Fresh from signing a two-year contract extension that keeps him at the club until the summer of 2010, Danny Livesey put in the kind of performance against Oldham that demonstrated just why the United management team rate him so highly.

He said: "We had to work very hard to win that one, but we knew it was going to be a battle when we went out there and started to sense that we weren't quite playing our best football. The important thing is that we ground out a result, and that's what we've all come to expect from this squad. It seems to be the case that even when we don't play well, we still manage to grind out a result."

"We scored at the right time," he told us, "because it is always important to make it count when you are having a decent spell. You see it all too often that you get punished when you don't manage to do that, and it's happened to us many times in the past. Once we had that 20 minutes where we were controlling the game, we made sure we got the goal and they never really caused us too many problems after that."

"Both me and Dave knew we would be up against it today," he admitted, "because of the size of their two main strikers. They work really well together, and you have to make sure you know where they are all the time. That's not only the back four who have to do that, but everybody, because it's as important to stop the service as it is to deal with them when they do get through."

"It got even more interesting when they started throwing more men forward in the second half," he said, "and it was no surprise when they brought Taylor on. He did well against us last season and he was always going to be used if they were behind. Arnie coped with him really well, so we didn't have to worry about him too much."

"I'm enjoying playing beside Dave Raven," he told us. "He's a really good player and he has slotted in with ease. It doesn't seem to matter who plays in the centre of defence - there is me, Murph, Ziggy, Dave and Arnie - we can all play there, and we all seem to gel really quickly. That's good for us and the manager to know."

"We're keeping clean sheets at the moment," he added, "and that's a pat on the back for the whole team, and not just the back four or the keeper. We're all working really hard for this and we need to aim for as many clean sheets as we can. We've seen over the last three seasons how much of a difference it can make, and it's a habit that we have got used to. It's something that we need to be doing for the rest of the season as well."

We couldn't avoid the subject of the Oldham penalty claim, and Danny said: "Yeah, there was contact. I went to get in the way, and I was actually trying to block the shot. As I put my leg out, he's either kicked me or I've kicked him, I'm not sure which way round you could say it was, and he went over. Obviously I will say that he kicked me and he will say that I kicked him, because that's the way that it is. Sometimes you get those decisions and sometimes you don't. I must admit, I expected the Ref to even things up, but I won't complain that he didn't give it."

An outstretched leg late in the game then almost led to an own goal, and he explained: "I stuck out a leg when I saw the ball coming over, because that there were a couple of their players behind me. My heart was in my mouth when I saw it fly towards the bottom corner, but Keiren has pulled off a great save, and that is what he is all about. Mind you, I was ready to start having a go at him for not coming to claim the cross in the first place! Nah, seriously, Westy is a great keeper and he dug me out of a hole with that save."

"I think everyone says the same things about games like these don't they," he said. "It's really important to grind out results against good teams, and even more so when you haven't really played that well. What it does show us is that if we can start playing well for the 90 minutes then we are going to pick up results anywhere we go."

"It's good to see the things that we have been working on come together," he told us. "We like to get the ball and play football, and we are a very good team. We can do that, but we can battle as well, so it's good that we can mix it."

On the situation behind the scenes, he said: "It doesn't really matter what goes on because the lads are together. We go on to the pitch and we want to do well for each other. On this occasion, there was the added incentive of doing our best for Greg. Hopefully we will do our bit to make sure that he gets the job. You can tell that Dennis is back as well, because all you can hear is him shouting abuse at everyone from the sidelines. That's the way he is, though, and he is a great fella to have around."