Blarney

FA Cup The Rematch Preview You had - by your own words - a pretty successful first meeting with Queens Park. Are you confident you can get the result here at their park after failing at home? I'm confident that we've put in a good few days of training and that we're healthier now than we were when we first played them. In the first match you had a couple of strikers returning from injury that obviously weren't 100% but it seems like you're confident you'll be better rested and in better physical shape this time around. Do you expect that to make a difference? It certainly can't hurt to have Pollock and Collins back at full strength, not to mention a couple of others that are just coming off injury as well. The fact is we played them to a draw the first match when we weren't at full strength so we definitely have to feel better now that we have a couple more players available to us.

November in Review Schedule All in all not bad for losing all our forwards at different times this month. 4 wins, 2 losses in league play. A win and a draw in the FA Cup. We'll take it. Table Gateshead slipped a little and now there are other teams with a fighting chance. We're sitting in 9th, just a point out of a playoff spot. NL Team Stats NL Player Stats Gulls Attacking Data Gulls Defending Data Finances Nice month for the finances. Very nice.

FA Cup Second Round Can you take something from this result? Well I can take that we get to play again here in a few days to decide a winner. Your squad managed only 2 shots the whole game while QPR got off 14 yet you held them to no goals for the draw. Yeah it's another glass half full or half empty example isn't it? We were not good with our attack and obviously we'll have to be better the 2nd time around... but at the same time despite allowing Queens Park to get shots off we kept them out of the net and we have to take something from that. You meet them again in 3 days, are you planning on doing anything differently? Yeah... putting the ball in the back of the net, maybe a couple of times.

FA Cup Second Round Preview You are facing League One's QPR in the second round of the FA Cup. Any chance you come away with a good result from the match? Stop me if you've heard this before but I always back my boys. So there's a chance? Any given sunday. *laughs* You have Pollock and Collins back - albeit maybe not at full strength - but do you expect them to play? I think both will be out there but as you say they're not going to be full strength so we'll probably have to watch their fitness. Will you be attacking or sitting back and trying to hamper their attack more? I have a really hard time not telling my boys to push the ball forward, it's how we play. But at the same time we have to be cognizant of QPR's ability to do the same so I think we'll go out there and just test the waters and see how the match flows and make changes as we need.

Match Twenty-Two

Contract Extension How pleased are you that you signed a new 2-year extension with the club? Over-the-moon. I'm so proud of what we have accomplished this past season and what we're doing so far this year. All credit goes to the players and to the backroom staff for their hard work and dedication. Does this take any pressure off for the remainder of the season since your contract was up this year? I honestly didn't feel that much pressure, this is one of those things that's out of your hands as a manager. My job is to go out there and do the best I can for the club and if the board recognizes that then you expect that you'll stay employed. I had obviously hoped that what we did last year was enough to earn me a contract, but I understood that maybe they wanted to take a little time and see how we did this season. Either way... I'm ecstatic it's done. The work continues.

Match Twenty-One

Match Twenty So we know you probably won't use it as an excuse but how hard was it to put a team out there when all 4 of your forwards are injured and you're using guys that aren't specifically used to playing in that position up front? Umm, yeah... fun, right? I don't know that I've ever seen this before. I have 4 guys that I rotate up front and all 4 are out with different sorts of injuries, but that's the game. You're right, you don't make excuses, because it doesn't matter. You can't change the circumstances so you deal with how the cards fall. Harris has the ability to play the position but it's not his natural position. The same goes for Hilton... so making excuses takes away from them going out there and giving their best. And it's still a team game. We win or lose as a club and we don't fixate on something we can't control. I trust every single one of my guys to go out there and play their role, their part... and we'll get through this.

Another Injury Another striker down...... I don't even have a healthy striker now, at least someone that really plays that position. This is utterly ridiculous.

Match Nineteen This makes it 6 unbeaten and vaults you into playoff contention. For a club that was picked for a relegation battle in the preseason this must make you pretty happy? I mean we're 18 games into the season. I'm certainly not unhappy but at the same time there's a lot of the season left to play. We have definitely proven that we belong but if anybody in this organization thinks that 18 matches means anything, it doesn't.

Match Eighteen A big win for the club but it came with a big cost of 3 players going down with serious injuries. And that's on top of Pollock going down for the 2nd time this season for multiple weeks and McGavin being injured as well. That's 5 injuries to starters who will be out for weeks. We know you'll say "next man up" but this has to hurt. No pun intended. I'm not trying to make light of it but I don't know how else to react because yeah this is, uh, not really optimal. We have 3 of our 4 forwards and 2 center-mids all injured now. That's half my starters... half the first 11 not including the keeper all out with injuries and not just minor, out for a couple of days injuries as well. They're going to be out for weeks. Luckily... yes this is the next man up speech, but luckily we do have some depth in the club to hopefully get past this... but no, it's, it's definitely not good.

Match Seventeen

FA Cup First Round Based on the pregame comments by both Riza and yourself is this vindication? I feel I've answered this before but we'll do it again. If I said it was vindication then it would lead more credence to what Riza said before the match. I don't care what he said and I still don't think he absolutely meant it the way the media is making it out to be. They were favorites coming in to this match. We were the underdogs. But if there was any thought that we were going to just lay down and let them steamroll us.... well I guess we showed them. Riza made more comments after the match about your win being a fluke. Here were his exact comments: Does that change how you feel? **laughs** No. He may be right, I like the any given Sunday reference which I've used before. I don't know about 9 times out of 10 they win but it's possible they win the majority of the time. Or maybe they don't and we're just better. We played one match and we won and no matter what he says he can't take that away. Pollock went down hard while dribbling during the 2nd half in what looked like a leg injury. Do you have any news? He'll be evaluated further but my guess is a hamstring injury and those can be tricky. I would expect him to miss quite a few games unfortunately.

Upcoming FA Cup Match MK Dons gaffer Omer Riza had some rather unflattering things to say about Torquay United prior to their FA Cup match. Do you have a response to the comments Riza made regarding Torquay being an easy opponent? Well gosh, he said "with all due respect" right.... so that makes it all better. Look honestly I don't think he meant it quite as harsh as it came off but that doesn't mean we're not going to take it harshly. In in the states we refer to this as "billboard material" which means something we'll put up on a billboard for all our players to see and hopefully motivate them to go out and make him pay for his comments. Do you agree that you're the underdog here? Well of course we are. We're a tier under them. They're a much larger club. So on paper we are obviously the underdogs. Does that mean we think we are or are planning on rolling over for them and giving them an easy match? Absolutely not. Like I said, I hope the comments motivate our boys to go out there and give them everything they can handle and eat their words. So you're expecting a win? I'm expecting us to be ready to play. If they beat us but we give them a good game then so be it, as long as we know we left everything out there on the pitch. But the expectation is we're going to give it everything we've got.... and I never bet against my boys.

October in Review Schedule Busy month. Decent month. 3 wins, a draw and 2 losses in league play.... and a crazy couple of games in the FA Cup to advance. Table Holding steady on the table. Just 3 points off a playoff spot. Gateshead is still running away with this. NL Team Stats NL Player Stats Gulls Attacking Data Attack is decent, a little off on cross completion and slightly lower on shots on target. Gulls Defending Data Finances Made a little cash this month, that helps.

Match Sixteen

Match Fifteen

Match Fourteen

Match Thirteen

FA Cup Fourth Qualifying Round -- the Rematch These 3 matches against Altrincham have been something special. The fans have got a little bit of everything from them all. You get the tight victory in the first match. A comeback draw in the 2nd. And then you somehow sneak away with the win in a penalty shootout that you were down 3-1 in. Are you carrying around a rabbit's foot with you? I don't think I've ever seen anything like it. Credit the players for just not giving up in the last couple of matches but that was crazy. I thought that 2nd match with our 2 late goals, I didn't think that could be topped.... but a penalty shootout where we're down 1-3... and then they miss 3 straight shots for us to escape with the victory. If I was at their place I would have skipped the shower and just ran my guys out of there as quickly as possible before someone woke me up and told me it was all a dream.

FA Cup Fourth Round Qualifying Match This is the epitome of a glass half full, glass half empty match. Down 1-0 at half, you quickly go down 2-0 and look like you have no answer for what they're throwing at you only to get 2 late goals from Pollock in the 81st and 85th minutes to escape with the draw. You have to be feeling relieved. Altrincham did a really great job of keeping us away from their goal, especially in the first half. I think we got off maybe 4 shots and none of them really challenged them. Luckily we were almost as good in front of our goal. They did get the one in but they really weren't pressuring us, it was just a very good defensive match. When they got their 2nd early in the 2nd half... I'll admit then I was a little concerned because we just hadn't shown much to that point. But then something started clicking and we started putting a little pressure on them. We got those 2 late goals from Pollock while keeping them away from our net so yeah... relieved is a good word. You're back home for the next match against them to settle this. Does that give you the upper hand? Playing in front of the supporters always gives us something a little extra. So hopefully we can turn that into our advantage.

FA Cup Preview This is the 2nd leg of a back-to-back versus Altrincham. You faced them just a few days ago in league play and this time you're up against them at J. Davidson Stadium in a FA Cup Fourth Qualifying Round match. You won the first match 2-1 by controlling possession and limiting shots against you. Is it just a case of more of the same or do you expect them to mix things up this time around? Facing a team again right after you faced them or even within a couple of games is always interesting. Whether you won or lost the first match you've learned something which you'll take into the 2nd game. If you won the first match then you have an idea of what works and if you lost then you have an idea of what doesn't. Either way you can expect things to change the next time around. If you won - which we did - then you can expect the other team to change things up to counter what you did.... and vice-versa obviously. So it's up to us to try and continue doing what we did right the first time aorund... while also expecting them to try and change up what they did.

Match Twelve

Match Eleven

September in Review Schedule Definitely a better month. 2 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss in 5 matches. Definitely signs of growth. Table Still sitting mid-table - although only 4 points off a playoff spot - but we did tick up a few notches. Gateshead is having their way at the moment. Crewe is trying to keep pace. Everyone else is just looking up at them. NL Team Stats That's what we like to see. Moving up the leaderboard when it comes to average possession and pass completion ratio. NL Player Stats Still not a lot of players represented here but we do see a couple moving up. Gulls Attacking Data Gulls Defending Data Finances I'm not sure how we can be in the red but our finances still be okay........... but okay.