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" Gillingham was a tough game as you'd expect, they set their stall out with three centre-backs. No frills about Gillingham's play, and I suppose that in their position you can't have really. It was very much up and at 'em, and we had to withstand that, but the first 15 minutes I thought were good.
" We had goalscoring opportunities during that and the last 20 minutes we got the ball down and played and threatened, but between then it was a stand up and face it, and we dealt with that quite well. So considering we've had three of the last four games away from home and we've returned back to Carlisle unscathed with points in the bag, I've got to be very pleased with that period of games.
" It's interesting that all your texts about signing a striker as cover came after that (Danny Graham injury) happened rather than before it which is always hindsight. We're OK with what we've got and Danny looks as if he is going to be alright anyway. It's frustrating for us all that Scott (Dobie) can't play, Scott has been stop-start since he got into the football club here.
" He has done well and then he has not been able to get in the side since we've had a good run, and now he can't even get on as a substitute because of the contractual thing, so it's been a bit stop-start. I think really, Scott is playing a good part for us but he'll surely want a lot more, I'm sure that he'll want the season to finish successfully but he'll be looking forward to next season so he can get going in full. "
" We try to win every game, and when you can it's great and when it happens in the run that we have had then it's fantastic, it's quiet special that type of run, it's never happened before. So that's how difficult it is to get those, and to get another three is even more difficult. That home form is going to be tested to the full when you look at the five games that we have got to come here and the opponents that we've got to face. So we've just got to keep working at trying to maintain that level of performance and see if we can continue that run.
" People talk to me about Swansea, are they going to falter and I'm not sure that they are, but I'd rather be where they are. So that's how it is, the game is like that, but we are where we are and we've got to try to maintain that and we've got the opportunity to do so. We'll try very hard as everybody has seen in the past two months, there is a really determined feel about the team and we are trying very, very hard to maintain the level of success that we have had in the last eight weeks.
" Had they (Nottingham Forest) won on Friday at Doncaster you'd have been still looking at them in the race for the top two places, but possibly that is a little bit away from them now. Other teams have picked up and closed the gap on them, and for Nottingham Forest not to make the play-offs this year would be a footballing disaster in their terms.
" Simply because they expect to be Championship, and even higher sometimes, so we expect, as we saw Gillingham fighting for their lives, we expect to see Nottingham Forest doing that. I keep saying to other people though, don't underestimate what we are fighting for as well, there is a big fish for us to try to catch at the moment and we are trying hard to do that. "
" The fixtures tomorrow are as if somebody has planned them all, they are good and you are looking all round at different types of results and different games. You are wondering what will happen and then when they do happen you look at the next one and think about those that are happening on Saturday and so on. That's the stage of the season I think though, you are at the final part now, the last 60 or 70 yards of a sprint and you are wondering if we can maintain it now and if we can get away from people.
" Wondering if people will catch us up or are they going to stay there, there are a lot of questions yet to be answered, and strangely enough in three or four weeks they will all be answered. So we've just got to dig in and put our focus on what is happening here, and see if we can get our result against Nottingham Forest. The one that we want, and then nothing else will really matter that much to us.
" There is a cause, I think it is trying to keep your players calm and your staff around you, and everybody trying to make the right decisions. Mine and the staff are trying to get the preparation right, and get the team selection right, and any substitutions that we need to make. The players' are to get as many good decisions right on the pitch in the heat of the battle of the game.
" So it's really just trying to stop everybody getting carried away with what might happen, because if you start thinking about that then you have a good chance of losing it. So I don't think it's any different at the top or the bottom really, we focused the players last year to try to stay in the league at my previous club and we are focusing the players this year to try to move up a league. It's basically the same reasoning that you are using with the players to try to get that to happen. "
" I think we've shown that our nerve is holding, we've had three games out of the last four away from home and we've had two massive real battles at Swindon and Gillingham and we've stood our ground. We scored twice when we had to at Swindon, we couldn't find a goal at Gillingham but we stood our ground when we had to.
" We played exceptionally well away at Leyton Orient and we were very thorough against Northampton in our last four games. So in a sense the occasion doesn't worry me about the players, I think they can deal with that, it is just a question of are we going to be good enough on those days to get the right results. I don't think the situation will phase my team, I think it's just them getting the performances right on those days.
" They have been together a long time and you look at the photographs around the club and you see them holding up cups and medals, and celebrating from other leagues and things that they have done before. So that's probably the reason that the occasions don't phase them, they have been together, they are very much together as a group.
" The people that we bring in, as we've done with the four lads in January and Paul Reid now, have fitted in brilliantly, they are the right types of person to come into this group. So we're not concerned about that, it's just if things go for us on the day, and we've got to look for that tomorrow, and we've got to work hard to make sure that those things happen.
" We walk past those photographs every day that we come into the football club and I think that is a good thing. I've said to those players that there are pictures of you on there and there are none of me, and that I want a picture of me in this football club with something to show. It's fine, I think it's a good thing to see that and remind them of where they have been, what they have done and how they have dealt with that. They've probably got, certainly in recent experience, more of that than I have so we'll be learning off each other I'm sure. "