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JP
What happened tonight?
GA
We weren't very good on the night to be honest. We have been well beaten, we have given away cheap goals, but don't take too much credit away from Hartlepool United because they were better than us tonight and they deserved to win the game. We are very disappointed and it is a dressing room that needs a bit of comfort at the moment.
JP
What have you said to them after the game then?
GA
What I have said is that we have been here before. We have had poor performances before, we have had a lot of people doubting us in the past and we have reacted to that in a positive manner. I have asked everybody to take a little bit of responsibility, I at the end of it take the majority of the responsibility because I am the manager.
But I think somewhere along the line we have to share that, we have to share that. I have got a tremendously honest dressing room and I have said that if they can offer me some sort of excuse about their individual performances or why we weren't as good as we have been then do so.
Otherwise we must take this one together, we all take it together and I hold the majority share of it because I am in charge of it all. But the players have been brutally honest and they have done their fair share of talking over there. I think when you have that you have a chance.
I think they were wanting to come over here and talk to you as well, that shows how much they care and how much there is a united group in there. They are hurting at the minute, and I will tell you now, they need a little bit of help and support and they will get it from me. They will get their criticisms and I will get my criticisms as well but we will all stick together.
JP
In terms of the game itself you talked in recent games about how goals change games. They had two chances and scored two goals, irrespective of what came thereafter you were very much in the game in the first half an hour again, but let it slip.
GA
Yeah, we said that, with the first goal we think we have got an attack on the edge of their box and they go down the other end and score. The second one is a set-piece, well we equalise and at the time we equalise we think we are well in the game, more than in the game.
Then we concede a corner, a set-piece situation which nobody likes and it is a little bit to do with the wind, the ball is swirling around a bit, but I am not using that as an excuse because it is the same for both of us. The third one was a killer one really, and 3-1 down it is a tough act to come, we think it has got stuck in the wind and dropped and Adam (Collin) has not quite got to it and it ends up in the back of our net.
We think they are three really soft goals, but then we have got a mountain to climb after that. We never found that gung ho spirit I think, we were found wanting a little bit tonight and that is where we have all taken the responsibility.
JP
It was there though until they scored their second goal. Why did Carlisle crumble after the second goal?
GA
Well we gave away another one from a corner, which is a bit of a freak goal with the wind but it is 3-1. At 3-1 people's mental frame of mind changes, the games change, and all of a sudden they started to look quite a good side. I don't want to take any credit away from Hartlepool because they have had their tough times and they are in a situation we have been in before.
They won the game in the end and that is what it is all about. We couldn't find that energy and we couldn't find that level of performance after the third goal to work our way back into it. We have huffed and puffed a bit in the second-half and we had our half chances and we had our play in the deep end.
But we get done again when we could have scored actually from their fourth goal, we are right in the box with Darryl (Duffy) on the ball and we couldn't find a lay off or a pop off player. Then they break away and score their fourth and it looks like 4-1 away from at Hartlepool, it is a real drubbing, and it probably wasn't as bad as the scoreline suggests at times.
But the scoreline doesn't lie, we have been beaten 4-1 and I am not going to come up here and offer excuses. I thought the fans were fantastic by the way tonight, that is the best they have been on the away travels. Because we needed them tonight and they have clapped and clapped and sang and we have not given them maybe as much as they have given us.
JP
How disappointing is three shots on target though for the whole match, the third of them only coming in the 94th minute in a game when you are playing a team at the wrong end of the table?
GA
You don't need me to answer that do you? Take the shots and the statistics out of it, we are hurting together tonight on the performance as a general. Not just the shots, the way we defended, the goals we conceded, the play in the middle of the field, the play at the top end. After the third goal goes in we looked a really ordinary side and that is where the dressing room has got to take this on the chin, all of us.
That is the backroom staff and myself again at the top of it. I am not going to offer too many excuses but we want to share that responsibility tonight. I think it is unfair for anybody to take that single handed and that is not trying to protect myself, that is me standing up and taking the majority of it.
But I think it is a dressing room that is to share and to care tonight. Because we have all been in this together and we have said that right from day one. We were upset about a number of things, not just the amount of shots we have had on target.
JP
Gillingham tonight have drawn with Leyton Orient which means that they go into Saturday's game three points behind Carlisle. How absolutely essential is a big reaction and a big performance and a win on Saturday?
GA
Forget Gillingham, forget the points, forget anything, a performance is vital. It doesn't matter that it is Gillingham, it doesn't matter where they are, three points behind or in front, we have to get a reaction from that. This is where I think because the dressing room is so honest and so together you just don't think they will need much motivation.
Because I think if I had been a player in that dressing room now then I would be wanting to play tomorrow morning, never mind waiting for Saturday. Saturday can't come quick enough I don't think now because we need to get out in front of our fans and roll our sleeves up.
It is only eight or nine days ago when we were being talked about as a real up and coming side beating MK Dons 5-0 and thinking we have cracked it. Well we have been kicked in the teeth alright three games since then, so Saturday for me is a real test of character for everybody connected with the playing side of this football club.
The fans have done their bit tonight, hopefully they will come and give us a crack on Saturday because we need them now. Because players' confidence and things like that go very quickly, just as the confidence when you are winning comes natural.
But we need everybody pulling in the same direction and we think we have got it over in that dressing room. If we can get it from elsewhere then we stand a real better fighting chance. That is a maybe an appeal from me to say 'come on then, let's all at a time when things aren't so rosy right now, let's all stick together.'
JP
I know it is the $64,000 question, but you said that the points, the teams that you are playing don't matter, the performance does. You wanted that after Huddersfield, you wanted it after Swindon, now you have got to get it now, how do you get it though?
GA
I just think you maybe have to look into a dressing room, which you will never get the licence to do that because it is a private place, but you can only trust your gut reaction. My gut reaction is the players are ready to play tomorrow, never mind waiting until Saturday.
So we have to come Saturday and they will be under pressure, we will all be under pressure because we have had three really ordinary performances and now we need to bring one out of the bag and get people back believing. Because their belief might just be wavering a little bit.
JP
What is the injury situation with Joe Anyinsah, very worrying that he has an injury in an area where he has had problems?
GA
No, it is always going to be that case I think, he has tightness around his groin. He needs an operation and whether we can get him through to the end of the season, he is a brave lad, he is playing under a lot of pain.
He doesn't think that he can do Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday so at the minute we are hopeful, he is feeling a lot better today. We will see him tomorrow morning and hopefully he is feeling even more at ease and then we can come back and we can get his pace and power back upfront, I think we missed him tonight.
JP
We have got to talk just finally about Evan Horwood and Tom Taiwo, I know and you know the fans were putting pressure on you to include them. What was in your mind in bringing them on in the game at that stage?
GA
Because I thought we needed energy at full-back, we needed Evan to get up and down the wing a little bit more. Obviously they are different players, they are all different players. We look at complementing players and we look at putting the right personnel with the right personnel at the right times.
They have both done themselves a good cause tonight, they have both come on and they have both contributed. I thought Evan did quite well when he went on, Tom has battled away in the middle of the pitch. I can't allow anybody else to pick the side but me and it is easy to pick the sides at 9.30 and 9.45 after games.
7.45 is the key and tonight we have got beaten so you might say that the team has been wrong, so that is fine. I have to make sure that we put out 11 players on Saturday to try to win the game and I will be doing that, and I always do that every week.
But you have to remember that a similar side played against MK Dons and won, so we have to show some sort of faith but maybe it is time to change it round a little bit. I did change it round a bit tonight and it didn't work so we have to maybe have a look at that at the weekend.