Dowie Determined To Carry On

"There are lots of things that happened that have surprised me from November onwards and you have to get on with them," said Dowie to the CT.
"I know in my own mind the way I behaved and the way it happened and I am very comfortable with that, and therefore I am not going to let my enthusiasm and love for the game, or the fact that I treat people in the right fashion, change.

"My wife asked me how I cope with it and you just get on with it. You have got to be bright and bubbly. "It has been difficult when you are staring down the barrel of a gun but I won't let it effect my family who have been very supportive. "I am not going to become a cynical person because it is not my nature.

"I will get on with it and work harder and be more edgy and determined because when you get knocked down it is how you get back up. "It has been difficult because you see the affect it has on your family and you store those away and come a rainy day they are things that will burn in my mind.

"But it put things in perspective when I saw a good friend of mine coming up to me with a debilitating illness. I have never felt sorry for myself. "You worry and think the world is against you but there are people with miles worse things than this and you just get on with it."

"Everyone talks about reputations and my reputation starts when we go to Barnsley for the first match. "You build a reputation. I had a good run at Palace but it changes and football is about the future, not the past, and it is important what we do now.

"I've got fantastic staff here, arguably the best I have ever had, and we are a very driven and focused unit who are determined to put things right because the club has had a couple of years of not really doing anything."

"The court case is probably the hardest thing I have done because the intellect of the judges and QCs is certainly at a different level to mine, so it was a very interesting case but something that I never want to go through again and something I don't think I should have had to gone through. "I would do it all again, absolutely, in terms of the court case, yes.

"We are looking at grounds for appeal and I am comfortable with the way I behaved.

"Money is money and in the end I am not going to put my family's future at risk because of that but there are better legal minds than me looking at it.

"The financial elements can be colossal but that will be done in periods going forward. "It may well be that in light of my family's future we may have to take it on the chin. I am not going to be stupid enough to risk everything."