"My reaction last week wasn't the same as after the Accrington game.  Obviously I was disappointed especially with the manner in which they scored with the last kick of the game, but within the game, it was a better performance.  You always look for the positives though after the game I was incredibly disappointed, but now that I have looked back at the game, there were plenty of positives to take from it, but as we all know, it's about results."

"Everything that was missing from the Accrington game was there for the Cheltenham game, especially in the first half; we played very well and passed the ball.  I don't think we even looked to pass the ball against Accrington.  We tried to pass it in the right areas though sometimes we didn't make the greatest decisions, but we had some players that wanted the ball and move it around the pitch and with just a bit of luck, we could have come in maybe one or two up at half time."

"For 92 minutes we defended pretty well, but in that last minute - we didn't.  We made the mistake and they scored.  We put them through, we had the chance to stop that, but didn't.  All you can do is hope that the players learn and move on.  Hard work on the training ground will reverse the run.  There is not a lot else that we can do.  We are not a club that can go out and get six players in to change it, not that I'd want to though.  I still think that we have the players that are good enough to change this around.  The evidence is on the pitch on a Saturday, they can be great in training Monday to Friday, but it's all about Saturday."

"It's always a problem if you don't score the goals.  You have to keep faith in the players at the top end of the pitch.  They are good players; their records say they are good players.  Their goal scoring record says they are.  Sooner or later, they will go in."

"Tom Elliott is a player that I have kept my eye on for around three years now.  When I first came here, myself and Chris Wilder tried to get him when he was just 18 but Leeds wouldn't let him out.  He's strong, powerful and has the potential.  I looked at him and thought that I want to somebody to work with.  He wants to work and he wants to be better so it was an easy one for us."

"Hopefully Tom coming in will send a clear message to the other strikers.  He's not coming from nowhere; he's come from decent pedigree at Leeds.  He did pretty well at Macclesfield and he will offer us something off the bench form the start.  He's got great pace and he just looks like he wants to be better, he will push himself to be better and we will help him.  He's here for three months, hopefully we can develop him and we can make him better whilst he makes us better."

"Port Vale are a decent team, and they are also having a decent cup run after beating Sheffield Wednesday plus they are doing OK in the league.  We can say the same about every team; they are more or less exactly the same.  Everybody can beat everybody and that includes us, we've already shown that this season.  We go into the game expecting them to play at their best.  If they don't, then hopefully we can exploit that but I expect them to be playing at their best, then it's for us to cope with that and to then do our stuff."

Alan Knill was talking to 'Shakers Player'/  the above text represents five minutes of the full 14 minute video interview.  Click here to login and watch the entire unedited video interview now