are incredible, absolutely incredible, and we deserve that back at Brunton Park, because our gates are low because nobody comes up there. We seem to back everybody's coffers by sending fans all over the country and they were outrageously fantastic tonight, so pleased for them.
JP
What about your captain (Paul Thirlwell) getting the goal that got it all for you at the end there?
GA
Well, listen, he has been terrific at the start of the season. He has fitted in nicely to how we are playing, you know what you are going to get with Paul week in and week out. You see what it meant to them all and they have got their deserves tonight.
I wouldn't stand him out from anybody else, but he has got the goal and he is going to take the plaudits. I didn't even know who had scored it to be honest, there were that many bodies round there. But, we have got it, we are happy, and we travel back now and regroup and get ourselves ready for a tough one next week.
JP
What about Francois Zoko tonight? It looked like Kemal Izzet was man-marking him out of the game but you kept faith with him, you kept him on in the second-half, he hit the bar and he was very much involved in all the good things you did.
GA
Well, then you have answered the question. He is a player that is going to create and when you are a goal down you can't take off your creative players. The way Colchester play does stop him to an extent from getting on the ball and getting the freedom that he has had in the past.
But, it opens it up for other areas, but we didn't exploit them in the first-half and we managed to do that in the second-half. That was why we introduced Matty (Robson) on the wide, we tried to get the full-backs further forward and I think we actually went a bit gung-ho to be fair.
At times you have to do that and that is testimony to the players, they didn't want to lose the game and they got their rewards. Francois has contributed and could have had his goal because it was one that has hit the bar and come down, it was definitely three yards over the line and should have been a goal but maybe I am being massively biased there.
JP
Surely not, should there have been a penalty in the second-half? Was there a push on Craig Curran in the area?
GA
Well, we go mad, you go mad with the officials because they are very, very quick to give free-kicks against attackers in the penalty box, but very rare do you get penalties. So, you probably have to say that you are never going to get them, especially away from home. But, we think we have been hard done to at times, but the referee (Gavin Ward) sees what he sees and we go from there.
JP
Another really good game from Gary Madine, who seems to be adding consistency to his talents?
GA
Well, he is not going to come up against two bigger and more powerful centre-backs than that tonight. Again, with Craig (Curran) running and working off him and Francois again doing the same, he is maturing. We are delighted with everybody, but, again, he thought he had the rough end of the play in the first-half. The service wasn't brilliant, in the second-half though we got him more and more involved and he showed us what he can do.
JP
I suppose it is easy to be magnanimous now, but, what do you feel you have got right in that second-half that you perhaps weren't getting as right in the first?
GA
Well, I thought they were sharper and quicker and more determined to everything they did and that their work was a lot sharper than ours. That is what we said, we have to be on the ball, we have to pass the ball quickly, we have to close people down. We have to get strikers in areas and move the ball early and get the ball into the box early behind the big two.
We never turned them around and stretched them enough to get Francois on the ball. But, in the second-half we did all that, and our first-half was below par but not ridiculously poor, it was below par. We upped the tempo, upped the play and really produced what we have been doing most of the season in the second-half.
JP
Ian Harte appeared to pick up a knock, what can you tell us about that?
GA
Yeah, a bit of a worry, he couldn't breathe, he has had a knock on his ribcage, which they are very sore. I am fingers crossed that he is going to be OK for later on, certainly next week, but I don't like rib injuries because they are very, very painful and very hard to play on with.
JP
Any other knocks in the team coming out of the game tonight? It was a physical game.
GA
It was a great game, it was a terrific advert for League One I think. It was two decent sides that have had a right go at each other, there has been a lot of determination and credit to Colchester for the part they played in it as well. I think for you lads as a spectacle, I think it was a decent game.
JP
It was a great game, I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't ask you about the handshake, or perhaps lack thereof between the two managers?
GA
You will have to ask John (Ward), that is the way…….. Maybe he is sulking a little bit, but that is the game, if he doesn't want to shake hands then he doesn't want to shake hands. It doesn't bother me one little bit.
JP
It appeared you went looking for it though and it was snubbed?
GA
Was it? If you have seen it that way then he has snubbed the handshake, he will have to explain that if he wants to or if he doesn't want to. But, he won't because that is the type of man he is.