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" I think the good atmosphere at the awards dinner carried on from immediately after the game. I think I said on the evening that we were looking at a disappointed dressing-room immediately after the game because of what might have been. We probably wondered what was going to happen when we came back onto the pitch at Brunton Park, but the fans there were absolutely wonderful.
" If we needed a lift then that was it absolutely, that mood went back into the players and carried into Sunday night when we all got back together again. Now I'm looking for the first training session since then and looking for that mood to continue, because we have achieved something, whatever disappointment lies behind us.
" Then we have to got to put that away and say that we have got two football matches against one of the biggest football clubs in the country I think, let alone in our division, and put ourselves up against them. We've managed to win one, we've lost one against them, there have been a lot of goals in both games. I don't know if they are going to be as close as that in the play-offs but I think that it is a fantastic thing to look forward to now and everybody should be in that good mood.
" It will be good, they'll have the whole ground open, I think there were 37,000 in there on Saturday for them. So that is the first challenge for us, is to go and deal with that, they'll be a very vociferous, very lively and partisan crowd. We'll be tucked away in the corner as we have been before but that's life and we've got to go there as a bit of the underdogs I reckon and see if we can give them a game. We'll try very hard to do that.
" We wanted to get automatic, but that's fine, we all know that we didn't, but now there is an excitement about the next stage. I think that is the plus side of it, that is where we should have some sort of celebration and push forward and see what we can do. I'm certainly in that mood myself now, I've got through everything that has gone on in the last few weeks which we wanted to be a bit better. "
" Now though here we go, we know exactly where we stand, we've got two fantastic games to look forward to. They are queuing up already for tickets and people in the city are looking forward to this game right now. We have got a week yet before it happens, so a good build-up and I think that is part of the occasion as well, people will enjoy the build-up looking towards it.
" I think within the football club the Players' Player of the year award is the one, with great respect to all the others, that the players covet the most. When their own players have rewarded them with that, or think that they have been the most consistent player, I think that is terrific. For David (Raven) at right-back to get that as well is an excellent effort from him.
" It isn't always the right-backs that claim the glory, it's often your goalscorers or your flair players or whatever. David's play though has been very, very consistent since I've been here. I left him out once and it knocked him back a little bit, but he bounced back exceptionally strongly. I think that is one of the other reasons he has got it, he has got that toughness in him. I'm delighted for him and I think it shows him what the other players think about him, there is a lot of respect for David.
" We have to get used to disappointment, we're in that sort of game aren't we, but he has come round through his ban. He's working hard with his training, he is going to keep himself in good nick and if I need him for that second game then he will obviously be ready. He wants to play a part in that, the good side of things is that we have Danny Livesey available for that first leg again, after missing out on Saturday.
" So things happen, young (Darren) Campion has done very well, he has come in and let people know why we have given him another year's contract. Young Gary Madine made his debut on Saturday, so there are lots of things to look forward to in this football club, as I said on Sunday. The immediate one though obviously is this game against Leeds.
" We've just talked about our disappointment, it's got nowhere near Bournemouth's. They ran themselves so close, six wins at the end of the season and giving themselves that great of chance of staying up and then just missing out right at the death. I feel for them simply because the loss of ten points is not anything to do with management or players, that is administration and something in the other side of the club. "
" When Kevin Bond and his players have got that close to getting out of something that is not down to them and not their fault, then relegation is a hard thing for them to take. I think we probably realised that we are not in that bad a position after all when we met up with them at that end of the pitch. I think that is just the camaraderie between professional footballers that you feel for each other. You want to beat each other all the time but it's a fine line this success and failure business and I think that both teams showed that on Saturday.
" Of course I'm pleased that Cheltenham stayed up, anybody that has had four and a bit years at a football club then you get some affection to it and you get to know people. I passed my congratulations on on Saturday night, they had their player of the year do then immediately after the game, so they will have had a good do. I just asked Keith (Downing) to tell the staff and the guys there well done from me, and I was really pleased for them. They are good things as well that go on in the football world.
" Playing the two games quickly is the way it is. I do have to say that the schedules for all the games were in the balance to see how Leeds United finished. They have been changed, we had these dates before Saturday going into a game and we knew where we would play whatever position we finished in.
" Then all that has suddenly altered and it was all based on Leeds United, but again, what can I or anyone else do about that? Monday and Thursday is like playing a Saturday and a Tuesday in terms of your preparation and getting ready. So looking at it that way it is what we have been used to doing, it's what we normally do and we'll just get on with it.
" You look at Danny Livesey and Keiren (Westwood), both very young players in their early 20's in the PFA team. David Raven is not an old guy, he is a young early 20's boy at full-back who has been voted by the lads. There is a lot, we'll always look back with a tinge of what might have been, and that is absolutely right because that is the human factor. Again though it is something that you have got to look back on and say that it was pretty good. "
" I think sometimes in, and it's not adversity really, but sometimes when you are up against it, and we are going to be up against it in these next games against Leeds. Then that is sometimes when the best side shines through of people, and I'm looking for my boys to be tough and resolute in these two games. To say that OK, maybe Leeds are the favourites, in the whole play-offs, not just against us, but we might have a say in that yet and we have to go and try to beat them. There is nothing certain is there in football, that is the one thing that is certain I think in terms of that.
" We've managed to beat them once, we've managed to get ahead of them twice, we've pegged them back and things like that away and at our place. We've dealt with the big crowd syndrome which we had at their place before, so it's not new, it's not as if we are going into something we don't know about. They'll fancy their chances, of course they will and I expect them to but we've got to have a little fancy of our chances as well. We'll need to work it and we'll need to plan it and we'll need to be strong as I've said, both mentally and physically, and I'm sure that is in our armour to do that.
" Paul Reid hasn't been that close actually. We hoped that he would be fit and we've looked at that in the long-term of Paul and we are not going to renew that loan. So we've allowed Paul to go back to Barnsley and get his treatment and his work there. Because with the best will in the world we all wanted him to be here, he did.
" He didn't feel though that he was going to be fit enough and able to help us enough in the terms that we wanted him. So we've decided on that, that is probably the best course of action for him. At least I know exactly where I am as well with it, we are not wondering ifs and maybes, so that is the decision made on that.
" There won't be any repercussions with Paul Huntington if we leave it alone, and I think we should. The young man apologised to everyone in Carlisle, we as a football club said that we are big enough to accept that, that is not a problem. So the only problem now is trying to beat them at a game of football, everything else should be secondary, that shouldn't be an issue at all. It certainly won't be with my team and my players and people here, we'll just get on with the game of football and I hope that our supporters and the Leeds supporters do the same.
" There aren't any contract negotiations at the moment, I can't do any more because we are still playing our football. We'll be in the planning stages of things now over the next week and ten days, but certainly we won't be having further discussions with players. At this time everything has got to be put to one side, and the players are fine with that, they understand that. They won't want any other distractions going on, so everything is put away until we have finished. "