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" It's an old record now, thoroughly dominated the game and got beat, well we dropped two points, we didn't get beat but it felt like a defeat to me. Excellent performance, great attitude, the players showed their ability today in terms of the way they passed it, controlled it, moved off it, the number of crosses we got into the box and the number of chances that we made.
" People will say that we didn't win which is true, and that's the disappointing thing when you play as well as we did today. Carlisle have got a long journey up the road but they must think they are going to fly up the road because they have come today and I don't think that they deserve to take anything home, maybe that's why they are at the top of the league though.
" It's a frustration when we don't score but the hardest thing in the game is to put the ball in the back of the net and the easiest bit, from my way of thinking, is to defend. Carlisle didn't play well today because we didn't let them play well. We've beat them in every department, apart from, they seemed to get their body in the way of any shot, if their keeper didn't get it then one of their players got it. They were fighting for each other and that's probably why they are at the top of the league, they defend it in numbers and it's all about getting points.
" The pleasing thing is that it's not the first time that we have played like that, we played like that against Leyton Orient in spells and in other games we've played. So we're starting to put it together, there is a belief that what we are doing is correct and it's a case now that we've got to get a victory because the fans will get cheesed off with me saying that we played well but didn't get three points. It would be nice for us to go away and play well and get three points, or play poorly and get three points just for the sake of getting the three points. "
" Coxy (Simon Cox) is a typical striker, confident, he knows that he will miss chances but he knows that he will score as well. He's got a great belief in his ability, when you see him in training he is always scoring. People make a lot of things about strikers missing chances but you've to be there to miss them and I've every faith and confidence in Coxy that he'll score far more than he'll miss. He scored today and he could have had another two or three as well.
" I think that the fans give Blair (Sturrock) a hard time, he's been in and out of the team since I came here, he works his tail off. At times he gives the ball away cheaply, I think that is my biggest criticism but his heart is in the right place and he works his tail off and I think that he deserved his goal today. He had a couple of other chances, never let his head go down, the boy is desperate to play in the team like every other player in the dressing-room.
" I think that they've got a fantastic attitude towards the game and we've got to encourage that attitude and we've got to encourage them to go and play and perform the way they can play. We don't do much in terms of telling them how to play when we have got the ball, the person on the ball has to decide that. Today we made the right decisions, the players off the ball made themselves available, when we all do that together it's an easy game.
" Michael (Timlin) I thought was excellent, when we spoke to him this morning we just said to play it nice and simple. He's got nothing to prove to me and he's got nothing to prove to the fans, I think the fans enjoyed him the last time he was here. I told him just to go and make it nice and simple, we knew what type of player he was, he would take the ball and pass the ball. He's got a sweet left foot, left-footers always seem to look more stylish than right-footers. I thought he had an excellent game, it was unfortunate that he never scored a goal.
" We could do with a bit of Donald Duck or a bit of last-ditch tackling, they've probably had a couple of chances and scored two. That is the disappointing thing but I've got to go the other way, I've got to be the positive one tonight and talk about the number of chances we did create. The way we passed the ball, the way we played as a team fluently up and down the park, it's another thing that we'll have a chat about and try to fix without making a big thing out of it. "
" The first penalty claim I thought at half-time was a stonewaller, an absolute stick on for a penalty. Michael (Timlin) has made a great run, it's been a great delivered pass and he's been absolutely pole-axed. How the referee thought that the player got the ball defies logic, and what really annoys us was the linesman, or his assistant, put his flag up and then wasn't brave enough to keep it up. I think the referee apologised at half-time but they make mistakes, we make mistakes, but it would be nice if we had got something soft, something simple, and scored from it.
" I don't think that we'll ever worry about playing well because the goals will come, we've no doubt about that, we've got players that can score goals, I've got no problem with that at all. What we've got to do though is continue showing the right attitude to produce performances like that. Performances like that don't come easily, they don't come at will and we've got to work hard at it.
" We've got to work hard at the training during the week so we take it into the game on Saturday. Everybody knows their job and if we can get eleven players like we did today doing their job above average then we'll get performances and we'll get victories.
" I don't want to get pigeon-holed as a style, I don't know what my style is, I just want to see the players pass the ball to their team-mates and to create chances. I think that every manager wants to do that, I believe the type of team that we are that we can't just shell it back to front. If you want to pigeon-hole it that way then I can't see us being route one. We've got to pass it, but the players don't want to be route one either. I think I would have a problem if I was trying to play one way, or want to play one way, and the players could only play another way, or want to play in another way.
" The players want to pass the ball and I'm just giving them a platform to play. Hopefully I've got a decent balance in the team in terms of when we lose the ball and it's up to them what we do when we've got the ball. We do very little in terms of, when a player has got the ball it's up to them decide where to pass it. We try to get the players to work off the ball and we get width and we get crosses in and we get attempts at goal and that happened today. We've got to work hard to make sure that it happens again at Brighton next week. "