00:00 Firstly, being from the North East, as you are, at an event like this, which obviously
00:06 encourages things in the community, that must make you proud to come and help out with things
00:11 like that.
00:12 No, it's one of the beauties of football, I think, to be able to affect so many people
00:17 in such a positive way.
00:19 Sometimes it's not positive when you don't get results or you don't get your football
00:23 side of it right, but I think in terms of community and reaching out and affecting as
00:30 many people as we can is really important and today obviously goes a long way to doing
00:34 that.
00:35 Now, we're nearly halfway through the season, I think 20 games out of 46, so only a few
00:39 to halfway.
00:40 You sat 12th but only three points on the play-offs.
00:43 How would you assess the season so far?
00:45 Yeah, it's been up and down in some ways.
00:49 I think we've actually got more points at this stage than we did at this stage last
00:55 season, funnily enough, and it feels like we've had a couple of ups and downs, but at
00:59 the same time, I think there's a lot of positives, there's a lot of things that have encouraged
01:04 us in terms of the season.
01:06 We've faced some situations, some issues, lost some players, had to change the team
01:12 a fair bit, so it's been hard for a number of players to get any rhythm really and they're
01:15 kind of chopping and changing, which is always difficult.
01:18 But hopefully that will set us in good stead for the rest of the season.
01:22 The boys who have come in have got great experience and had an impact and then obviously getting
01:27 players back and strengthening in terms of numbers and freshness from game to game will
01:32 definitely help us.
01:33 And so just on that, obviously last season you had a great second half of the season
01:36 that helped your promotion and play-off push.
01:38 I presume, given what you've just said there, that's exactly what you're hoping for again
01:42 this season?
01:43 Yeah, you always hope for the best and we believe in the best.
01:47 It's not easy, I think consistency in this league is not easy to get, it's tough to get
01:52 and I think it proves that if you can put any sort of run together and you can make
01:56 a lot of ground or leapfrog up the table, that's what we're striving for, that's what
02:01 everyone's striving for, that's the magic ingredient.
02:04 But we're certainly capable of doing it, we've shown at times we can do that, we've just
02:08 got to put it together.
02:10 Hull and Swansea this week, Hull certainly are doing very well this season.
02:14 Tests that you think you'll be able to come through?
02:17 Yeah, we're looking forward to it, it would be stupid of me to say what kind of result
02:22 or what kind of performance, because you never really know in football, but certainly the
02:25 boys are prepared and looking forward to it and really positive.
02:30 We have everything to play for, really, this season's there for us in terms of where we're
02:34 on the league, we've got cup competitions, we've got everything to play for, so we're
02:40 positive and we're looking forward to the games coming up.
02:43 And just finally, on that League Cup, of course it's Port Vale in a couple of weeks' time,
02:47 there's every chance you might play Newcastle if they were to get through as well, how much
02:50 would you look forward to that if that were to happen?
02:52 It's miles off, yeah, it's irrelevant at this stage, we've got to get through first, we've
03:00 got to get through and that's going to be a tough game enough as it is, so I'm not getting
03:03 ahead of myself.
