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 Wycombe, Hall first talking about some cold Good Friday weather at Adams Park :
JP
We were all in sunshine expecting a nice day and I have had to, not for the first time this season, borrow a Carlisle United top. It has gone a bit chilly down here?
AH
Aye, me fleece is on as well, it is one of those isn't it. The pitch was a bit hard, I think though that is because it gets rolled after the rugby as well, but probably because of the weather they have had down here, we all know about the hosepipe bans and things down south, so it will be a tough one today because it will bobble about. But, I think having trained at Leicester yesterday, it was the same there, the lads are ready for it anyway, it is a massive game isn't it.
JP
One of the quirks of twitter, I put up a picture of the ground and one of the fans noticed, one ot two actually, that they were watering the pitch and they said isn't there a hosepipe ban down there? Have we got them in trouble on twitter with those pictures do you think?
AH
Oooh, I hope not, but it did need it, I had a walk around earlier and it is very, very firm underfoot. Like I say, I think that might be to do with the rugby and the fact that they have to redo it almost after every single time that the Wasps do whatever they do down here as well. So, that will make it interesting but it is the same for both teams and it is who handles it best.
JP
Unchanged again Carlisle United today, how important is this consistency when you are looking, consistency of selection I suppose, when you are looking for just that in the league?
AH
Well, I think the gaffer (Greg Abbott) hinted the other day during the press conference with you guys that how can you change a team that is playing like this and doing what they are doing. Because, we are not just picking up results, we are playing good football as well, we are defending well, we are attacking well and we are looking like a really solid unit, and what a time of the season to get a run together like this.
The home run speaks for itself but it is the fact that the away games, that everybody was criticising us about, have fallen into place as well. So, it is massive for us to be doing this right now. But, again, as Greg said the other day, this could be the biggest test we have had for quite a while because Wycombe are playing well, they are picking up their points and they need them for different reasons So, again, it comes down to who handles it.
JP
Three wins and three draws for them in their last six and only one defeat in eight?
AH
I know, and they have got some good players. Jon Colman has already highlighted on twitter that there are a couple that we were chasing (Chris Hackett and Ben Strevens) playing amongst their line-up and that is right. They would have fitted in and done exactly the same kind of job that we have seen other players do, so it is tough. It is one of those where you look at the league table and think there is three points, but I certainly wouldn't put this one on the coupon myself.
JP
In terms of the squad that has made it here today, great news, Chris Chantler, as much fatigue as injury for the young man making his first real consistent run in professional football Greg Abbott was saying?
AH
He got battered as well though didn't he, the lad who was over on the right-hand side for them and our left-hand side was definitely trying to muscle him about and Chris doesn't put up with that. But, he took a bit of a knock and he was rightly so, a great decision it has turned out to be in the end to get him off and to reshape the team using Murph (Peter Murphy) and Lubo (Lubomir Michalik) because it means that he is ready to go again today. Just hearing him talk to the gaffer yesterday when he was being asked how he feels, he was absolutely determined to be playing, and when you have got that attitude in the squad you are not going to go far wrong.
JP
Plucky little Manc scrapper?
AH
Better than that, he is a good footballer as well.
JP
Oh yeah, but he has got that character in him as well hasn't he which is very important, you see it in the likes of Darren Sheridan of course as a player throughout his career, there is just something about lads from that neck of the woods that they don't want to give things up?
AH
And I think it is something else that keeps getting said, when the lads are playing like this nobody wants to drop out of the team because others come in and pick up the momentum, they pick up the same kind of feeling and the vibes and they go on and play well and stay in there. So, if you are in there you want to stay there and keep doing the job for the club.
JP
Paul Thirlwell out there stroking the ball as well today, helping the goalkeepers warm up earlier, I am just trying to see if he is still in the middle with them at the moment or whether he is probably relaxing now. Matt Robson as well, both of those players coming back very close to fitness, something that is going to be key to Carlisle to have the squad as well as just the eleven and the bench?
AH
We spoke to Robbo after the Cumberland Cup game earlier in midweek and he was absolutely buzzing, because he said himself that it took him five or ten minutes to get back into it but what a performance. Even though it is only a Cumberland Cup game it doesn't matter, that was really important for him, he set up one of the goals superbly when he skipped down the wing and put a cross in so that will have done him the world of good. It will take him a little bit of time to get back to full match fitness but he is going to be ready very soon because he is a fit lad anyway. So, it is great for the club to have the squad buzzing and ready to go.
JP
After two wins over two of the very best teams in the division, has Greg Abbott had to impress on the players how different but still how comparable a test these two games over Easter are going to be for the players? Has he had to almost guard against complacency I guess?
AH
I think he has done that but he has got a lot of the experienced players in there as well who have been here before. There are a few lads who have been on the fringes of the play-offs and got in there as well and they know exactly how easy it is to let this go just over the space of two or three games, it can all be done when everybody has been so excited. So, they are guarding against it as well, you have to treat every single game as an individual game, it is a new one, it doesn't matter whether it is the top team or the bottom team. If you don't go into it with the same attitude, tempo and feeling that you are going to win it then it will trip you up and we don't want that to happen.