United media officer and first team kitman Andy Hall (AH) spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria's James Phillips (JP) ahead of Carlisle's League One match at home to Dagenham & Redbridge, Hall first talking about the matchday situation with the seven loanees currently at Brunton Park :
JP
We have just been looking at the teamsheet and one of the first things we were all talking about was the absence of two of your loan players, of course that enforced on the club, tell us what you can about that?
AH
Yeah, well, it is a Football League rule, you are only allowed to have five loan players named on any one teamsheet, that includes your substitutes. So, unfortunately for Ashley (Eastham) and Miguel (Comminges) they have both had to miss out. And when you look at the form Tom Cruise is in you can't really argue with that, and the other lads that are on there already (James Chester, Mike Grella, Ben Marshall and Lubomir Michalik), they speak for themselves.
JP
Picking themselves basically at the moment, it is the same line-up from the Sheffield Wednesday game despite the break inbetween action. Great news I suppose that nothing was picked up by any of those players?
AH
Well, it is, and again when you are looking at that selection I think the big debate today was whether it was going to be Ben Marshall or Mike Grella, because that must have been a massive choice for the manager (Greg Abbott) to make. But, again, when Ben Marshall's form is as it is he is unbeatable. He is making goals, he is scoring goals, it would have been very hard to drop him.
JP
Only the one game then lost so far, the match at Leyton Orient, which is great news for Carlisle United because we were talking as well about this. The couple of games that you have got on here at Brunton Park where games that in recent seasons would have been lost?
AH
It is the work of the groundstaff and I think the last couple of days we have been trying to really big that up. Because, without them and without their forethought in many ways we wouldn't have had these games on.
The other thing is that everybody talks about the pitch, but we had 43 separate leaks around the ground and it took the plumbers 24 hours to sort those out. So, it sounds daft but it is little things like that, if it wasn't done then the game wouldn't go ahead. So, everybody needs a massive pat on the back for that.
JP
We have actually got a bit of a note here and it is from Nigel (Dickinson) your General Manager, saying thanks to all the groundstaff and all the plumbers from Alan Irving and to Chris Cowen for making the game basically possible to go on, 43 leaks and frozen busting pipes?
AH
Everywhere, there was water everywhere, and as the thaw came that was when the water started to flood the ground and the surrounding areas. So, you were thinking to yourself that it was going to be daft and that we were going to have the pitch playable but we wouldn't be able to get the fans in. So, it took a big effort, and again, a massive thank you to be everybody involved with that.
JP
The joke in the office about this, and it wouldn't have been funny had it been the case, is that the pitch might have been playable but because the toilets weren't then you wouldn't have been able to have the match on?
AH
It is real, these days it is not just about having a pitch, you have got to have a venue. If you don't meet the Health and Safety standards then you don't get a game, so it is a battle, but so far, so good.
JP
In terms of the playing staff, those out there on the pitch, we have been talking a lot about the people behind the scenes and how they get games like this on. In terms of training it has been a bit of a ordeal over the last few days?
AH
We are sort of used to it at Carlisle United though, over the last few years we have been as far afield as Leeds for a daytime training session, just to make sure that you get some quality training time. Particularly when you know that the game is going to be on, you have got to get somewhere.
A massive thanks to Morecambe and their new facilities they gave us on Thursday, which was when Greg really got the lads looking at shape and movement and using the ball. On Friday we used Newton Rigg, a big thanks to them, the Penrith campus, if they hadn't said yes then again we wouldn't have been able to fine tune things, because the facilities here weren't quite up to the standard at the time.
JP
And just finally, this game today, it is another one of those matches, Carlisle United constantly prove that they can do it against the big teams, the Sheffield Wednesdays, the Southamptons of the division. This is one of those games that I am sure Greg has impressed on the players he would like confidently and competently put away?
AH
It is fair to say that Walsall has cropped up at various stages over the last couple of days. Because, that is a game where everybody came away feeling really disappointed, Walsall, let's not make any bones about it were there for the taking and we didn't take them, they took us. He doesn't want that to be repeated because if we really are going to push for the Championship as everybody is talking about at the moment, then these are the games you have got to win.
JP
I don't think I have ever asked you this at this time, but have you got a score prediction for us, the girls on the front desk did earlier, all four wins from the four we spoke to, from Andy Hall?
AH
3-0.