United media officer and kit manager Andy Hall (AH) spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria's James Phillips (JP) this afternoon ahead of Carlisle's League One match away to Walsall, Hall first talking about United's poor record over the years on the road against the Saddlers :
JP
A glorious day down here, we are looking forward to a glorious performance against a Walsall side who have become a bit of a bogey team for United?
AH
Yeah, we spoke to Greg (Abbott) about that at the press conference on Friday didn't we, and how does it happen that you can come to a place like this for 17 years and not pick up a win? And it is worse for me because that win that we got 17 years ago I missed it because of the crash on the M6, so I didn't actually even get to the game. So, yeah, we are due one down here, it is a tight stadium, the fans do get behind their team if you give them a head of steam.
So, the message today from Greg has been to make sure we get out there and do the job early on, because we saw it last season, even though they weren't in the best of form then they got themselves on top, they got the set-pieces and suddenly we are chasing a game that really we should have been comfortable in.
JP
In terms of today's game, a surprise to some is Lee Miller into that starting line-up, go on, talk us through that?
AH
Yeah, it is one of those where you are worried about saying that he is definitely ruled in because of the fact that it is the groin injury and he has got to make the journey. We have been caught out in the past where we have said that everything is fine, not a problem, and the player who has been involved, particularly with a muscle injury, has got off the bus at the other end and felt it.
I can remember it with Michael Bridges, Karl Hawley in particular, a couple of those high profile cases, Lee Miller would have been another one, so we didn't want to commit ourselves. We didn't want to say it was absolutely definite, he needed to be looked at by Dolly (Neil Dalton) once we got here today, make sure that there is absolutely nothing in the way of him playing at 100% because if he is not at 100% then you don't play him, it is as simple as that.
JP
There is no suspicion then of a little kidology to try to unsettle the preparation of Walsall with that big man?
AH
No, I don't think you can in this day and age, I don't think many teams do that any more, if you do that then you are opening yourself up to all kinds of criticism. This was genuinely a case of is he going to be able to make it, we had best play safe on it and say that we will have to wait and see.
JP
I wouldn't have minded if it had been kidology, I think it would have been brilliant if you had foxed them, if it had any effect and they think it is kidology then great. In terms of this one, great to have him back in there and sticking with the 3-5-2, so clearly the coaching set-up feeling that that could reap the fruits again here?
AH
Yeah, well I think the big thing last weekend wasn't just the fact that we won, it is the fact that we got the clean sheet, and I think it was eight or nine games since we got the last one. So, we have been making errors, we have been making errors actually that have cost us badly and hurt us.
That had to be ruled out, the 3-5-2 formation, is it a coincidence that it came with a clean sheet, not just a clean sheet, one shot or header I think it was on target that Adam (Collin) didn't really have to deal with, it was regulation straight at head height into his hands. So, not too sure that is a coincidence and it is a change of formation that works and the manager is comfortable with it, so he is going for it again and hopefully it will work for us in exactly the same way.
JP
And as well with that, I was just looking at it when I was explaining how it lined up to Derek (Mountfield) who won't have seen it last week against Stevenage, but with Paul Thirlwell still sitting more in front of them as more of a holding midfielder, it actually means that both full-backs, (Matty) Robson and (James) Tavernier can really sort of rampage forwards without too much concern at times?
AH
And that is where they are really effective as well isn't it, Robbo on the left and Tav on the right. I know Greg is talking to Tav a lot about his defensive responsibilites because he is a right-back and it is a big part of his game. But, when you have got those three you have got a little bit of insurance, Danny Livesey, Lubo (Lubomir Michalik) can move across to the right-hand side whenever Tav does get forward, but you still end up with a defensive unit of four at the back.
So, it happens again with Robbo on the left-hand side, he is given licence to get forward, somebody can move across, usually Peter Murphy, and make the back four. So, it is a really effective formation and when you see Paul Thirlwell in the front of it as well, that is where he is really, really effective because he can stop the attacks through the middle, he gets the ball, he passes it left and right once he has got it and that helps us to build our own attacks, as we saw more in the second-half last week against Stevenage.
JP
In terms of these today, just one point picked up out of their last fifteen available, another stat I have got here is a good one, and it is that they have let nine points slip from winning positions. And another one that I have just been told, I didn't believe this one, they have not picked up a single point from a losing position, so when they have gone behind they haven't come back?
AH
Oh, I hate these kinds of things, stats are there to be broken aren't they.
JP
Let's hope United don't do it today, that is the next point?
AH
That is the problem in football, you start churning these things out and all of a sudden you are setting yourself up for a fall. All you can do is come to places like this, difficult places to play football, do your job, and hopefully at the end of it you get the three points.