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JP
What do you feel like after that fine, fine performance and result for your team?
GA
I am drained to be honest, I am sort of a lot of things right now. That is a good group of players out there we have got and I think we are getting a top group of fans as well. They have maybe seen us over the line today, we needed the encouragement. They were a strong side Southampton, they are a good side, and I think we have matched them in a lot of areas.
We still think we can be better, we still think we can improve but we are being a bit picky, I suppose I should heap more plaudits on the players really right now. I think that is what everybody wants to hear and they deserve it, they deserve it, and as a group of players for sheer honesty and hard work I think in the end they deserved to just get over the line with a win.
JP
You are on a run now of four consecutive wins here and a great run of form in terms of being unbeaten for quite a while now. But, more so than some of the other matches you have won this is a really big victory for Carlisle United?
GA
Yeah, we tried to talk about their strengths and their squad and the players they have got, and we did it on Thursday. Because, I wanted to remind our players nearer to the Saturday how much ability we have got within our camp. So, we told them on Thursday, reminded them again on Friday, but from Friday onwards we started talking about us and how we can play, and if we get our game together.
I thought we played in spells some really good stuff. We came under pressure but you look at the size and the power and the strength of their team, and did we wilter at any point? And I don't think we did wilt, we did come under pressure but I think we defended it manfully.
We have got goals at good times, they never come at bad times but we have really earned a result today. I think everybody at this football club, I mean certainly the fans should know how hard everybody works. Not me and the staff, I am on about the players and the backroom people and the board and all that.
It has come under a lot of criticism over the last two or three years for certain things. But, I think sometimes it would be nice if everybody turned round and said that that group of people down there from top to bottom is starting to do something right.
Or, not starting to do something right, but they are doing things right and they are getting some sort of rewards. We need it to continue, we know there is a massive, massive load of hard work ahead of us, but I think we are doing the right sort of stuff.
JP
Where were the key battles for you today? What do you think it was that you did right against a team that you have to beat like Southampton? You must get a lot of things right to beat someone like that?
GA
Yeah, I thought Lubo (Lubomir Michalik) was magnificent at the back. I thought James Chester has done a fantastic job, we talked about the left-back situation. Young Tom Cruise is relatively inexperienced and this is the real McCoy at the third tier of football, and I just thought that James had that extra experience and that nous.
I thought he was tremendous at left-back and we just had big, big players all over. Ben Marshall going forward and Gary (Madine) and Francois (Zoko) and Mike (Grella), Mike has worked harder than he has ever worked in his life I think.
And Frankie (Simek) as well, I am going through the whole team aren't I? Listen, I am going through the whole team, I am just delighted with everybody. So, I have tried to single them out one by one and let's put praise on all the whole lot of them.
JP
Let's single you out one by one then, you caught us all out with James Chester, a right-footed centre-half playing left-back, when did you come up with that one then?
GA
Erm, Wednesday.
JP
Nobody would have predicted that?
GA
No, I know that, but I work with the players every day and that is where the trust has to come in from everybody outside the club for me and my staff doing the job. But, I rang Kav (Graham Kavanagh) on Wednesday who has not been around the training ground and I rang Dennis (Booth) who again has been out watching.
I said, listen, I am thinking of James Chester at left-back, I think he has got the pace, he has got the one v one ability, he is a comfortable footballer, what do you think? There were a few, even with my two mates, they were a bit, well you know.
Anyway, we did it, we did it, between us we decided yeah when we thought about it long and hard. He was probably a good choice for a short-term period and buys us a bit of time to get Tom (Cruise) wrapped up in the pace and the intensity of this sort of football. I thought James did a terrific job.
JP
A bit of overdue good fortune with the way that you got your second goal to make it 2-0, the (Dan) Harding own goal. However, had he not got the touch you would have expected Marshall to finish anyway.
GA
Yeah, I think I am agreeing, I think Mike's cross was a really, really hard one to defend. Loads of pace, he (Harding) is running back to his own goal, I think Ben was in a great position at the far-post as well. I thought that we got the first goal slightly against the run of play when Ben scored his goal.
I didn't think we started the game particularly well but it gave us that belief, and that is the importance of goals. It was a fantastic strike from Marshy who has just caught fire for us just at the minute.
JP
United of course now fourth in the table, you go to bottom of the table Walsall away next weekend. Seven days to prepare, how do you guard against after the old Lord Mayor's Show performance down there?
GA
Well, you don't do you, we should go there and win shouldn't we, that is what everybody will be saying. But, that will be tougher, or as tough as it is today, because Walsall are fighting for their lives right now.
So, make no mistake, it is going to be a massive, massive game next week, and we have got to try to make sure our players are prepared and their head is right to go and do a different type of performance under different circumstances. If we are right then we think we are capable of getting something, if we are not then we will get our backsides tanned again.
JP
Any injuries coming out of today's game that you know about?
GA
Me and Kav are mentally deluded I think and that is about it.
JP
Some fans I am sure would agree. What about Mike Grella's loan? He did play ever so well again today, how close are we to knowing whether that is going to be extended?
GA
Hopefully something will happen early Monday or Tuesday and we will be able to tell everybody. But, we would like to keep him, I think he would like to stay, it is just a matter of if the two clubs can agree on something. But, we are in the process of trying to negotiate something, and Monday will be a decision day for us.