 Mark, rydw i chi'n siarad i chi. Rydw i chi'n gyffredin ni wedi'i bod ystod o'i wneud yma yn ystod o'r newid yn sylweddol i'ch gael ar hyn o'r modd y modd. Rydw i chi'n gwneud o'r newid. Rydw i chi'n gwneud o'r newid yn ymgyrch yn ysgol ymgyrch. Rydw i chi'n gwneud yn ysgol, efallai mae'n cymryd yn ysgol, Mae gymryd hyn yn ymdegall i gweld ym Fflynedd. Wrth gwrs, os ni'n gwneud o'r rhai o gyfer yw'r cyfrifod hyn yn teimlo, blwyddyn yn gallu ychydig ar gael yr eich rhan o'r hanes yn ymwneud fryd, ac mae ydych chi gwrs i gael, gweld eich rhagleniol wedi'u gwybr iawn, ac mae'r cefnod, ond o'u cael ei ddweud yn yn siarad. Mae'r pethau er mwynhau, ond mae'r cwyl yn ddisfaith mae'n rhaid yn ddisfaith. Rwyf wedi maes yn dweud gyda'r realtyd gyda'r blannau. Rwyf wedi'i dda'r blannau ac mae'n meddwl y cilydd. Rwyf wedi cael ei ddechrau'r drwb ag i ddechrau'n teimlo'r siŵr. Dwy'n meddwl ein blynydï i'r blannau a'r hynny, mae rhaid yn hŵr y blynyddu i ddisfaith mae'r rhaid. Rwy'n golygon ar amlifio, rydyn ni'n rydyn nhw i fewn i amser, a os angen i gyfnodol i'r sôn. Felly yn ffynnwyr hanesnowu'n gilydd chi i ddim yn amlifio. Maen nhw i'n mynd i gyd yn yr ymddangos gwych ar y bryd dechrau yn 5-6 yng Nghymru, a os yn rhan o'r rhaid i ffinnwyr nid, roi'r gwynllwch yn chwarae. Rwy'n gweithio'n gweithio'n gwybod ychwanol chi. ydyb yn gwneud bod y maen nhw'n gweithio yn ymgyrch yn eu ffyniad ychydig? Mae'n gweithio'n gweithio'n gwaith ymlaen i'w ddweud o'r ffyniad. Mae'n ffyniad yn gwneud yn gwneud yn gwneud o'r ffyniad yw'r mewn ei gwaith. Mae'n dweud o'n gyfnodd ymgyrch yn ymddangos eich gweithio, a rwyf yn rhyw o'r cyfeindio'n gwneud yma fel rydyn nhw'n i'w gweithio'n gwneud. gan hefyd wedi bod yn ymgyrch gyda'r cyfnod gweithio mewn i ddechrau. Rwy'n dechrau'n mynd i chi, dyma yn tynnu'n gwneud ar y bodd. Rwy'n dechrau'n mynd i chi'n mynd i chi i chi'n meddwl. Mae'r sesion yn ysgrifennu i'r mewn ymgyrch yn gynnig. Dyma'r hyn o'r cyfnod o'r ffordd gyrddiannol yn ymgyrch. Felly mae'n gallu i'n meddwl. So we haven't really missed any training or we've missed is the games. I guess in a way, it's Matic touched on it as well. You can do all this training, all this prep, but does it almost get to a point? It's like we just need to play the game now. Yeah, I think we're at that point and I'm grateful that whether wise we look like we're going to have a decent week next week. So there won't be any issues with any you like to think with any cancellations. Felly, mae'n gweithio, mae'n gweithio i'r mewn gwirionedd. Felly rydw i'n gofio i'r gweithio i ddechrau, a'u cymdeithasol. Carl Islew Yw'r Gweithlo. Rhyw hwnna'n gweithio'r hyn o Harrogate i Gwylfaen i'r gweithio gyda'r cyntaf. Ni'n gweithio'r cyfnod yn yma yn 1985. Felly, rydw i'n gweithio'r cyfnod, mae'n gweithio'r cyfnod. Rydw i'n gweithio'r cyfnod amser o'r cyfnod. The we've done it on a couple of occasions so never opportunity to do that. I think boxing day. I think the option of actually going to Cal, isnt the one we would have picked if I'm honest and liking the game. It's not ideal in terms of that but we will go on the day and get ourselves up there, make Felly rhywbeth yn gweithio'r gael y diolch i'r gweithio y mysgr inni a gael Alun. a dyma lle mae'n adres yn dros gan'na gweithio'n gweithio. Rwy'n mynd i mi'n bod yn iam i g equalityo'r rhaid, sealau at y dyma, wrth gwrs, mae'n eich pob os pwylliant i ddechrau'n holl o gam ichi. Rydyn ni'n gweithio gynhyrchu'r gweithiau. Yna'r gweithio gyfyrdd wedi'u rhaglen oherwydd, a oherwydd gwaith o'r giantfyniad cyd-hwyl yn fy Llywodraeth Cymru, ac mae'n rhaid i gael eu cymdeithasol i'r gweithio, mae'n rhaid i'w cwestiynau cymdeithasol, yn cael ei ddweud? Rwy'n meddwl nes yn dweud, nid ydych chi'n gwneud yn ystafell a'i ddweud, a rydyn ni'n ddweud y ffordd ddweud, rydyn ni'n ddweud o'r rhagwm a chael ei ddweud yn gweithio. Rydyn ni'n meddwl ond yn ddechrau, ac mae'n meddwl i'n meddwl i ddweud, I'm going to have a good Christmas which is our intention. Because the games are in close succession, then very quickly you can accumulate nine points in a week. So that's really huge for us, so that's our hope. That's our aim and goal. So hopefully we will be able to do it. Difficult games for us, teams we've – apart from Carlisle, teams that we've played before. Felly we know, pretty much, what we need to know in terms of how to gain sulphur, so carlise allows a little bit different given that we haven't played them at this point, but we'll do the prep, we've got a good time and good training opportunities leading into the game so we'll make sure we're ready. Boxing day, why is me and Simon discussing before, when it comes to fans it's probably one of the favourite days in the calendar isn't it? How aware of that are you as a player and a manager or is it just another game for you guys? No, no, from memory there was always good atmospheres on Boxing Day. On occasions it tends to be a little bit muted, maybe people suffering from a little bit of overindulgence, but that clearly doesn't affect the players. We're just going to get our head down and get our job done and hopefully by the time the game's finished everybody's sobered up and enjoyed themselves and they can cheer to the rafters. We're looking forward to it, it's a great date in the football calendar and we're looking forward to it, it's a long trek, but if we're going to do that then let's make it worth our while. Christmas day wise, will the players be in preparing or what kind of time off will they have over that weekend? We'll look at it, I've made a decision on that, my thinking is we'll probably won't be in and we'll just travel on, a lot of guys have to do a lot of travelling into training anyway. I think on Christmas day we're probably better served doing the work leading up to Christmas day and let them have the time with the families and get ready for the game the following day. So that's the way I'm leaning at the moment, but depending on how they train that might change so we'll win soon. If it is a day off on Christmas day what does Christmas day look like for Mark Hughes? I'm not sure because usually I've been in, I can't think on too many occasions when I've been around a club that I've had Christmas day off. So everybody else, I get up and open my presents, then my grandchildren will come around, my kids and we'll have a nice time like everybody else. Moving on from boxing day and a chance to be back at Valley Parade, back to back games. Obviously we know you touched on the home form before the Rochdale game, but that's a massive incentive isn't it to rule the crowd over this period? Yeah we'd like to think we'll go into those games on the back of a good performance, a good result against Carl Isle. That's our hope so hopefully we'll be in good ffetal ready to go again. We've talked our lengths about obviously making the most of the advantage that we have at home and we've got to start making that impression on opposition teams that we've talked about in our home games. And get back on track, no reason why we can't. I've been really pleased with how we've trained, I have to say. Obviously without the end game in terms of preparing all week and then having a game to go into. We haven't had that but the work leading into the games that we've missed out on has been really good so I just think we're ready to go. The fact we've got three games, very close one after another is great for us I feel. Team News wise any fresh injury concerns heading into this period? No we've had a little bit of illness, a little bit of chesty coughs and a little bit of feeling of unwellness. So we hope that will clear up a number of the guys about that. They've missed the odd day here and there, nothing too significant but a couple of them have missed the days training so hopefully that won't go right through the group. But I don't think it's going to impact us next week, it's probably just one or two days, one or two individuals that is just affected this week. Romney Critchlow was touching out leading up to Rochdale, is he still? No, Rom's fine now, he probably would have played against Rochdale, he was fit enough to play so there's no problem, he's trained really well like the rest of them leading into the games next week. Just lastly coming up to Christmas obviously people will say it's a time for reflection, how do you reflect when you're time at Bradford City so far? I think we're doing okay, I think we're in decent position in terms of having a really good go. In the second half of the season there's a number of teams that have made a really strong start and they obviously have made inroads into achieving their goals but we're very well placed, happy enough. We had a couple of setbacks obviously last two games out but I don't think there's any reason to worry or panic I think we're well placed to achieve what we want to achieve this year so we're looking forward to the second half of the season. Best of luck for it, thanks for your time. Mark, obviously having this gap of suddenly a few weeks all of a sudden, I mean sometimes teams can say oh we're just getting good momentum going then it's stopped and we're going to start again. In a way when you're coming off a couple of disappointing results it may not have done any harm in the sense of drawing line and saying start again. Yeah take your points, I think our view is that we just wanted to get back and start playing again and address what it raised it said in the two games that we got beaten in so we haven't had that opportunity but I think given how we've trained and where we are and the feeling in the group I think it's it's a time really now to just keep on saying get back on track, we've had a decent points tally up to this point so we've got to keep on putting points on the board making sure that we're still well placed which there's no reason why we won't be and get on with the job in hand which is to make sure we get to the end of the season in a position that we're really happy with. Do you sense a sort of group of players, as you say there's a bounce off the walls to play again but do you sense a group of players want to sort of start making their impact again? Yeah I think so. I think the two games we had obviously prior to the break because of the weather I think there were key moments in the games we made a mistake that we were punished with. We started brightly in both games. Obviously goals changed games, we can go over the events of the games if you want. I mean we agreed obviously with the late decision early part of the game from the referee we've actually had feedback from the referees saying that it was a wrong decision and it should have been a penalty but doesn't really do us any good obviously. No it's not the first time. I hope it's the last time if I'm honest but yeah that's what you want from the referees is to get the big decisions right. Clearly through the whole 90 minutes it's definitely to get every decision absolutely spot on but it's the big decisions that they need to get correct and when they don't then obviously they're open to criticism from the referee. From managing players alike in terms of their performance level so it can happen that it's difficult when it does because the goals as we know change games and certainly when we get our noses in front we become a difficult team to overcome so that's a shame for us looking back on that game but like I said there's other things in the game that we need to be better at if we're going to turn things around when we do go behind in games as well so we're not a million miles away from where we need to be or I think there's still that feeling that on any given day there's a potential performance that will just sweep a team away and we wouldn't comprehensively we haven't actually done that as often as we should have done given the ability we have so that's something to strive for and something that we can certainly attain if we keep on progressing. You've still got the faith in the team to do that haven't you? Oh yeah. I've said it a few times yeah. Yeah absolutely we've got good talent I think that's recognised by everyone there will be times when maybe form dips. You've just got to make sure that you recognise that and if players are out of form it's no reflection on them it can happen and sometimes they have to go out somebody who's been patient comes in and you get that energy back into the team again so players understand that it's what happens in football it's no reflection of them as individuals or their ability as players it's just forms temporary. And obviously Calol himself is a strong team at home not just the fact that Bradford has struggled there but you know they are a good team at home and make it difficult for you. I mean what sort of challenge because I know Paul Simpson sort of came in similar time to you when he went back there and he sort of transformed them from a team that were very much looking to survive into one now. No no they've got a good understanding of what's required at this level and having looked at them just recently they seem to go a little bit more direct than possibly they did initially and maybe that's a decision they've taken given the personnel they've got their best serve doing that. So it'll be a challenge every game in this league is so we have to be ready for it make sure that the way we want to play is the dominant way of playing in the game and we have to impose ourselves on them. At times we'll come under pressure we just got to be able to manage those moments and make sure that when we have the ball and we're in the ascendancy it's us that's dominating and capitalising on that. Obviously we've talked about Boxing Day I think it'll be your first Boxing Day for about five years so it's going to be nice to be back in that swing. Is that something you've missed when you weren't in football management? Not so much on Boxing Day if I'm not so any other side probably but yeah I mean it's a great fixture in the football calendar everybody looks at who you're playing for different reasons sometimes but first and foremost you know it's going to be a big crowd traditionally always has been and that's why it's always in the football calendar because historically it was always a day when everybody came out and watched football so slightly changed maybe in the modern age but that's the history behind it. That's my history as well I was viewed as a day when everybody came out and watched football. I think the other thing is quite poignant is the fact that I mean Bradford City last year they had Covid so there was no game the year before it was obviously behind closed doors so it's three years which was that colour it was the last time so a lot of city fans could have gone to a Boxing Day game so from that point of view it's probably a special one for them isn't it? Yeah I'm sure we'll take full on allocation we always do we have great support on the road as everybody knows so given it's Boxing Day they might be under pressure from families to be elsewhere I'm sure we'll have a good turn up. Is he getting closer now? Money is working on the grass now great to see him out there not being introduced to the group yet in terms of any part of it so hopefully new year I think towards the end of January I'd like to think we'll start integrating him into the group and then it's just a case again himself match fit from that point. Which is quite some comeback from his severity. Touchwood up to this point I think I've mentioned before he's had no setbacks and that's the key significant injury as we all know and for him to come back is really great and we're really pleased for him obviously that it's progressed the injury really really well. I mean I know he's quite a positive person anyway but I mean you must have seen the difference in him as it's gone. Yeah I mean clearly initially after the injury he's a very bubbly character and a big character but he's clearly down because he faced a long road back but as the weeks have got closer to a return and getting out on the grass and every step in his rehab that he's met he's met either on time or ahead of time so he gets encouraged by that. Every step he takes the bigger the smile gets so he's in a good place at the moment. It shows a very strong mentality as well mate because of his injury like that. At the beginning of your very first game a lot of people could have... Thankfully his personalities enabled him to deal with that situation because it wasn't easy not for him, not for the club not for anybody. I mean you look towards the end of January hopefully we get him back and yeah very much like a new sign. I mean how has it been the last couple of weeks because obviously you've had a couple of defeats and you've not really had the chance to get out and respond to it was it to? Yeah it is. We're at a point where we're a little bit frustrated because we're just chomping out a bit to get out and start playing again so we've got games in quick succession now so we're looking forward to them. We haven't had the opportunity to obviously dress the couple of defeats that we had so we've got that opportunity now so it's up to us to take it. Just sort of reading your quotes after delaying an orient game you seem very calm and keen to keep things in perspective. I mean obviously you're used to being around big football clubs you know how the emotions go. Is just keeping that steadiness one of the most important things? Yeah I think so. I've mentioned that we're in a good place. It's not with our two defeats against sides and around us which you don't want because you want to try and affect them detrimentally and we haven't been able to do that. But we've got other opportunities to do it further in the season so it's up to us to take those opportunities further down the line so we'll endeavour to do that. So yeah we're still in a good position. We've had a decent haul of points up to this point. Some will suggest we should have had more others maybe suggest we shouldn't have had as many so we're reasonably happy. We're not overly concerned in terms of where we feel we need to be, where we're in and around where we suspected we would be. We've got a real platform now to have a really strong second half of the season I think. The way we train and the way my teams have been in the past we've always been strong in the second half of seasons. I look back on my time at almost every club and it was always the second half of the season that we really kicked on. I think that's a consequence of how we train and how we try and gradually get stronger and stronger and better and better. That's our intention this time as well. So you do try and tailor training that way to get the best out of it? Yeah I mean let's remind ourselves we did have 17, 18 whatever many plays that came in so it was always going to be a process to get everybody on the same page. But I've been really happy with that in fairness they've all embraced what we're trying to do so that's why it gives me encouragement for the second half of the season. We've got players that have been here a decent amount of time now that's not exactly where I'm after what I expect and that can help us in the second half. And as I've alluded to earlier it's no different to any big club at a club where expectation is as it is here. I guess when things are on a high they can be really high and when things are on a low if you're not careful they can be really low. So have you been pleased with the sort of... Yeah expectations, you've heard me talk about dealing with expectations that's what I've always had to deal with. It's something I expect. I don't try and under play the potential of the group but I think we've got a team that should be challenging at the top. That hasn't changed and it turns out I want to try and say something different in that regard. I think expectations is something to work with and go with if you try and under play the potential of your group then people recognise that. I can't say we're just hoping to stay in this league because people are thinking well that's rubbish because they're better than that. So I don't do that. I want us to be successful. I want us to think we can achieve things. Along with that when you raise expectations then sometimes you can disappoint people and that's part of it but never be fazed by expectations. Expectations is the thing that gets the adrenaline flowing and expectation for me just translates to excitement and real expectation of the game I was. The journey we have in front of us that's the expectation I deal with. It always seems to have brought the best out of you personally. Some people will shrink with it but do you sense in this group that they enjoy it? Well that was part of the recruitment process is obviously trying to bring players that would be able to deal with it. Deal with our expectation. For the most part we've done okay in that regard. People will question our home form but that's something we can address. I don't think it's because of apprehension or worry about any games at home. I don't sense that before any game. We've made mistakes and that's cost us but anticipation of what's ahead of us is really exciting for my point of view and I think the players feel that as well. In fact I know they do. I think they're really looking forward to the second half of the season where lots being talked about, lots being discussed in terms of what we can do. Now it's a case of making sure we do that and it's up to us to back ourselves and go for it. Obviously the high divisions have had a break. You've almost had a break forced on you by the frozen pitchers. Does it almost feel like this is the start of part two? Well there has been an enforced break. We still be training regularly in terms of the days we're in. They didn't really change. We didn't lose many training days if any if I'm honest. So it's only the games that were missing. So that's going to be addressed obviously next week when we've got games one after another. And if I may just jump ahead to Harrogate at the end of the game after the next, it's obviously Yorkshire Derby, but it seems to be developing a bit of a rivalry obviously much of it before your time, but the fact that you've each beaten the others so far this season, I guess those rivalries just drive clubs on don't they? Yeah I mean it's only a few miles down the road so it's an obvious one. So yeah we turn things around at their place. Obviously earlier in the season and we'd gone there and our record there and been very good. Obviously they turned us over in the cup which is real disappointment. I believe one of our poorest performance and we didn't really turn up for whatever reason on that day and they were able to progress our demise. But we got another opportunity to address that. We didn't play well on the day. We know we can play a hell of a lot better than we were able to produce. Excuse me in the cup game so let's endeavour to do that. Is the cup game something you will use to motivate them or will it just be? It's a recent memory and on the day for whatever reason we found it difficult to get going in the game and they scored and then there wasn't really a reaction. We usually get a reaction but on that day for whatever reason we didn't. So yeah we've got something to address. We need to be better clearly than we were against them last time out and I feel we will be. And just makes it another game to look forward to doesn't it? Yeah well hopefully we'll go into it on the back of a good performance and result against Carla and that will help obviously our form and confidence going into that game. Brilliant thank you very much. All done.