Boro centre-half Peter Hartley spoke to his club's official website ahead of his side's League One game against Carlisle at the Lamex Stadium on Saturday afternoon, Hartley waiting for Graham Westley’s side to gel:
“The season is still early doors, if you look at the league table maybe 15 games in I would like to think we would be in the top ten. The gaffer has brought a lot of new players in this season and obviously it takes time for players to settle and bed in and for him to get his best team really, because he gets to know the players day in and day out so he has got to pick his best team, which I think he is still trying to get to the end of.
“Carlisle haven’t had a great start, they got a good result last week, but you can’t really look too much into that because last year when I was at Hartlepool we beat Sheffield United away and we had a terrible run before and after that. I expect us to win the physical battle, I expect us to better than them with the ball and I expect us to be fitter than them, so I don’t see any reason why we can’t win the game. The fans at home really get behind the team as well and are like a 12th man, so long may that continue.”
While utility player Darius Charles told his club’s official website:
“It doesn’t really matter who we are playing as we always put the work in during the week and the lads will be confident in themselves that they have put the work in Monday to Friday to go and do the job on Saturday. We always start slowly though, when we got promoted from League Two to League One we didn’t have the best of starts, you would probably say we didn’t even start until January.
“So, there is definitely work to be done and we will only get better and continue to progress as the season goes on. It is always nice to come and play in front of your home fans, I think we have got three in four now which are home games so we are really looking forward to that. We are really looking forward as well to putting on a display for the fans and giving them something to cheer about.”
In team news for the home side tomorrow they look likely to be missing three players through injury in Lucas Akins, Ben Chorley and James Dunne. Winger Akins is out with an ankle problem, while centre-half Chorley is still on the fitness comeback trail from a groin injury and finally central midfielder Dunne is absent in the short-term after taking a recent knock in training. In better news for Boro boss Graham Westley though, both utility man Darius Charles and centre-half Peter Hartley look likely to be available after shaking off respective ankle and leg problems.
The referee for tomorrow's match is Andy Davies from Southampton and he will be assisted down the lines by Ian Crouch from Orpington on the South-East outskirts of London and Surrey FA man, Craig Hicks from Sutton. Meanwhile the fourth official is David Avent from Northampton.