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" It's exciting, I think that it is what we all work for and want isn't it. The pre-season is good, I quite enjoy it, but even getting into the latter stages of that I am waiting for the season to start. I know that my players are probably waiting before me because they want that to happen. Whatever you tell them in pre-season they know that that is what it is and that the real stuff starts this weekend.
" I was listening to little pieces on the radio last night and they were saying that even Manchester United against Juventus was a bit of a quiet steady, slow affair. I was thinking that that was right in there as well and they are ready to go as well, so I'm looking forward to it.
" He (Grant Smith) has got a tear in his thigh. It's nothing too severe, we think that he will be back in and around training in a week. So fingers crossed that that is the correct procedure for us to go with Grant. We are not so bad, when you set off with 24-odd players and you are looking to get everybody as well as you can for the start of the season then you are not likely to get everybody there. We're only going to miss a couple so we are not too badly off in that respect.
" I hope the poor recent games were because they were thinking about Saturday because if that is what it was then we will put it away very quickly. We will only know that though when Saturday arrives and we get on our football at Bristol Rovers. I'm not seeing that as a negative though, I'll take the positive sides of that and say that I have got it there and that I don't want it again. "
" Those points have been pretty forcibly made by Greg (Abbott), Dennis (Booth) and myself into the players. To be fair they have been saying the same back to us, that it wasn't right and that they have got to be better. So if that just keys it right up for this weekend then I will take it, I didn't enjoy and I didn't like it but I will put it to one side if I get a response this week in the real positive frame that I am after.
" He (Evan Horwood) is fine, we were lucky that it was just his head I think. Evan is OK, we looked after him, when he was in the hospital he saw the doctors and he saw the guys on Monday as well. Neil Dalton spent a lot of time with him over that weekend so we are happy that he is OK. He trained at the beginning of the week with us and he is ready for the weekend.
" Sometimes team selection is difficult, I think that this weekend it is a little bit because I have got a few things to think about over the period of the last three or four matches. Again, like I normally do, I'll discuss it with my staff this afternoon. I won't name the side today but I should have done it by Friday and then we can work on it then. I'll discuss it with my staff though, I think that is the right thing to do and if they give me things to think about then I'll get them thought out and sort a side out. Friday it will be named though on the way down to Bristol and we'll be ready to play.
" I want to improve this season and I have always said that. I don't make wild promises because sport doesn't let you do it, but what you are trying to do all the time is to get better. If we have learned things from last year, to see them come into fruition and to see players not making the same sort of mistakes, or improving on what they were good at last year. "
" People like Danny Graham with 16 or 17 goals, can he get that to 20 and things like that. So you are encouraging people to step it up, not unrealistic things either, I think that is foolish but from my point of view I want to make it better. I know how difficult that is going to be because we finished fourth, got into the play-offs and had an exceptionally good season last year. So to make that better we have got to be really good at what we do this year throughout the season. So we are putting a little bit of pressure on ourselves in that respect but there is no point being here if I am looking for less.
" I think the expectation might put extra pressure on Leeds and Leicester, but clubs that size and with the size of the squads that they have got are pretty much used to it. I think is that what it does do, when we go to Leeds or Leicester then it gives us a lift because they have got a terrific stadium and terrific fans, 30,000-odd plus, we had 40,000 nearly at Leeds last year.
" That gives teams like us a lift, and even my old club Cheltenham went to Leeds and won last year and beat them at home, they beat them over the two occasions. Playing those teams gives everybody a lift and that is their problem, they have got to lift their game every single week and be up there because their opponents see them as the big fish in the league. If they come through that and they have dealt with it then fair play, they will deserve to get what they receive.
" We ourselves will be a little bit of a scalp this year though, because of finishing fourth and one or two names have got a little bit more popular in our team. So we have got to be ready as well and that is something that I have put to our team, there is nothing comfortable, there wasn't last year to be right, but nothing comfortable at all. We have got to be up and at it every game we play.
" We haven't got anything at the moment on transfers. I'm not closing the door on any new players at all, you wouldn't expect me to do that, but there won't be a new face here for Saturday. We'll try to do what the supporters want because we know what they want. They want us to do better and that is something that I have already said we are trying to improve upon here if we can. Their support is terrific home and away, so keep with us, there will be some disappointing times but if you can stick with us through them as well then who knows what we can achieve together, we will try very hard. "