What pleased you most about that performance? It was a hard-fought, win.
It was always going to be the case here. They have a great home record with 24 points on the board but 17 of them at home.
We know they have been in a tricky spot since October. They have only won three games and one of them was in the Papa John’s and they lost by a distance last time out, so you always knew there was going to be a response today.
I actually thought we acquitted ourselves quite well in the early part of the game and then one foray into our final third ended up with a goal for them. That's disappointing, but you have to give the opponent credit. It was a great run from the lad, a good ball into the box and it was a helluva header.
Sometimes you have to take your hat off and say it was good play. For me, the key was how we responded and we are just capable of goals. We have got loads of goals in the team and you can see the assisters when you've got Finley, Coutts, Sinclair and Luca Hoole, what a ball he has put in for Scotty's goal.
I thought they had scored too early, they don't really know how to win games in recent memory. If they score in the last five minutes, it's different, they can hang onto it.
Then the character of our team is on show. We get back in it and we cracked on from there, get the second and get in at half time. And then I thought we managed the second half superbly.
We had the job done and it was about keeping the back door bolted and barring a couple of long-range efforts or a free-kick at the end, I didn't think they were going to trouble Belly.
The second goal was a goal of real quality, wasn’t it? You must be delighted as a manager to see your team sweep from back to front and finish off like that.
It’s a great team move and the lads trust each other on the ball to play through the press of Cambridge. Not only that, but when Luca gets in there, he’s still got a bit to do and he picks Scotty out.
The ball catches a bobble and it’s a helluva finish. It’s why he was player of the year in Scotland and why we’re so happy to have him in our team.
In terms of where you are, Joey, it was this time last year when momentum started to shift. I guess the difference this time is there is not really as much pressure or expectation on you. Is that fair to say?
I think externally there isn’t, but internally we feel we're in with a right chance. We've got to go and prove that in the next 20 games.
We've come up with a flourish to win on the line last year to get promoted. We've started the run for the finish line a bit earlier and it's about making sure we maintain it and keep making traction.
There are a lot of hurdles to get over like today was a tricky one and if you clip it, it can set you back a bit, but we've managed to get over it and we're onto the next now.
A good cup tie sandwiched in between. It will be spicy at both ends, there is no love lost between us and Plymouth, particularly after the shenanigans from them in the previous encounter and they are top of the table so it will be a full-blooded game.
And then we go to Accy with John Coleman, Jimmy Bell and the scouse rivalry. Accy are always good at home but, weirdly, this season have got the worst home record in the division, which shocks me because Accrington Stanley at home are usually a tricky opponent.
We go there full of confidence but also knowing that they can have a sting in the tail if we don’t get it right.
Joey, after the gut-check of Wycombe and Exeter back to back, you must be so delighted with the response. Not necessarily because of the quality of the performances, but because of the grit you have shown in both games.
They were games we could have won both of as well, so we could be sitting here with a completely different slant on it, but you are always learning lessons about your players and your group and I do believe in that kaizen philosophy of continuous improvement.
That doesn’t necessarily always happen. Sometimes there are hurdles and sometimes you have little setbacks along the way, but the key is over the 10-game blocks that you make forward progress.
I think that’s our sixth game (in this 10-game block) and we have won four of the six, so that’s 12 points on the board and that’s a good return in those games. As I say, Wycombe in there, this game away at Cambridge is a tricky game and we’re obviously disappointed with the Exeter game because we had it won even though we were on the canvas.
The Cheltenham game was such a big game for us because we had to show a different way of winning a game and I think you could see the confidence that was built in the Cheltenham game, certainly in the second period today when we had to show maturity in defending the lead.
You would have heard the fans at the end singing ‘Up the Football League we go’. They are starting to believe. How much do you believe you guys can get in that mix?
I've always believed, even when we won two of the first 10 games. I know the quality I have in my training ground, I know the desire they have and we work every single moment.
There are lots of teams in that slot as well, so we believe in taking care of our own business.
We believe if anybody has done what we've done, fair play to them, but some hard, hard yards have gone in this season. I go back to the gaffer's day in Portugal, playing FC Porto and some moments when your team and your culture is forged.
It is January games away at Cambridge, it's these January, February, and March games where the work you've done in pre-season truly pays you back.
We've still got 20 fixtures and we're in the mix, we're looking up and at the top end of the table, rather than over our shoulder at the bottom end of the table and I think everybody in the quartered jersey and everybody in the blue half of Bristol would have snapped your hands off if we said this would be the state of play on January 7.
But also, we're not done. I told you long ago we're just getting started here.
Josh Coburn this week was named among the best under-21 players in the EFL and I think that performance encapsulated his two-way nature as a striker. He is a threat in behind, but he also drops short and he showed great quality in the build-up to the second goal. He is such a complete player, isn’t he?
He’s the real deal. He just needs, as you do as a player, that bit of luck with injury and a manager to take a liking to you and persist with you through a tricky spell. I think in time he will show his quality.
I must say, Ryan Loft, Aaron Collins and John Marquis at the end took a lot of hits and a lot of bumps for him to get that platform.
He has been the goalscoring player that you are looking for, but on the other side of that you have got his mate (Collins) playing underneath him who is also getting goals and assists.
We’ve got a really good side. We’ve got some young players learning, but also we’re full of confidence about what the second half of the season holds for us.
No Harry Anderson today. What’s the story there?
He’s had a setback with his groin and Lewis Gibson is the same. He trained the past couple of days and he just wasn’t moving quite right and wasn’t quite there.
We just can’t take the risk because of his history so we’ve got to be sensible.
Both lads are probably looking at two weeks, maybe, just to be on the safe side. The boggy pitch we played on and the load of games hasn’t helped them, but I thought James Gibbons and Luca Hoole have come in and kept the level of performance sky high.
They will be wanting to compete and make those jerseys their own.
Can you see any transfer business being done by Tuesday?
I’m not sure, I can’t see it but who knows?
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