Peter: A Way To Go

Peter Grant admits that there is still a long way to go before the current squad can consider itself can be considered 'the finished article' - but he believes good progress is being made.

With three wins on the trot since he arrived at the club, the message is: Complacency, no - confidence, yes.

"I have been in the game long enough to know that it is a whole season you go over, not just a few games," he says.

"There is a lot of hard work still to be done and a lot of things that can still be improved.

"The players realise that and myself and Alan definitely realise that, so we are not getting carried away; we are delighted at the wins because that breeds confidence, but we are far from the finished article.

"There is a lot of improving still to be done; come May we want to be sitting in the Premiership and to get there we have to work day in, day out, and if we get there we have to do it all over again - that is what consistency is.

"You have to know you have to produce it every day, not just once or twice in a blue moon.

"But, to be fair, in the three weeks since I have been here we couldn't have asked for any more from them."

Looking at the Bradford game, he says:

"Obviously we lost Mattie late in the day which came as a blow and we put Jobi on the left when he is a right sider.

"You can make excuses and say it was a bad pitch but there were decisions being made in the game that shouldn't have been made, and that is what we have to look at - we have to take those negatives and improve them.

"It is great to be able to do that when you have won the game but we are well away from being the finished article that you would want to be.

"We have to eradicate the silly moments and the silly mistakes because sometimes you don't get the chance to get back in the game.

"We are not kidding ourselves - Stephen made two fantastic saves to keep us in the game and Bradford deserved to be one up at half time.

"It was always going to be a sticky game against a side that went to Norwich this season and won; we know we can play the game but it is an asset to be able to mix it and dig in.

"In the second half we thoroughly deserved the victory because we bombarded them for 45 minutes; we got a bit of luck with the first goal but I am not so sure.

"Some say it was a free kick to them but I think the keeper bumped into Marlon as much as anything else, and Bobby got the winner, obviously."

Speaking ahead of the trip to Fulham, he says it is frustrating to have six players ineligible:

"That is disappointing; you would like to have everyone available and if you had that everyone would be champing at the bit to get in the team.

"The boys went to Wolves, the same squad that is going to be involved at Fulham, and we fully deserved to win the game at Molineux.

"There is no reason whatsoever we can't go there and get a result - no excuses to be made.

"We will probably have to produce something better to win at Fulham and we feel we have a squad capable of winning the game.

"Every game you play in is important from the first game to the last - nothing beats winning, apart from winning and playing well!

"If there is a race you want to come first; we are in the FA cup and we want to go as far as we can possibly go - we are in it to win it.

"We know it is going to be very difficult but there is no fear, and if we win this there is a possibility of getting someone like Manchester United which gives players the chance to improve in stature and become better footballers."

The hope is that Matthew Etherington will be available, and Peter adds:

"Mattie has been outstanding; he is a quality player and a major asset to the team - we are desperate for him to play but there are other boys in the team.

"But everyone wants to play on the big occasion and every game between now and the end of the season is a massive occasion - we are striving to get somewhere in the FA cup and we are striving for promotion."

It was claimed, erroneously, that a 10 hour bus drive to Bradford exacerbated Matthew's back problem.

The truth is rather more prosaic; Mick, the bus driver, tried a couple of 'back doubles' after afternoon training in Nottingham the day before the match to get to Bradford.

Unfortunately, he wasn't the only one, and a two hour journey became a four hour one.

So will Peter be driving from now on?

"I will do that if it gets us promotion, don't worry about that - I will drive us all the way to the Premiership," he laughs.

"Mick has had a lot of stick and would have got a lot of abuse if we had lost the game!

"But we all make mistakes, and he has learnt from that one very quickly..."

Christian Dailly is anticipating with relish the Fulham game and adds:

"I am looking forward to it, more Premiership opposition and it will be a good game between two footballing sides. "It will be interesting to see how we get on."

As for Nigel Reo-Coker, he adds:

"I'll be sitting in the stands watching which will be very frustrating; I hate to be a spectator, I always like to participate in it.

"Hopefully it will be a good cup run and we will beat Fulham."