 Brought to you by DIS, keeping companies connected with cloud-based solutions. Come on, City! Connor, how's the last couple of days been? What's the reaction been like amongst your group following that defeat? I'm obviously a lot of disappointment with the game and how it panned out, but I think from that, people have been in this situation before and you've got to quickly move on and look forward to the next game and that's Carlisle. Before we look at that one, can we talk about a couple of the incidents in that game down at Newport? Firstly, the first goal for Newport, I should say, in Cardiff, shouldn't I? Have you seen it back now and seen that freaking incident? I know Mark wasn't very happy after the game, but hadn't fully seen it back, so what do you make to it now? You have probably had a look. I think it shows everything quite clear, really. You probably don't need me to comment and tell you what you saw. Like everybody else where there was not much contact and it looked like he sort of had a brush on his shoulder and went down and sort of miskicked the ball and he's given the foul. Not nice because obviously it leads to the goal and it's a great free kick, but you shouldn't have been a free kick that's for sure. How infuriating is that? Not obviously looking to criticise the referee and officials and all that sort of stuff. These things do happen, don't they, at times, but how infuriating when it does lead to such a pivotal moment in the game? Yeah, it's so frustrating because if that doesn't happen, then potentially the penalty incident doesn't happen because in seconds the game can flip on its head. Again, it was just really frustrating that the game was put into the hands of the referee and it sort of went sour for our team and our club. We're just looking to respond as well as we can. How's Levi being the last couple of days? Obviously, Levi, he felt like he'd let the team down because of what happened and the guys worked so hard and so did Levi and Levi's being superb for us so far and he's just one that he's got to quickly learn from and move on from and I'm sure he'll never get himself in that position again and that's what it's about, learning from your mistakes. We spoke to Paul Diocona about a bit of the reaction, the social media reaction in particular. A lot of it's obviously been critical and a lot of it extremely over the top. There's also been quite a lot of support there for him as well. What's your reaction when you see and hear that sort of input that you get after a decision like that? Yeah, it's fantastic that probably most of the fans have not seen much of it or anything but I imagine the fans will be right behind him letting him know how good he's been for the 16 games and not to let a second in a game sort of determine what he is like as a player. It's a mistake, we all made them, we're all humans. Humans play the game and we've got to accept that sometimes we may have rode our luck in certain games and we've been punished in this one. And the team and the players all rally around as well, don't need situations like that. Is that one of the big strengths that you've got in this group at the moment, that unity that you sort of have? Yeah, you've got some, well everybody, everybody's a good person and it works hard for the cause and it shows when you watch our team you can see that everybody's going to work and fight and go to the last minute and we proved that in the bulletin game where we scored in the dying seconds. Disappointing for everybody, but I think this group of players just want to put it right against Carlisle. This is the test now and isn't it? How you bounce back from something like that how you have that mental resolve to go and start another run like the previous one you've been on? Yeah, we can take confidence from the exit situation but again we're not going to just say that if we lose we go on unbeaten runs because football's not like that, we've got to regroup and refocus and make sure that we go into the game fully focused to go and get the result and it's important that we bounce back. How do you refocus them? What do you say to them? Give us a bit of an insight into what you say to that group to try and put that one behind you and move on to the next? Well I think it's the hard work that they've got themselves into this situation and just reinforcing those messages about the mental resilience and not giving in and working together and being a collective unit and that's just the same messages that we always give relevant of the game outcome and the result so we just work even harder. I think it adds motivation to what you do when you lose a game it just highlights things that you can get better as well and we're looking forward to becoming better and being a better team. And have you seen that in training this morning? Not extra desire but that ability that will to want to put in that little bit extra to get the result. Yeah the guys have got terrific character and they'll go out there and they'll perform to their best but people make mistakes and as managers we've just got to accept that people make mistakes as long as the people learn from them and they're giving 100%. How much do you have a difficult balance at the moment of making sure you're keeping some fresh legs? Callum Cook obviously not involved for you the other night you need to do some rotation when the games are so thick and fast don't you? So how difficult the balance is that to keep continuity but also make sure you're not overloading? Yeah it's a part of it. We knew it was going to happen where we had to rotate but again the confidence in the squad and the depth is there and it's key for us. On the cookie situation on Callum I've had a little bit of tightness in the warm up which meant that we didn't want to risk him in the game so that was kind of that we were probably going to bring him on into the game and it had made an impact but unfortunately we didn't want to take that risk on the night but again the squad is so important from now until the end of the season. How is he then ahead of the next one? Yeah he's okay we're going to get him final assessment and see where he is but nothing concrete as of yet. Any other little issues that you're having to monitor heading into this one any new problems? No just general little bangs and bruises from playing games there's nothing big. And what about Carlisle as the next test then just below you in the table there's a chance for you to open up a bit of a gap there isn't there points wise? I guess for us it's just going to the next game and making sure we put performance in and come back and bounce back from the last game because in our thoughts we deserve to win the game but we came away from nothing with nothing and we controlled large parts and there was a lot of really positive play that we were impressed with and it just hurts because it was two decisions and two sort of set plays and penalty and a free kick which he probably didn't look like scoring other than them so it was harsh to take. And what is your analysis told you about Carlisle as an outfit? Yeah obviously they've dipped in form but obviously they were up there at the start they've got some plays returning and they're good at what they do and they're full of energy and I'm sure that they're looking to turn around their latest form and they'll be working hard to make sure that everything is to put that right. Good stuff, cheers Connor, thanks mate. Thanks a lot. Thank you Connor. When you talk about the free kick is there part of you that wishes that maybe like the premiership you can have the AR at all levels of the game or is it something you're glad you don't have? No it's a good question. I kind of like not having it to be fair I think it slows down the game and a lot of the Premier League managers have spoken about celebrations and teams not being able to celebrate because they're always worried about whether the goal was offside or maybe a handballing in the build up and stuff like that so I think probably when you get decisions against you you want VAR but when you don't get the look and one goes for you then you maybe not wanting VAR but for me I'd say at our level and it's probably good without it. Obviously it's been a topic of conversation quite a lot since Christmas but the weather isn't looking too good for the weekend Has that affected your preparation at all? No it's not affected us we've trained today and we're just concentrating on the game and hopefully the weather is good to us unlike it's been for the past few months so we'll wait and see. It's a bit of a cliché Do you think there's a certain amount of truth in the adage that managers' coaches learn more from the team after a defeat than they do if you're on a winning run? I think there's some truth in it and I think maybe the big one is potentially winning runs sometimes create maybe laziness or people coming off the boil and people thinking they can maybe win games without really turning up and I don't think we've shown that and I don't think that was the case in the last game but again I think you can learn from losses definitely in areas to improve but again with this group of players and their mindset and their character they'll be wanting to put this right straight away. Thanks very much, good luck and sadly. Thank you, cheers. Hi Connor. Hi there. He was saying obviously about learning from the loss and the thin margins I think eight of your ten wins have been by a single goal so you've sort of been the right side of the ledger each time but I mean it probably is the last few games that just reminded you how, you know, probably remind the players how much on a knife are these contests are, aren't they? Yeah and that's something as the season progresses and you go through it you will have decisions go against you and you'll have decisions go for you and I think it's kind of balanced its way out in the last game where we've maybe had two decisions where on another day they don't happen and we win the game 1-0 and comfortably and play well so I think it's about us, you know, being 1-0 up at times but still being able to nick another goal as well and that's the key and that's how we're looking to build and become better. And the last two games are great reminders of playing to the 95th minute or whatever it takes, isn't it? Because, you know, that split second can change everything, can't it? You know, we've got the equaliser against Bolton and that feeling's, you know, magical and then we have the opposite and actually even worse because they win the game against us in the next game and, you know, this is a part of football we've, you know, everybody goes through it it's just the fine margins of football, like you say. And we've talked before about how tight this league is I mean, Carl Isle's record probably sums that up as well as anyone, doesn't it? I mean, they've been on a fantastic run, they were top probably about a month ago and then they've taken two points from eight games I mean, it's incredible how fortunes can suddenly change, isn't it? It is, it is and, you know, Newport were a little bit similar in that vein with their pitch and probably the Cardiff pitch helped their style of play because they suit that type of football better than on a good pitch and, you know, Carl Isle they'll be, you know, working so hard to make sure they overturn this bad runner form and so, you know, they've been up there they've got a lot of threats, they've got good players they've got players returning and they'll be wanting to put it right. And obviously having such a long journey back on the back of that frustration midweek I mean, there's been, you know, quite a lot of time to chew on it and there so I think there'll be, you know, in terms of motivation it's, you know, you probably don't have to say much for a team talk for the players, I wouldn't have thought. Yeah, they drive the standards now, you know you've got leaders in there who are going to go and make sure people are at it as well as me and Mark and I think we're just excited now because we feel like we've been potentially gone against us a little bit too easy with some refereeing decisions and etc but I don't want to talk about that but we feel like we've lost again that we should have won and now we're eager to put that right and to win the next game. And as you said about the VAR situation it would make it seem a little bit artificial, wouldn't it, in terms of, you know, these finishes I mean, if I say the downy road goal on Saturday and you'd have to sort of stop and wait two minutes to check everything it would have sort of lost the moment a little bit, wouldn't it? Yeah, and I think what the people love about football it's the passion and it stores magical feelings and sometimes take it away with the VAR when you scored a last minute winner and then it gets overruled, it's kind of not ruins it but it's a strange one to be fair so it's new to everyone but at our level we don't have that and it helps us when we score winners and it doesn't help us when we concede in the last minute so that's how it is. So you thought is it necessary perhaps to have to put up with the old I wouldn't say blooper from an official but an old soft decision it might have to, just to keep the game going in a sense of rather than stop and everything waiting for experts to analyse each detail Yeah, the referees have got to make the decisions in this league and they've got to stick by them and they've got to be strong in the way that they do it and make sure that they do what they feel is right and they don't have the help of VAR to maybe bail them out if they're not quite sure Brought to you by DIS Keeping companies connected with cloud-based solutions Come on, City!