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It is not a quick health check, it is a long one, we are in with Dolly (Neil Dalton) today, we have got a few walking wounded. But we will have a look at them all today and see where they are all at with stuff, and then we will go from there through the week.
But I don't think any of the long-termers are going to be with us for the remaining two games. But we are hopeful of Ian (Harte), Tom Taiwo, who had a real bad knock on his ankle will be OK to join us for Saturday. Danny (Livesey) will have benefited as well from having 60 plus minutes on Saturday as well.
PN
So at this stage do you envisage any further problems ahead of the weekend?
GA
I don't think so no, I think they will all be OK come Saturday, but we certainly couldn't do with any more, anything to happen in training next week.
PN
You mentioned Ian Harte there, a quick mention for his inclusion in the PFA team of the year, that is some achievement?
GA
Yeah, I mean I think a lot of people have noticed the amount of goals he has scored. He has done fantastically, I mean amazingly well, it might even be some sort of a record, 18 goals for a centre-half, and he is an out and out centre-half.
He is a player we wanted to bring in, he brings us a lot of quality, he brings us an experience, he brings us a good person round the camp. That is a congratulations for him and a bit of credit to everybody at the club that he has managed to force his way into the team with the other boys in there.
PN
There was speculation over Ian's future around January, during the transfer window time, where do you think that lies?
GA
I don't think there is anything in it to be honest, there is always speculation round our club in terms of players in and out and that is all it is, speculation. I think as far as I can gather the conversation we had with Ian, he is always delighted to be here. He is enjoying his football, he had a tough year before he came here but he is really happy.
He is settled, he lives at home with his family, he sees them every night rather than being away from home. As far as I know he is very, very happy but situations change in football, but I wouldn't have thought that one would be one that he would be too keen to do anything about just at the minute.
PN
Ian of course is part of a defence which came in for a bit of criticism on Saturday for the way they conceded the goals. Have you managed to speak to the players about that yet and what can you do to try to prevent that from happening?
GA
It amazes me that it is only ever the back four and the goalkeeper that get brought in for criticism when you concede goals. A lot of times you have actually given the ball away upfront or you have made a mistake higher up the pitch or a midfield player has missed a tackle or a wide player has not tucked in.
So, we are not in that mould, if we concede a goal it is a team blame. If we score a goal we are also going to pat everybody on the back, even the goalkeeper that sometimes might have aimed the kick upfield for somebody to knock on to put into the back of the net.
So, as a team nobody can be blameless for goals we concede. If you backtrack all the goals that you concede there is a mistake somewhere, and many a time the mistake is made elsewhere rather than your back four. They are the people that have got to try to keep the ball out.
So, I am not in the mindset of just apportioning individual blame. But we do need to, certainly the timings of the goals are very, very crucial to us at the moment. We have got to, certainly as we continue our progress, make ourselves tighter at the back.
In that sense sometimes you have got some to sacrifice some of your football, and sometimes you have to play different systems to give yourselves that platform. So, everybody can't have it all ways can they?
PN
A good bulk of the goals you have conceded this season in the first five or ten minutes of the second-half immediately after the half-time interval. How much of a concern is that and why do you think that has been happening?
GA
Well, we must have eradicated the problem from last year then where they all came in the last ten minutes. So, I think more coincidence than anything really. Listen, at half-time generally if you have played well in your first-half and you give the lads a pat on the back then they might be a bit complacent.
That is maybe something we will look at but I do think it would be purely more down to coincidence than anything else. But is something for us to look at, something for us to digest and maybe say, listen, we have conceded a few goals this season in that period between 45 and 55.
It is a killer time isn't it, if the games are tight you need to, certainly away from home, that next ten minutes is vital and then the home fans generally get on the home team's back. They force them to go forward, and then it leaves space at the back for you to exploit, so it is an important period of the game.
PN
You did earn some praise for the system you set out against Southampton, and I guess there were signs of encouragement in that system?
GA
Well, it amazes me that I have earned some praise when we have gone 3-1 down and it is like the Alamo at times at Southampton. So, I am amazed that people are OK with that. As a manager, whatever system I play I don't want to go 3-1 down, I want to be in the game all the time.
So, there are plusses and minuses for all systems and I am not criticising anybody for patting me on the back for playing a system, but we were actually 3-1 down in the game. We scored with a couple of minutes to go, or a minute to go to make it 3-2 so we have played a system that has lost the game and I am getting a pat on the back. I am struggling to work that one out really, but, you know.
We want to play a system and we want to play a type of football, which was the bulk of the argument from last week, where we can do all three. Depending on who we are playing, where we are playing and what type of players we have got available for that particular game.
Southampton played 4-3-3 by the way, or 4-5-1 on Saturday by the way and they were 3-1 up. So, where is the criticism and where is the praise and where we do we direct it? Do we criticise Alan (Pardew) for playing 4-5-1 and winning the game, and I get praise for playing 4-4-2 and losing the game? So, I am at pains to work that one out.
PN
The fact you have lost three back to back now, does that strengthen your resolve to make sure your team gets something out of these remaining two games?
GA
The answer to your question is we couldn't have played with anymore determination than we did on Saturday you know. We have gone to a football club that is huge, let's not start playing a silly game that we are on a level with them, because we are not.
If you walked out of the stadium and you looked at the fanbase and you looked at the type of stadium they have got and you looked at the playing staff they have got, looked at the backroom staff. Then when you hear their manager saying they have got £10 million to spend on players in the summer right, it is always going to be a tough game and we made it a tough game, as tough as we could against Southampton.
If we can take that same determination into Saturday's game, because the players know I wasn't happy with certain things on Saturday. Maybe it is a right time in such a big place like Southampton to express your disappointment and criticisms, when they actually think they have done OK in terms of their determination.
If we can produce the same determination and a bit more quality for Saturday then I think we will be fine. Again, you can't guarantee results at this level because we have had our backsides tanned a few times. But, we have also done what we have said we were going to do and that is get a reaction to criticism and get a reaction to poor performances, and we have done that in the past this year.
PN
I know you have said you are determined as well to put on a performance and hopefully get a win for those supporters?
GA
Absolutely, I mean, whatever we have gone through this season the same people have turned up week in and week out. For that I have to applaud every single one of them, if they are prepared to pay their money week in and week out and buy their season tickets and support this club then they are entitled to criticism.
I listened to an interesting interview with Ian Holloway on the radio last night coming back from another reserve game trying to look for improvement in the squad again. It was really interesting because Ian has played the type of football that has probably been there to stifle opposition.
He has had 12 months out of the game and he said he just wanted to entertain the fans, and for him this season it has worked, it has worked. So there may be a little bit of a message in there and I think as much as we can we want to entertain as much as we can.
Sometimes we think we are up against teams with a lot of quality that we have to make sure that we don't try to entertain too much and leave ourselves wide open and get carved to pieces, like we have done at times this season.
Not too many times have we actually got carved to pieces, but give teams an easy opportunity to score against us. Oldham went to Southampton, played 4-5-1 and got a point, now who is right and who is wrong, Dave Penney or Greg Abbott? They got a point, we didn't get a point, they played 4-5-1, I am getting a pat on the back for playing 4-4-2.
As much as we can there are going to be a lot of games next season where I think we can entertain, we can be aggressive with our formation and we can take the game to opposition. Sometimes I think we have got to be a little bit more cautious, I hope that makes sense to everybody.
PN
You alluded to looking at players to strengthen the squad, have you pinpointed exact areas you feel as though you will need to strengthen or is it pretty much right across the board?
GA
No, I have got the areas, we can't do an across the board regroup because that doesn't work in football, and the finances aren't there to do it. To be fair a lot of our players have done very, very well. If you take a lot of our players out of our treatment room and put them on the pitch on Saturday and put them on the pitch in the last four or five games we think we are not far away from giving a game to everybody.
So we only need three or four players and if I can be allowed to do that, shuffle the pack around to manage to do that then I think we will be in a good shape again next season, I really do.
PN
Any further movement on contract talks this week?
GA
Well, there should be something this week. We are getting to the stage where we have to have answers or we have to take it that players aren't going to commit and we have to do other things. But the players have been given a massive amount of respect and a massive amount of time.
Because time is on my side as well in terms of finding the players, we have done a lot of work, there are a lot of names on the list. So, if the players that we want that we have offered contracts to don't come back and say yes then we have to go down the line of the work we have done in terms of bringing in the freshness.
PN
A quick word about Workington Reds, I know you have a good working relationship with Darren Edmonson down there. They have got two big games this week in the play-offs, I guess you will be backing them and wishing them luck?
GA
Yeah, I mean they have done fantastic again, you listen to Darren talking and he has talked about team spirit, camaraderie, determination, things that are free, things that are free. Now we need 18 players similar to that in our squad that do the same, and to be fair we have done because that is why we have achieved, and on a level we have probably achieved similar if not in respective levels to Workington.
But with honesty and determination you can do a lot and I think Darren is delighted with the effort he has had from his players and the way they have stuck together. We wish them all the best and hope that they get into their next division.
PN
You have had a good relationship between the two clubs, especially this season, Tom Aldred and Ryan Bowman have gone there and of course Adam Collin you have taken from Reds as well. Do you think that kind of strength of relationship is mutually beneficial?
GA
Well, I don't think we would have been so keen to throw, certainly Ryan Bowman into the team without him proving he can do it at a proper level where the football is a very good level. You know with the foreign players coming into the game the levels I think have strengthened as you have gone down the leagues.
Go and play and if you can handle Workington at 17 then you are doing OK, and Tom, Darren was good with me with Tom. He said he thought in his own opinion, and Darren has been a professional centre-half in the league game, he knows what he is talking about, says that Tom has got a great chance.
So that tells you that somebody else's opinion saying that he is doing alright, and he has come in and he has proved it, he has played three out of the four games and done exceptionally well.
So, for us it gives us a level that doesn't hurt me to see where the players are in a higher, higher, much higher sort of competitive level than reserve team football. Which we have not been totally pleased with this season, not our players but the reserve standard that we have been given to play against.