Listen to Ollie sound off

He's had better weeks

This week the Plymouth manager speaks of the low he felt after the FA Cup quarter-final defeat by Watford.

Plus his thoughts on penalty shoot-outs at the end of drawn games and Bristol Rovers' trip to the Millennium Stadium.

It's been the worst week I've had. I was hoping it was a bad dream and I would wake up and be able to have another go at it, but unfortunately not.

I was asked how long it would take to get that defeat out of the system - about two years I would have thought.

Ben Foster had a blinder for Watford but it's not about that. Football's about putting the ball in the back of their net. They did it once to us with a fantastic strike at a set-piece we fell asleep at. We tried to take the game to them but they held firm. So is it unlucky? I don't think so.

The fans were brilliant and it was a fantastic atmosphere, but I want that every week. We've got to get out of this division so we don't have to hope that we play a Premiership club once in a while in a cup match.

To make matters worse, we then get beaten 4-2 at home by Barnsley a few days later.

We went one up, had loads of chances, they get half as many chances and smack it in our net four times. Same old story. Full credit to Barnsley, they deserved it and scored one of the best goals I've seen in a long, long time.

Are you Ollie in disguise?

I did a Rod Stewart impersonation on the Monday with a wig on. It was my birthday and my mother-in-law sent me a wig with a note saying: "How dare you look a lot older than my daughter - wear this if you want to go out with her in the future!"

It was her old wig from when she had cancer so it was a bit of black humour. I wore the wig all round the town that day and no-one realised it was me apart from one bloke who said "I love your music, Rod!"

I was feeling a bit down on my birthday but my wife cleverly said: "Are you going to have a face like that for the rest of the day or are you going to think, like me, that this is just the start of your Plymouth career and you should be proud of what you've done?"

Another bit of genius from Mrs Holloway - she's different class. How she puts up with me I'll never know.

It's ludicrous. It's already been tried around the world, very unsuccessfully.

What they're talking about doing is individualising a team game. The best thing about football for me is that you learn it's not just about you but about your team and you work together to try and get the right result.

No way should it come down to an individual taking a penalty against another individual. That's wrong, because sides will go out to play for a draw against a better side and then try and win it on penalties, which is rubbish.

606: DEBATE Ask Ollie a question Chris Charles

What I think they should do to make it more entertaining is that if anybody wins by three or four clear goals they should get extra points.

They said a lot of fans were in favour of this penalties idea - where did they talk to them about it, in the pub?

I don't think there's anything wrong with the way things are so just leave it alone.

'Dr Rover Andy': Ollie, I gather you will be at the Millennium Stadium on 1 April to watch your old club Bristol Rovers play Doncaster in the Johnstone's Paint final. Do you recall your time fondly with Rovers? Things have got pretty desperate since you left!

I'm not sure if I'm going for real because it's on 1 April - I'd better check beforehand because it might be a leg-pull!

Seriously, I'll be very proud to be there. I understand I'm having a breakfast with some people before the match and talking to them about football, which might ruin their day, but I'm very proud how Rovers got there by beating Bristol City.

Apparently City had already booked their hotel accommodation so that's quite sweet for Rovers fans.

Sorry, fully booked

I was told Rovers rang up looking for a hotel and they said "No, sorry someone else has booked it". So they said: "It's not Bristol City is it?" They replied: "Yeah", so they said: "Don't worry, they won't be needing it!"

I remember my time at Rovers very fondly apart from my last few months as a manager when some of the fans were singing 'You don't know what you're doing', which was a bit wrong.

The fact is, I knew exactly what I was doing - the bottom line is you shouldn't keep selling your centre forwards - it's not a good idea.

But being a Bristol boy it taught me a lot and I was very proud to be the manager of the club that taught me how to be like I am.

No, because I can't catch them!

Interview by Chris Charles.