 Mark, your injury absentease is recently available to you? Scott IS back in training, I trained well on Tuesday. That was really his first session back so obviously we needed to see how he came through that he was okay he trained again today. I'll take a view, obviously, leading into the weekend, whether or not he's involved, whether or not it's a bit too long, or we're just allowing him to get involved again, but we'll see how he is tomorrow, obviously, back-to-back training sessions. They weren't in on Wednesday because it was quite a hard session Tuesday, so you didn't get a reaction from that, we just need to see how he is Friday. My feeling is that he should be okay, but we'll take a decision near the time, I think, on the spot. Liam's not with us yet, hasn't joined in on the grass. I think he's going out next week with the intention of obviously being able to return to training with us, but obviously we have to bide our time with that one. It's just a little bit slower than we all hoped, but we know what it is. We know the treatment that he's getting, and we'll bring him back to game time, so there's no concern in terms of the injuries. We need to wait. On the longer absentees, Jamie Walker, Osir Davy, are they easier to an extent than they were spoke about last week? How are they offering those progressions? He says back in the group, he's training with us again, so he's okay up to a point. Obviously, Stonley's a little bit more a bigger body of work, really, to allow the confidence to know that he's sound and he's well to go. The other two guys bang on track. Obviously, Jamie will be back, we feel, much sooner than Manny, but hopefully everything will go to plan. They're all progressing as we thought they would, so no concerns there, those yet. How's it been this week following on from Saturday's defeat? What's been a message from you? I think the main message from our point of view was obviously we started a little bit on the back foot. That was obviously a little bit to do about how Stockport approached the game, but more really to do with how we were able to affect them as an opposition team coming to the valley parade. We've been reasonably good at that, really starting strongly, getting our noses in front and then managing the game from that point. Whatever reason, we didn't do that as well as we have done in recent games, so we've talked about that. We've analysed it, looked back at videos clearly, as we always do, and taken what we need from it to make sure we've got an understanding going into the next game of the weekend. I guess a need for a response given the defeats is timely. We're not going to go through the whole season without getting beaten. It's happened obviously at the weekend, but that's on the back of an eight-run game. So we've just got to go on another run. That's the intention, that's what we need to do. We've got the capability to do it. It's important that we bounce back quickly. We don't obviously want to start a run in different performances and results. We don't think that's going to happen. I don't expect that to happen. It's about making sure we're good to go at the weekend, which we all feel we are. As a manager, an experienced manager as well in these situations, when you've had a result that hasn't gone the way that you'd like it to, is it a case of maybe some players just making them feel easier about the disappointment and levelling the emotion? Obviously after the game we were all disappointed with the result, but you have to pick yourself up very quickly in this league. There's another game, a big challenge coming around the corner, so you can't dwell too readily or too long on defeats. You've got to pick out what you need to understand from the game itself and what happened in the actual game and moments in the game, and recognise that the next time it happens and do something differently. So I think what I've seen this week is a real intensity to our work, a real desire to make sure we get back to winning ways. So I'm really pleased with that. It is a big game on Saturday, it feels like a big game. We're going up against the good side with big resources at this level and a record against them isn't very good, but a record against that wasn't very good either and we turned that around. So I hope that's the same situation this time. What do you expect from the minute side that how well the resources you've had? They're a good side, they get the ball down and play, they like to play out from the back. As we do, I'm looking forward to a good game of football. Sometimes we can get sucked into a game that is not how we see the game ourselves, but that can happen. Sometimes it's difficult to work on things to restrict players from being able to control games in terms of possession, but there's any number of things that we can do at the weekend that will obviously help us and because of the way they play. Sometimes the problems we find when we're trying to have a possession-based game, I'm sure they find those problems themselves, so we're well versed in terms of what teams can do against teams that like to play, because we are every week against ourselves, so it's who deals with it best, I feel. Is that where there may be some value in how things unfold on Saturday, that you can learn from the way in which Stockport approached you in that game? On reflection, at the time I felt it could have been the way Stockport started and the way they played, their formation, but the reality was it was more to do with us in terms of what we didn't do well. We've talked about that, we've worked on it this week, we'll work on it again tomorrow and make sure that things we didn't do particularly well would do better. And then the respect of the opposition plan or the way they want to play or the way they want to shape up against us shouldn't have an impact on us because we should be able to obviously dominate and affect them more than they can affect us. That's our intention every time we go up against our opposition, is that our game plan and our execution of that is better than their execution, so that's what we'll endeavour to do at the weekend. You said you saw that very early on this season, success is the obvious target, promotion being in that success, ten points off top, five points off the top three as it stands. Or be you've got a game in hand on first and third. Does that, given what happened on Saturday and going into Saturday's game this Saturday, does that intensify the internal pressure that you've got in yourselves to not lose the top track? No, no, I think we're quite comfortable where we are. I think there's added pressure if you're in the top three maybe, you want to stay in those positions and I think we're well placed, a long way to go. Lots of games to find our way through and probably we're more than happy, not more than happy, there's a wrong phrase, we're happy enough I think with where we are, we're very much in the mix and we know there's more to come from us as well and we think obviously on the back of having a good run prior to the stock book game we feel there's always the potential to go on a similar run again. So that's what we're looking forward to. We've got a lot of good players in the group, some will lose form, some will go out with the team, some will come back into the team and give us that boost. It's a long season, I keep going back to it. It's a long game that we're playing and it's getting decided now. There's a number of clubs at the moment, had really outstanding stats and credit to them but like I said it's about who's in the key positions at the end of the season, not now. I watched as that as well. This is the greatest squad depth that you've got this season in comparison to maybe what you had last season. Does that provide greater accountability for the players knowing that there are players that aren't making a matchday squad who are fit and ready to go that there's accountability or greater accountability on their performances? Well, possibly. But I would say irrespective of the strength that we have it's down to you if you're in possession of the shirt that you have to play well that should be a prerequisite that if you're given the responsibility to play and start games or finish games either or then you have to make an impact and make sure that first and foremost you take part in the game and affect the opposition and hopefully take the game away from them as a team and you do enough to enable us as a group to win so that's your accountability, that's the responsibility we all have and the strength in numbers that we have and quality that we have is a good thing because we know we're going to need everybody I've said that time and time again and it still holds true so that depth is a good thing, we don't see it as a negative clearly because it's going to help us and I don't think it's a bad thing if players sometimes are looking over the shoulder thinking well goodness me I've got to play well or X, Y and Z might take my place I think that's a healthy situation to have in your club Just on Salford, somewhat a reunion maybe for you and the co-owners of their football club as well I just wanted to ask you really about them taking over a football club and someone who shared a dressing room with them at a very early age in their perspective did you see traits in them to go on and be the co-owners of a football club that now sits in Lee too? I didn't have the time, it's too far ahead to look that far into the future but I think given clearly the resources that they have as individuals given the longevity they've had in the game and the level they played at and the time they played at when obviously the rewards of playing on the top level were were significant I did OK as a player but it kicked on when I finished so they were able to reap that benefit and rightly so because they're all outstanding players and had fantastic careers so I think a lot of players of that era will think about maybe getting involved in the ownership of clubs I think people in the past did their toe in it but maybe not the resources that or maybe the network and the back is that they're able to attract because of what they are and what they represent so I think it's more likely to happen in the future than not I think it's great that they see their interest has been trying to promote a football club that needs help and it's an area that they're very aware of and very knowledgeable about I lived in Salford for seven years as a kid and each and every one of them did as well so there's an area, there's a connection with this so it's good that they're trying to give something back The football clubs have mass careers and not just their own football clubs but their own professional careers as well and I've heard Gary Neville recently say frequently about how big influence walking into that dressing room of Manchester United was on him as a person now and he name checks you frequently as well but him moulding him into the person he is now he's a massive part of his life really Yeah, I've heard Gary say that I think the dressing room at that time was really strong there was a lot of characters a lot of strong different personalities but really strong personalities in terms of what they demanded and as a United player there's a certain level you have to display every single time you put the shirt on and there's a lot of players that were able or had the ability to be able to look after what they were doing themselves and make sure somebody else alongside them was making sure they were doing their job as well so we had any number of players that could do that so that's why he was a successful team at that time and the standards were set maybe before they were able to get in the team on a regular basis and I think they were always appreciative of that time in terms of setting the standards for what they needed to do United And with all that in mind finally, will there have any added feeling then for you being in the dugout as a manager of an opposition team in an area that you lived for a great number of years owned by former team mates? Well I'm not going to go easy on this but that way that's never gone out on us so if they're there I have no idea if they go to every game or whatever and if we cross paths it's not like we're close close friends we're never worried even as team mates we were very good team mates and enjoyed our time together but it's more a case of when I do see any of them we pick up where we left off last time but we're not on the end of the form every other week it doesn't happen As you say, they play a very simple game to wrap with Does that put extra emphasis on your game after the game at the very best in the county in terms of passing accuracy and retaining possession? Yeah we'll have to play it well because they're very adept at playing the way they do not in luck ourselves but we know there's areas that we can influence or affect the way they want to play and their preferred way of playing so there's any number of things that we can do to do that so we'll look at them and talk about that this week and make sure that we recognise situations where we can really put pressure and maybe we're embossed back in key areas of the field and allow our good players to top end of the pitch to have chances and create chances and score goals I think it would be a good game I'm looking forward to it I think it's not very often we play teams that play in a similar manner to ourselves so that would be a little bit more unusual but we'll see how it goes but we'll always back ourselves in any game we play we feel we're good enough to play any type of game that's on the back obviously of a defeat where we haven't done particularly well but our intention is always to try and impose the way we play on the opposition or the other way around It's one of the rare games where you're playing against a team that's probably got similar expectations at the start of the season of promotion and what the fans want and what the others want The clubs got a high profile predominantly as a consequence of the profile of their owners and obviously the path and the journey that they've had up to this point so in terms of clubs obviously they don't have the fan base that we have we've sold out our allocation away from home once again so we could have almost the same amount of fans as them in their ground so the statue of the glove and the history of the club is different in terms of the fan base that we have in comparison so our pressure I would say is great because there's more people looking at us critically sometimes than there is for them It's not about the hot pace at the top of the table at the moment Are you surprised at the points tallies of the leaders at this stage of the season? Well, we've been on a good run and accumulated decent totals but other teams have done slightly better and that can happen I think in this league there will be other clubs that will come to the fourth but one against us at the weekend is this the time that they're going to run they have the potential to do that there's other teams that may be underperforming that we and certainly a lot of people expected to do better so I think there's the potential for any number of clubs to go on runs that are similar to the ones at the top of the table obviously confidence comes from winning week in, week out so that's why we need to get back on track but it doesn't surprise me there's good teams at this level and teams that have the potential to go on good runs but we place ourselves in that same bracket and we've got to just make sure that we keep within a range of points that enables us to be close enough to really affect the league at the business end which is when it matters and also if you set off such a good place like the top two have done obviously when you used to start to start a little bit the pressure can get you a little bit because you got used to it's how when runs come to an end and they will do it's whether or not you're able to bounce back I mean you're like a steam in nature had a poor result against us big defeat but they bounce back quickly and that's what you have to do in a similar way and that's what we have to do so it's important that we bounce back at the weekend obviously team lines to be at the top of the table very direct so I mean you and Salford play a very good possession type game do you think that can succeed at this level then because a lot of people also think that ultimately it downs up who's got the biggest bruises in league at times no I think that's given the league a little bit of a disservice I think there's I've said before I think there's lower clubs at this level almost everybody's got players that could play at a higher level players that determines a player at a higher level players that are good players at league two level so there is given us that a player that can affect the game because they have the ability to do that because they have the ability that should be on show maybe at a higher level so almost every team in the league has got players like that so there's a potential for any team to go on a good run it's just collectively we've got to make sure that our group is stronger and able to continue to get positive results home and away which for the most part we've been able to do the weather fixtures have fallen you seem to have had a lot of home games and the way games have been dotted long but if you're actually working out it is three away wins in a row at the moment if you were to win fourth it would be the first time that's happened for nearly 40 years this club so it's I know it's difficult to get momentum when you're only playing away game it's probably three weeks but it's getting on the bus and they must have a better feeling about themselves I think so I wasn't aware of that stat but I clearly knew we were on a good win in terms of away form but there seems to be a little bit of a break in terms of the amount of away games home games seem to be obviously we've had Papa John games and Carrebu Cup games for the most part being at home so that's the reason why we've sensed that maybe we haven't had that many away games but we've enjoyed the experience clearly because our form away from home is excellent so we've got an opportunity to break a little bit of a cycle of defeats at Salford and we're able to do it last time out with Harrogate let's hope we can do it this weekend three away games in a way you can go into this it can set the tone for us coming up we've obviously got Burton on Tuesday and that's what we still need to do working and we need to make sure that we're in the next stage of the Papa John's and hopefully we can do that Tuesday but first and foremost we've got to win it the weekend