Knill: Ready to go
Shakers World Subscribers can click here to watch the complete video interview"We were all disappointed that it didn't happen on Saturday. I spoke to the players straight after the game and there is nothing you can do about it. The fact is that we finished fourth in the league which in itself is a pretty good effort. When I took the job, my remit was to improve things, and we have. We finished 13th last year and this year we finished 4th. The achievement from the players has been exceptional. It gives us another chance, it wasn't as if we finished 8th. If you finish 8th, that's it - season over. Our season is still going."
"We can put the league behind us, we finished 4th - now we just have to finish 1st out of four teams. I suppose it was more disappointing in the fact that we missed out by one goal. I told the lads to take Sunday and get it out of the system, come in Monday and we go again. Everybody has done and we've trained really well and have looked pretty focussed in training. Now we just have to get on with it."
"There was nerves and tension on Saturday, we didn't play particularly well. It's not easy when we have everything to lose and the opposition has nothing to lose. They think just come and play the game, they were going away to Portugal the next morning so it was a kick around for them. They came to enjoy a game before they go on holiday. For us, we hade everything to lose and at times, it showed. We were edgey, but at the end of the day, it finished 1-0. It's another win and I think we have the second most wins throughout the season in this division."
"The league game at Shrewsbury we went down to ten men and had to change the formation and shape. The game here was a pretty close game and it could have gone either way, fortunately for us, it went our way."
"We are approaching this game in exactly the same way as we would for any other game. We do work on the opposition, we know what they have got and to be fair, the players know who they are playing against anyway. We will try and do exactly what we have been doing for the past nine months. It's got us into fourth position in the league, we will try and do exactly the same as that."
"It doesn't matter what we try and do though, what matters is once the players step onto the pitch. They will decide how they are going to react. We've been pretty good in all the big games that we've had. Usually we've performed fairly well so I am hoping for exactly the same. For some of the younger players, it's a chance to put them out there - because it's on TV."
"We have three reports on Shrewsbury. We had all the potential play off sides watched and we've got information on their last three games. We've also got various DVD's that we've been watching."
"I don't think it matters that we are away first. The four teams that are in there are quite capable of winning anywhere. Shrewsbury's away record hasn't been great, but it's been better towards the end of the season. I know that my team home or away can win the game. I'm sure that the other three managers are thinking exactly the same. It doesn't matter that we are away, obviously it will be great to go to Shrewsbury and get a result, and it puts more pressure on the Sunday game not to lose."
"The play offs have come around very quickly, and I'm happy with that. Lets get them out of the way and the hopefully plan for the big one. There's twelve days until the next one and we've already had a preliminary look at it. Its tempting fate but I think its right to be organised."
"We are travelling overnight so that we can get the lads out of this environment and prepare properly. It's a change and makes it feel like a proper away game. We can get all the lads together the night before, watch the football and then get ready for the game."
"Andy Bishop is the only injury problem. He hasn't trained this week and he's had a persistent knee problem for four or five months now. He's had injections in the knee, they've worked but have worn off. We rested him on Tuesday and he will train on Wednesday before we travel. He thinks and we all think that he will be ready for the game on Thursday. He needs an operation during the summer so we are just getting him through at the moment."
