United media officer and first team kitman Andy Hall (AH) spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria's James Phillips (JP) this afternoon ahead of Carlisle's League One match away to Bury, Hall saying that the Blues will be facing a Shakers outfit that are on the crest of a wave :
JP
We're hoping that the season sort of, more than it did last weekend, got underway in the week against Oldham and United can carry that on today?
AH
Yeah, we need to don't we, Bury are on the crest of a wave, they really are. They have come up, they have gone to Huddersfield, we have got a good relationship with Huddersfield and a lot of their staff have been telling us just how well Bury played, and they could actually from what they were saying have gone on to win the game. So, we are going to be up against it today, they are a mobile team, they are a strong team, they are physical as well so there are loads of things for us to have to deal with.
JP
They certainly are, and one of them is the little man Ryan Lowe upfront, but he has got such a track record of scoring wherever he has been, 46 goals in 86 games going into this match for Bury in particular since he left Chester a few years back, he is a goal machine?
AH
He is potent isn't he and he is one that a lot of clubs will have been looking at and will still continue to look at. Because, you hit the nail on the head, he scores goals and every single team in the country wants one of those, if you have got one then it just makes that difference, and not so much the goals from 20-25 yards, but those in and around the six-yard box, the ten-yard area, just sniffing and being in the right place at the right time, and that is what he does.
JP
Dare I say the sort of striker Carlisle would be absolutely gagging for?
AH
I was sort of hinting at that yeah.
JP
As well, a bit of a shame, an injury picked up in the League Cup win for them, again very creditable for Bury in the week over Coventry, but no Steven Schumacher who of course really started his career in earnest on a loan spell from Everton to the Cumbrians?
AH
Yeah, he is and it is actually good news that he is missing because he has got the captain's armband for a reason, he has gone from strength to strength in his career. I am sure he would have wanted to have stayed with Everton but he has managed to play football ever since he left us really, and that is because he is a good football player. So, like I say, he has got the captain's armband on the back of that, we are glad that he is not here but they are still a good side.
JP
With one or two players returning today, a bit more depth, the manager (Greg Abbott) was talking about how the squad was looking a bit wafer-thin after that Oldham game. But, with that comes disappointments I guess and Andy Welsh and Danny Livesey the two men probably a touch disappointed today?
AH
Yeah, they have got every right to knock on the door haven't they, as has Stephen O'Halloran, those lads on the bench, they have been playing well, you could even put Craig Curran into that, he has worked hard from the start of the season. The manager has got to make a decision, he has to pick eleven players and a system that he thinks will do the job. He has got belief in this system he uses, he has got belief in the players that he started the season with.
Lubomir Michalik has come back so you would have expected him to get back in there and we all saw sat here in the press box quite a lengthy conversation between the manager and Danny Livesey, because what a decision that must have been to make after the way that Danny played the other night. So, this is what the manager is paid for, he has got to do that, hopefully he has made the right ones.
JP
A few fans on twitter and on the texts already pointed out that one and sort of put the question mark over the versatility of O'Halloran keeping Livesey out despite the fact Livesey has actually played for the Cumbrians competitively this season. But, I can see where the manager is coming from there because O'Halloran can play left-back or centre-back, and we know (Tom) Taiwo can slot in at right-back, so you cover all your bases, with Danny Livesey there is an argument that you don't really.
AH
Yeah, exactly that, Danny Livesey is an out and out defender, you can chuck him upfront for the last ten minutes if you need a goal, but other than that you are right, Tom can do other jobs, Steve O'Halloran can do other jobs and he has picked his bench accordingly.
JP
A telling point you have made there is that the manager has got confidence in his system, the diamond formation, which he clearly does like and has worked very well for him, let's not forget that, however the first two games of the season he has moved away from it, he has switched formation in the game, if he does that again today you would have thought he would have started to think about doing it longer term?
AH
I am not so sure because it a system that has worked really, really well for us, particularly away from home and particularly against teams like Bury as we expect they will come at us and really try to get into the spaces behind us.
So, that leaves space for the midfield to do their work, and if they use that system correctly, Jon-Paul McGovern, Paul Thirlwell, they won't just be at the head or the point of the diamond, they will be interchanging, swapping places, making a midfield three, making a midfield four, so it all comes down to how the lads play it on the day. So, you can blather on about systems as much as we like, it is the eleven lads on the pitch and what they do that will make the difference.
JP
And just finally, although it wasn't quite the start to the season everyone would have wanted at Brunton Park I miss it already, it is not often you get three consecutive away games right next to each other at the start of a season?
AH
And why not chuck in another one at Accrington just for good measure. Yeah, it is just the way it goes isn't it, you have just got to get on with it, at least it is not Orient, Brighton and Bournemouth or something like that.