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" It would be nice to be top at Christmas, we've been top of the division before and we enjoyed it, you get there to be shot at and it's a question of keeping your nerve and we've managed to do that. We got knocked off and we've managed to creep back up within sight of doing it again. So it tells me that my players can deal with those positions and the expectation that goes with it.
" We are going to have to be very, very good to do that because we are playing arguably the best form team at the moment in the division in Swansea who are top of the division quite deservedly. They have some very good players and a very good team who will be a major test for us coming up this Saturday. If my group of players here are up to that test then that will be a well earned position to be in at Christmas if we can do it.
" I called the performance on Saturday powerful because I thought we were, we had to be strong. I think if we'd got a nice tippy-tappy football match it would have been probably a bit difficult for us but we had to be strong and deal with their players in that way. Without being naughty and without giving the referee problems which we didn't do particularly, we handled it very well.
" I thought that to keep a clean sheet as well as win the game was equally as pleasing for me because Leyton Orient had five wins under their belt away from home and goals galore in their front end. We knew that we had to do that and be strong at the back so my defensive display was equally as pleasing as winning at the top end. I thought that all my back four did well, there was a lot of work to do for the centre-backs because they come down the middle at you.
" People like (Adam) Boyd and (Jabo) Ibhere have got a reputation already in this league and they had to be dealt with. They are good players, they nipped through us once in the first-half and Keiren (Westwood) had to pull off a good save and you knew then that they had that in their locker. For us to restrict that number of chances going into Keiren was very pleasing from all the back four. "
" The same kind of thing happened at Northampton on the disallowed goal and we got the decision when Richard Keogh challenged their goalkeeper (Mark Bunn) and it dropped for Joe Garner's goal. They were very upset that they thought there was a foul, every time there is a collision with the goalkeeper there is a claim for a foul.
" If you look at it long enough and hard enough you can see where there might be a foul. I did think that on Saturday the referee (Scott Mathieson) signalled a goal and I did think then that he took the decision of his linesman who was a lot further away to give the decision. If it has gone in our favour then so-be-it, there have been times in the area when things have not gone in our favour.
" I don't really get on to referees or linesmen, I don't think there is much point so sometimes you get them and sometimes you don't. That went for us but that said, over the full 90 minutes we had enough chances to win a couple of games. It would have been a shame had we had that decision go against us and still not won. Decisions happen, I don't think it's a question of even-ing out. You get some for you and some against you.
" I listen to the top managers talking about referees every Saturday and I think to myself that there is more to the game than that. It is really a smokescreen sometimes, we got the decision, I accept that, I thought there was a case for a foul, I thought there was a case for a goal, it's how people want to see it. The referee and linesman saw it and gave us a free-kick so fine, we'll take it.
" Greg (Abbott) and I have conversations on the sidelines, it might be me asking him if he thinks we need to changes things or it might be him saying that he thinks someone is getting tired and we need to keep an eye on them. Or it might be Neil Dalton saying that someone has taken a bit of a knock so we just need to keep an eye on it, keep watching that and get people ready.
" It might be just saying to the substitutes to keep themselves on the move because it might suddenly be a quick shout that they are on and you need to be ready and right. So there are all sorts of conversations go through your mind, it's good to have people with strong opinions. "
" Greg will say something to me and I'll say no and that we'll leave it as it is, or I'll say something to him and he'll say that it is up to me but he thinks it is OK. I've got no "yes men" next to me, I've got people with opinions which I respect. I haven't particularly worked with "yes men" but I've seen it happen and I think to myself that they need to have a bigger contribution than that.
" I've been an assistant manager a number of times at different clubs and people ask me what it is like. I tell them that you give your opinions to the manager, he picks the team and he decides that he is right and you get on with it and you support him. That's just how it has got to be, it's a bit like marriage - my wife is always right.
" Scouts are at every game, we go to a lot of games and it doesn't mean that you are going to sign a player or that you are watching a certain player. The scouts that were here on Saturday, there were probably only two or three not from our league so the basis of their visits would be to get assessment back for their reports for their managers because we are playing each other.
" So it's just a question of people doing their jobs, if you were to take the scouts lists at any single game in this country on any Saturday you'd probably get ten clubs visiting every game because they have got reasons for being there. It might be to keep an eye on one player, a player, it might be an away player, it might not be one of ours. So the speculation comes from people like you and people who write in the papers because they invent that, it's not from people like me who work in the game.
" We are second in the league and I've got a 19-year old boy with ten goals, I've got a very young team going off here. There are players here that are showing capabilities of playing at a good level, they are at a good level but they can maybe go a bit higher. We'd like to go higher as a club and we'd like them to come with us if that is possible. "
" If not then we'll deal with it but there is no point in me laying awake at night thinking about what I will do if that happens. I lay awake at night thinking that I have got that and what I am going to do with it, I won't get worried or concerned about things I can't control.
" There were no injuries from Saturday, everybody seems OK so we're very fortunate with that at the moment and long may it stay that way. He (Neil Dalton) is getting a bit fatter, he's just sat there eating waiting for somebody to get injured so we keep feeding him and making sure that no-one gets injured.
" We'd like to have seen the reserve game go on, it was going to be a young side and Joe Widdowson was going to play so I've missed that opportunity. We'll keep in touch with Joe and West Ham though, I pretty much got the reaction that he enjoyed it here, enjoyed watching the game on Saturday - Leyton Orient is actually his local team, he's from that area.
" So we'll probably have another look at him a bit later on into the New Year. West Ham have got a game themselves I think on Thursday and they want him to play in that which is fine, obviously he is their player. I'll speak to Kevin Keen who is his coach down there and we'll see if we can have a look at Joe in the New Year.
" I look at the Christmas period from last Saturday to the Port Vale game, fifteen points to be won or lost or whatever. If you can get double figures out of your points tally then we'll still be in a strong position, if we're lower down with five or six then we'll be in the chasing pack. That's how much it means I think, that's how important it can be and particularly in a tight league like ours.
" If we can gain enough points then we'll put people in the chasing pack a little bit further away from us and games start to drift away then quite quickly as you get into January and February. You can really strengthen a top six position so it's an absolutely important and vital time to try to pick up your points. "
" There shouldn't be any fixture congestion but it is our own fault that we are out of the cups, I don't like being out of the cups, I've said that before and certainly it reduces the finances at the club. Cup runs bring in a good bit of money and if that can be recycled into strengthening the team then that it is a good move.
" We haven't got that though so we've got to put all our attentions and focuses on league matches, and to be fair to the team that's what they are doing. People expect me to know what went wrong in those games but we played very well against Grimsby at home I felt and did everything but win the game, away from home we didn't particularly play so well.
" Stockport had three shots in the second-half and scored with all three which itself is very unusual but can happen, but doesn't happen on too many occasions fortunately. So you don't like it but you know that it is not going to happen too many times, and fortunately for us in the league it doesn't happen too many times.
" So if you want to say that it happened in the right games then so-be-it but I disagree because, as I say, it puts us out of cups or good money spinning cup runs maybe. You have a blip though, you have a flip side to your season sometimes and it happened to us in three or four cup matches which is disappointing. If at the end of the season though we are in a favourable league position then we won't mind will we.
" We've got covers on the pitch at the moment and the covers will remain on it throughout the week. Again I can't do anything about the weather, we'll look at it on Friday and Saturday and if it's fit then it's fit, if it's not then we can't play. At the moment though everything is fine. "