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 at home to Huddersfield, Hall first talking about the two teams bringing the best out of each other :
JP
A glorious day out there, a bit of an early fog this morning, I was looking around thinking that if anything could stop this day then it might be a bit of fog, but that cleared very early, a glorious day, hoping for a big crowd for what could be we hope the best match of the season for Carlisle?
AH
One of those teams aren't they Huddersfield, like MK Dons and Preston and Sheffield Wednesday, they bring the best out of Carlisle United and Carlisle United bring the best out of them. We have had some mammoth battles against them, you think about the four games last season and it was a nip and tuck even though they have got all of the resources and all of the finances to throw at the team and the staff and everything else that goes with it. We are doing things right at this club, or we think we are, and we are competing and we are more than competing in some cases, and hopefully that will be the case again today.
JP
Has there been a specific plan worked on this week for dealing with Jordan Rhodes or was it crossing your fingers and hoping that he turned his ankle in training?
AH
I don't think you can, I think you have got to prepare for a team. I was looking at their teamsheet and you have got (Scott) Arfield and (Alan) Lee on the bench, they would walk into any other League One side, so that is the quality they have got. Jordan Rhodes, I think he is their main goalscorer or main goal threat, he got the one against us in the draw down at their gaff earlier in the season.
So, you can't discount him but then again you can't discount the other players, the likes of (Gary) Roberts who will be nipping around as well. But, we have got our own players you know, we tend to forget it when we are coming up against these so called big clubs. Lee Miller, Francois Zoko, Jordan Cook coming off the bench, you can start to list our own that will do a bit of damage if they get a chance.
JP
Yeah, we will let them worry about our players and we will worry about theirs, I suppose that is just the way it goes. They don't score a great deal, I mean Lee Novak has tucked in with 13 goals which is no mean feat, but they don't score a great deal aside from Rhodes, if he was to ever have an off game which he very rarely does then you would wonder where it might come from for them?
AH
Yeah, but they are the kind of team that will grind out results, they showed that with Lee Clark. For a team to get on the run that they have in the league and not to get promoted has got to be unprecedented. They carried it on this season and I think they are so impatient at boardroom level to get things done that they have let Lee go.
From outside the club you are wondering why, why have they made a decision like that? Simon Grayson has come in and I am absolutely certain that he will have been told, whereas other managers when they come in at this stage are told to keep the club up, he will have been told to take the club up. So, it won't be easy, they have got a lot behind them, but we know we are just as good as them because we have shown it in the past.
JP
When you have got players though, I mean (Diego) Arismendi is a guy who Stoke paid £2.7million for, Huddersfield have got Danny Ward on the left, the youngster they signed for a million, Lee on the bench they signed for a million, Rhodes who would cost Lord only knows what these days, we know they turned down £5million for him, there is so much money involved with them.
I guess it becomes a privilege for a manager to go and have that sort, I guess the likes of Greg Abbott work hard and get opportunities like Huddersfield, but there is going to be that expectation, a bit like Mark Hughes went he went to Manchester City from Blackburn. He could have had a job for life at Blackburn, he took the risk at Manchester City and we know what happened, I guess that is what the likes of Lee Clark have to be open to when they go to clubs like this?
AH
Yeah, but look what it is like for people like Greg Abbott, to come to a club, when he took over, I know he had been assistant but we had just been beaten by Stockport, we couldn't buy a win, we didn't look like getting anything. For him to have moulded that group of players into a group of players who didn't get relegated and then to push it on the way he has, that has got to be so, or just as satisfying as if you go out there and buy the best players in the country.
So, you look at a club like Carlisle United and what it can do and I think we have probably exceeded the levels in a lot of areas. It is just a case of let's keep it going, we have managed that, the Championship is within touching distance, we want to get there so let's do what we can to achieve that.
JP
I notice that you and the club offiially on twitter were sort of asking fans what their favourite goal of the season was so far, and I chipped in with the equaliser (at MK Dons). Chris Lumsdon was with us in commentary, that equaliser, that stepover from Liam Noble, how good was that in terms of the overall goals United have scored this season?
CL
Well, if you had seen it in the Premier League I think they would replay it and replay it what he did. You could see he had seen Jordan Cook behind him and I think I was willing him to do it and I shouldn't have been surprised that he has done it because he has got the vision to do that. He just stepped over it and I think he celebrated more than Jordan when he scored because sometimes it is just as pleasurable getting an assist like that, so it was great to see it go in.
JP
Is that something you would go along with, when you score a team goal like that, that you must have worked on, they must, and I suppose there would be a little bit of Sunderland understanding between Noble and Cook, is that as good as a 20-yarder?
AH
I think it is probably better, Lummy has hit the nail on the head, it is the build-up from when Lee Miller got that touch to everything that happened, the movement was fantastic and rightly so it has been replayed on SKY Sports this morning a couple of times because it is a fantastic goal. It is not as eye-catching as one that hits the underside of the bar from 40 yards, but it is just as good technically and everything else. So, that is what we have got in this team, we have done it time and time again this season, that is why we are where we are.
JP
Two or three of those today and we will be fine then?
AH
Exactly that.