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JP
How do you feel about that one at the end, the 2-2?
GA
Well it is a point gained, it is always going to be difficult, this is a difficult place to come, I am staggered that they are in the situation they are in because they have got some really good players. Today I thought they played quite well, especially after going two goals down, fair credit to Southend.
They have come back at us and asked us a few questions as the game has gone on. Then the second-half has probably been even-stevens, I am not sure how anybody else sees it but it was even-stevens and probably a draw at the end of it is a fair result.
JP
That is exactly what we said, because of the way it happened though is there a bit of a disappointment for you or do you just think that it was the right result on the day?
GA
I think overall it is probably the right result, but you get into a two goal lead and you are always a little bit disappointed you can't go on and win the game. Also with a great chance to make it three with Ben Marshall and the save from the keeper (Steve Mildenhall) to make it 3-0 and a couple of minutes later they score to make it 2-1.
Then it is game on again, but we have got some young players out there and we have got a lot of players having their first real spells in the team. We are delighted with them, we are talking about Matty Robson, it is his first real run of games in the season with us, he has played every single game near enough this season. Ben Marshall on the other side, people like that that are learning their game.
Adam (Clayton) in midfield is having his first run of football and sometimes they have to do their learning and make their mistakes out on the pitch. But we are always talking about them and how we want to get better, and we have been a bit critical of certain things there because we want them to be better.
Adam Collin again, another one that is just having his first run of games at this level. So we want them to get better and we want them to go on to better things. They are buying in to what we are doing, they listen to us with every word we say and it is fantastic that they are developing and improving, and the team as a whole is improving.
To come here and be slightly disappointed with a 2-2 draw against a club like this, I know they are having their problems this year, is certainly signs of progress. So we have to sit here really looking at positives rather than negatives I think.
JP
A point gained today then rather than two lost, but I am sure you would have liked to have got to that 50 points just before Wembley?
GA
Well we have just said in the dressing room that we are upset that we haven't got, we think it is two points that we should have had. But you look at the bigger picture, and again, you look at the fact that we are disappointed here with only drawing and that is a sign that we are on the right lines. But our dressing room is all together in what we have talked about just then, and we have got 48 points.
It is eleven points I think in six games which is terrific form. We go into Wembley now with 48 points which we would have been really happy with. Then once we get the day out of the way next week we look on getting another maybe 12 points and getting around or about the 60 or 61 mark and that is a relative improvement on last year.
JP
I am sure you will get to that as well, or up well beyond 50. On that weekend though, I know you are going to answer a lot of questions about this in the coming week, but what a fantastic opportunity for everyone involved, fans, players, yourself, everyone at Carlisle United.
GA
Let's come to the party now, come and enjoy yourselves, everybody connected with the club. Let's not start moaning about, there is a little bit in the press about t-shirts and not this, and there is a little bit about Jimmy Glass not getting a ticket. We will make sure if he wants to ring up and speak to somebody in person that we will sort all that out.
But let's not look to be critical of what is happening at the football club, let's go to Wembley and enjoy everything about it. Let's bring the occasion and take it for what it is and enjoy it and don't have any regrets about it. But everybody that is connected with the club must go through this week and next Sunday and not have too many gripes or grumbles.
Because there will be somebody that is not happy with something but let's try to look beyond that and let's just enjoy the whole occasion and be proud that a club of Carlisle United's like is at Wembley, the New Wembley, and it is a fantastic occasion for everybody.
JP
There will be some people who will say Southampton have ominously won 3-0 at MK Dons. But of course you stuck five past the Milton Keynes Dons, as one fan asked you last night at the forum, can you go and beat Southampton?
GA
Of course we can, I am not saying we will do but I am saying that they have been beaten at home to Swindon, they have been beaten by Tranmere, we have beaten MK Dons home and away this season. Listen, on the day they might be as nervous as everybody else and the occasion gets to everybody.
I would think on paper they are probably the favourites with the bookmakers, but we have had a nice knack of upsetting the odds along the way over the last year or so. So we go there and we are going to give it everything we have got, we are going to work as hard as we can to try to make the day wonderful for everybody and bring the trophy home to Cumbria.
JP
Anyone in today who is not going to make that who picked up an injury, or anyone who wasn't in who might just have a chance of being back?
GA
Everybody we have got fit is going to be involved, I will make the final selection, we travel on Friday down to St Albans, that is where we are based. We will train there on Friday and Saturday but the squad will make itself known to you guys by probably Thursday or Friday and then we go from there.
But everybody that we have got fit has got to be in with a chance, I can't start disappointing too many people as we sit on a Saturday night the week before. There will be disappointment but they are tough decisions and tough things that I have to do.
I don't like upsetting anybody but you have to make decisions and we can only have 16, 11 and 5 on the bench. So everybody to a man has got to look after the ones that don't quite make it but we are a close-knit club and people know we are selecting the team for the right reasons, and let's hope we go there and put on a good show for ourselves.
JP
Enjoy your week, you are taking an almost safe in League One team to Wembley.
GA
That is grand, that is a little bit of progress so we want to keep the thing going and keep the momentum going and keep the season relatively exciting.