PNE.Com speaks to the Manager from the team hotel to look ahead to the latest of North End's big cup finals as they look to stay out of the bottom three with a result against the Us.

Alan, Saturday wasn't the prettiest of games, but it was three points. Going into the Colchester game I expect you would happily take the same again?
We'd be absolutely delighted with the same result and delighted with the same defensive performance and it would be nice if we were a little bit better when we are in possession, but right just now we'll take solid performances that get us three points.

Other than a couple of long range 'worldy' goals you've looked pretty solid recently.
Yes, that late goal against Norwich cost us from having a good run on clean sheets and we do look very solid. If we can continue in that vein then it gives us a realistic chance of moving up the table. These things can change very quickly though and we have to make sure we don't get complacent about not conceding goals and that is down to a lot of hard work, a lot of discipline and having determination, courage and a lot of good organisation. So we have to keep that and use it as our foundation for getting results.

A couple of weeks into the job you said that was a priority, are you pleased with how the players have taken it on board and put it into practice?
Yes I am pleased; I would have liked to have been further on and have been really working a lot more on what we are going to do when we have possession of the ball, but we haven't been able to do that. We've done some bits of it, but not to the extent I would have liked to have done it. That has been largely down to the problems we've had getting training facilities and I feel we would have been further on had we been able to train on grass on a more regular basis. But full marks to the lads, they've taken on board the organisational aspects very very well and I think everybody who is watching us on a regular basis will see that quite clearly.

You've had a nice pitch and nice weather just outside Colchester, has it been a chance to work on a few more things?
Yes, albeit we are very close to the game so it is limited what you can do with the lads. Clearly we are not that long after a hard game against Coventry and we are going to go into a hard game against Colchester so we have to adjust the training to make sure we don't leave anything on the training ground, but when we trained on the pitch today it was a lovely surface, the weather was fantastic and in the end I was having to chase players off the training ground.

Last season Colchester we're almost unbeatable at Layer Road; have teams got wise to what Layer Road is about this year?
Probably, but it is also about people getting on runs. Clearly Colchester started the season very well last season and they surprised a lot of people with how well they were doing and their home stadium became a fortress and they believed that they were going to win every time they played there. A lot of people came to it and probably got a surprise at what they were coming into, but it is always harder in the second season; it is harder for teams who go up in any league if they stay up to maintain and repeat the feat in the second season. You just have to look at the past history in the Premier League alone to see how difficult it is if you manage to stay up in the first season to do it again in the second season and that may well be happening to Colchester this time and suddenly Layer Road isn't such an intimidating place to go to because most teams who are going there have been there before.

If you can win the game the gap to them will be eight points, have you highlighted this to the players?
Yes, we've talked about this already today. It is an old cliché, but really these games are six-pointers, not because you get six points from them, but because of the swing in the margin between the teams. Tomorrow it could possibly be a gap of two points or it could be a gap of eight points. We have set ourselves targets and we have to almost win every second game to get out of the trouble we have found ourselves in, so we need to win again soon and hopefully that will be Colchester, because the sooner we can get the required number of points the better.

Finally, on team matters, you said on Saturday you hoped to have Callum back, is he is your plans?
Yes, Callum is back in contention, but we are not going to have Lewis Neal and that is the only additional one.

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