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 Portsmouth, Hall first talking about another soggy afternoon at Brunton Park:
JP
What a lovely glorious sunny afternoon we have got here at Brunton Park?
AH
Great isn't it, I am hearing that Sunderland has been called off, is that right?
JP
Yeah, Sunderland in the Premier League called off, and I tell you what, I had one of those funny nights where I went to bed early and woke up early, and it was tanking it down from 6am until about 11am wasn't it. So, you kind of look out of the window and think I wonder how Brunton Park will be, silly?
AH
Yeah, it is the work that is done in the summer now, every summer they redo the drainage underneath and make sure that all the shail and stuff that goes beneath the pitch layer is sorted and draining properly. We get the benefit of it don't we because we have only had one game called off to the weather in the last three seasons I believe.
JP
Yeah, it is fantastic, great to see the pitch like that. Quite a lot of change on it today for the team, is it a change of formation as well can you tell us?
AH
Loving the link, I haven't seen the final training session which is usually the key for me, busy doing the Ipswich programme so I missed it. So, I can't say but the hint from me would be that the conversation was that we needed to change things with the way that we set up with the way that Portsmouth have been playing. So, I am guessing, but I might be wrong, that it will be 4-4-2.
JP
Yeah, might be a bit of a change in there. Alessio Bugno, do we know if he has picked up a knock or whether the manager just wants to give him a bit of a break?
AH
I don't think so, I think it is a reaction to Tuesday night from the manager, he has looked at his line-up and he will always pick the team that he thinks is going to win the game, whether it is a cup game or a league game. Obviously, the key word today was response, we need to see a response from what happened on Tuesday night. Because, I don't know what Danny (Livesey) was like when he came up to talk to you lot, but talking to Paul Thirlwell down in the press room disappointment was just oozing out of the guy.
We don't normally get that, even when we have been beaten you normally get an upbeat press response if you know what I mean, they know the game, they know they have to provide these interviews. It was like getting blood out of a stone and that is not a criticism of Paul, I think it is because all of the lads were shocked of where a performance like that had come from.
JP
Well he has dropped out of the team after your interview with him, he won't thank you for that. Jake Jervis is in, the new boy, JJ I am sure fans will probably take to calling him, what an opportunity it is for him and a good one for Carlisle as well?
AH
Yeah, I did get the chance to see him train on Thursday, I picked him up from the hotel and dropped him off. Wow, I think he said to Paul (Newton) in the meeting with him that he has got a bit of pace, he wasn't lying, he can't half shift. So, that is a little bit of an addition, Lee (Miller) won't mind me saying that that wasn't part of his game, he is more about being in the right place at the right time. With Jake there is something else that possibly balls through, stuff like that, chasing over the top, getting into the corners, getting it through the channels. So, we will wait and see today.
JP
A lot of big decisions for the manager, he wants to try to get a reaction, I suppose it is a demonstrable team sheet for that isn't it, he is trying to say to the fans and to the team themselves that nothing is settled, there are no favourites, if you are playing well enough you will be in, if you are not then I will put somebody else in your place?
AH
I think the key is not to over-react and I think that has been at the back of Greg's mind as well. He could have changed all eleven and put the press in there this week to give them a go.
JP
Lummy (Chris Lumsdon) would have been alright, I am not sure about myself.
AH
The fact is that he is not going to do that, he is always going to keep it as measured as you can be, but I think he knew that Tuesday night wasn't acceptable, the fans rightly reacted in the way they did and we just want to see a little bit different today. Certainly the energy and the drive, determination, all those key words that people sometimes say 'oh, here we go again, listen to them saying that.' They are key, they do matter, and if you get that then people go away with a smile on their face.
JP
And you have tweeted this morning about a very interesting conversation that myself and Mark McAlindon from BBC Look North had with yourself and Greg Abbott yesterday, do you want to just tell the audience a little bit about what that was for those who aren't on twitter?
AH
It was one of those impromptu chats wasn't it, the cameras were off, the microphones were put away and we just start sitting there and talking. It developed into the levels of abuse that we get away from the pitch really, I think you accept what goes on during the 90 minutes but it is what goes on thereafter. The manager has actually spoken to me this morning and he said 'have you done the right thing there do you think?' and I went 'yeah, I think I have actually.'
We are going to debate that me and Greg because he is not sure that he wanted people to know that we had had that conversation, but I don't see the harm in it. Because, criticism yes please, whether it is ticketing, media, PR, whatever you want to say about us, what we are doing wrong, put it in an e-mail, come and talk to us face to face, but the rest of it I have never understood it.
JP
We got into, in that conversation, discussing a lot of things about a lot of different clubs. I am not saying that this is directly players from our clubs or whichever club in the country it is, but you are hearing now about footballers out with their families shopping or at train stations being abused by fans of football clubs.
Like really nasty abuse, very personal abuse and you just wonder what it is that makes people think that even though they are in the public eye footballers, that when they are out with their families, when they are not playing on the football pitch, they can be spoken to perhaps in the way they are?
AH
I just don't get it and I don't mind telling the story that I have had it myself in The Lanes in Carlisle, came out of one of the big video and record shops and I was pushed across the aisleway in The Lanes up against the window of the shop that was opposite. That was because the Exeter game had been called off and it was still a sunny day, and this gentleman believed that we were lying, and for whatever reason he thought we would have wanted to call the game off.
It is frightening because I did go absolutely white because I thought I was going to get assaulted, and I don't understand it, I never will understand it. I don't know why somebody feels that they have got the right just because we are in the public eye, worse for the footballers because they get it more than me, they are in the public eye, why do they have to take that level of abuse if they have played badly. Criticism yes, we all want that, because that keeps you on your toes, but abuse, I will never understand it.
JP
It has been a pleasure and an insight talking to you over the last few days with Greg as well. Thanks for joining us here and it is something that we will be looking at over the weeks and months and maybe further down the line of the season. Just some of the things that footballers and people have to put up with, what you consider they should put up with because of the money they get and all of the responsiblity and the privilege they get against what you might actually be amazed that some of these people have to deal with, and I mean amazed. I certainly was to learn some of the things yesterday, so more to come on that perhaps in the future, for now thanks ever so much for talking to us.
AH
Good luck today guys.