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" We're looking to win it, we want to put last week out of the way as well, we were a bit disappointed with our performance in general at Yeovil. There were some decent things in it but we were perhaps not tough enough and I think we've now got to put that back. I'm looking for a response on Saturday from the team and I'm pretty sure we'll get it. I don't pay any credence to the league positions either because Gillingham are just turning the corner a little bit.
" They've got people like Delroy Facey and Chris Dickson at the front end of their team who are really tough characters. The attitude has got to be spot on and we've got to be right but I'm looking to win the game. They're experienced, they know that it won't faze them coming up to Carlisle, a long journey for them but it won't faze them coming out and playing against us.
" They'll know, the longer they can go and keep things quiet here at Brunton Park the better they'll be, so we've got a lot of work to do but we're capable of doing it and we're capable of giving them problems. That's something that we'll be talking about on Thursday and Friday leading into that game.
" If there is a new manager then it does tend to give people a lift but again that's something that I can't control. We can work at what we've got, we've got a good set of players here and a good group of people who are responding pretty well to me coming in. I haven't altered many things at all, if any, we've kept things going on an even keel and I guess that if a new manager is in place prior to Saturday for Gillingham then he won't have the knowledge of the information to change things around there.
" He'll rely on Iffy Onuora a great deal, so I'm looking at the team that Iffy played last week and looking at that in terms of what might be the opposition here but again I've got to put that to one side and work very hard with our team. This is about us, this is our place and whoever comes here we've got to give them a really tough time. "
" I haven't changed my views on Yeovil from immediately after the game, you can sit and reflect on it over the weekend and look at the video which I did do. I think that once we scored, it was a pretty even-stevens first half but in the second half we scored early and I just felt that maybe our body language showed that we thought we'd be OK and we'd go on and win it.
" That's where we probably need to be a bit tougher, certainly in the first game I had here we scored our first goal against Millwall and then we went after them again, and then we went after them again after that and we finished with four goals. To be fair we did similar against Chester and we didn't quite do that at Yeovil and that's what disappointed me.
" We didn't go for it again, because I felt that was a time then at 1-0 just after half-time, the whole ground was quiet and if we went on again and pushed ourselves forward then we could probably put the game away. We didn't though and then we gave away two soft free-kicks, and not withstanding the marking or the way that were given away.
" I thought that the second one was a good finish by the Yeovil guy, Nathan Jones put it in well but the concession of the free-kicks was disappointing for me, and that again is something that we need to improve on. We've talked about staying on your feet basically, anybody that gives free-kicks away, Marc Bridge-Wilkinson put one away the other week against Millwall and they are just free shots.
" You can't get within ten yards of them so they are free deliveries, free shots and you don't really want to be giving people that at any level. At this level though there are some good enough players to punish you and we got punished at Yeovil and Marc punished Millwall. We've got to make sure that we don't give them away and win one or two.
" I think it is a real settling position for us all that Greg Abbott has signed a new contract, I was happy when I came here to work with Greg and he wanted this job and I've got no fears or worries about that. I want him to be ambitious, he's got to be ambitious, he wants to be a manager and that's great. I think that at the same time though it's important he and I show some solidarity which we've now done. I want him to stay, he wants to stay and that puts everything to bed about any possible problems in the backroom staff. "
" There aren't any and we're very close together, and I had a good chat with him at a game on Tuesday night about everything being very much together for he and I and making sure that we try to take this club forward. I'll still be looking at him for his advice and he'll be looking at me for mine and we'll pull that together. If we can pull good words together and good advice together then we can pass that on to the team and hopefully improve.
" We're very fortunate at the moment that we haven't got too many injuries that are going to stop us from making a selection from the squad. So it's a question of bringing players in on loan, with that in mind they are maybe not going to play and they don't want to do that, they want to play obviously, that's the idea of that.
" So that just keeps that under wraps a little bit at the moment, we have looked at games. We have looked at players and we have got a list incase suddenly there is a player breaks down today, or something happens on Saturday and we can't use them. So that is a possibility for us but at the moment with the fully fit squad that I have we're OK with that level of performance that I've seen in recent weeks.
" I think that everyone would agree with that but certainly if things were to dip then we're able to move quite quickly. On permanent loans, or permanent deals, for instance that can happen only in January but we're certainly working at the possibility of that. To see if there are players out there, and there are, that you could probably get in this football club with a view to buy or wait until January, so that's something that we want to move at then.
" As I am chatting to you now though there are no new faces imminent. I think there are a couple that we'd probably like to discuss the possibility of coming in, but again you won't get me to talk about other players at other football clubs. That's not right, but certainly Greg, Dennis (Booth) and myself have been very active in terms of producing names and numbers and seeing what we can do. "
" I'll be able to choose from the same squad last week at Yeovil with the addition of Joe Garner which is great. It's nice to have him back in there and we have this week a fully fit Joe Anyinsah which last week we didn't quite have, it was a very last-minute job with young Joe. So those two guys in effect add a little bit of addition to my squad and make it a wee bit stronger.
" I watched the England game and like everyone else I'm disappointed with the result. It looked like a scruffy game in terms of England, a bit more like a league game in some ways where it wasn't tidy and it wasn't bright. At half-time though it was comfortable and then there is that fantastic chance for Steven Gerrard, I haven't seen any papers this morning but I guess the manager is getting a lot of criticism yet he didn't miss that chance did he?
" You would want Gerrard in that position on his right foot coming in to finish that off, at 2-0 the game is away, we've qualified and the whole newspaper reports are totally different. These things happen though and unfortunately the manager seems to get the blame for that and yet if we were all managers of England I'd guess we'd have picked Gerrard in the team to try to get that goal wouldn't we. It's a tough life being a manager you know sometimes.
" It's maybe not so much about the Russia game last night, it's probably more about FYR Macedonia at home, the 0-0 draw. Yet we've had, I read it somewhere the other day, five 3-0 wins as well so there has been a flourish of good victories. Over a period of time though when you are playing ten or twelve games which is a little tournament in itself then you've got to have that consistency.
" Perhaps we haven't had that enough over that period of time and certainly it's probably not about the game in Russia. It's more the looking back a year ago and that it was a bit uneven and we weren't ready, we weren't right when we played that game against FYR Macedonia.
" I think every manager who is English would probably say yes to being the England manager. It does carry a huge amount of baggage, I can sit here and say yes because I am not going to get it so I can talk to you quite easily about it. It's an unbelievable job and there is so much that goes with it that is not about football. It's highly critical of anything and everything and, like I say, Gerrard has missed a good chance but it's Steve McClaren's fault. I'm not sure how that can be quite right but that is always going to be the baggage you carry as an England manager. "