United media officer and first team kitman Andy Hall spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria's James Phillips shortly before Carlisle's League One match away to Colchester, Hall first talking about a busy day yesterday with the closure of the January transfer window :
" Yesterday was an unbelievable day, as you can imagine I don't think it is ideal that you get to the last day and you are still trying to work deals out. I think Greg (Abbott) would tell you himself that he would prefer to have it had done a few days prior to that.
" But that is the way it goes, there is so much to try to sort out when you bring a player from point A to point B. Fortunately for us we got two of them nailed, two that we think are really good signings for the club (Darryl Duffy and Ben Marshall). A couple of others slipped away but there are other things that can be done between now and April, and possibly that will happen.
" Half an hour to go and we were still waiting for a phone call, I think once you get down to 15 minutes you are thinking that, hang on a minute, this isn't going to happen. So we reported that that one was off but I don't think we mind, to get Darryl Duffy and Ben Marshall, two really good players into the club, I think it was a good day for Carlisle United.
" Ben is on the bench, Gary Madine had to be sent home this afternoon, he has got a really, really bad stomach bug, probably as bad as I have seen for a while actually. So we have had to send him home because he won't be able to travel on the bus, it is as simple as that, you can't risk other players getting infected. So Ben is on the bench, Darryl will start.
" Darryl said himself this morning that what he will do is that he will come here and he will want to get goals. If I am not getting goals then I will be asking myself why. So with somebody like that, he has got that fire in his eyes, that is what Carlisle United needed at this point. "
" I think what Greg is doing with Paul Thirlwell is he is using his squad as he sees fit to use the squad in the situation that we are in now. They are tough pitches, Tom (Taiwo) has had a heck of a run of games when you think about it since he came from Chelsea.
" Now that we have got him permanently I think Greg wants to look at how he is going to use him, how he is going to be most effective. At the moment he feels that Thirlwell in the midfield pairings and threes that we have got is going to be more effective.
" You can look on that bench, we have got (Marc) Bridge-Wilkinson who must be chomping at the bit, you have got Thirlwell, Tom Taiwo, (Adam) Clayton, (Graham) Kavanagh, we could go on and on. What a midfield selection to have for Greg Abbott, so that is the problem he has got.
" Fans having an opinion is the nature of the game and you want them to have that on their football club because that means they are engaging with us, that means they are interested. But at the end of the day it comes down to one man and one man's selection only. "