United chief executive David Allen spoke to Look North's Mark McAlindon earlier this week about Carlisle's desperate scrap to avoid getting relegated into League Two, Allen later talking about the hefty police costs at United matches :
" There is a lot of pressure on us, we never expected it coming to this and we have just got to put everything into winning this game tomorrow and hoping that one of the other two teams lose. I think that we have had a little bit of bad luck but we don't want to just blame it all on that. We have had an awful lot of injuries and just quite a few things gone against us. We have got a lot to look at after Saturday to see what we can do better for next season, and we are just going to do everything that we can.
" John (Ward), we thought that he was the right man for the job and we had to let him go. Greg (Abbott), we do think that Greg is doing a good job and quite a few things have gone against him, and we will have that to look at as well after Saturday. It's very, very difficult to say about it in that sense (16 points out of the last 60), a lot comes down to the players and that doesn't it. Obviously we are very, very disappointed with those results and we just have to live with that.
" I think that there was a bit of complacency at the start of the season, it all looked very, very easy, the last four years with the run up to this season was made to look very, very easy. Coming out of the Conference, four absolutely fantastic and successful years and we maybe did think that maybe it was just going to be a little bit easier than it was.
" At the end of the day the buck stops with us and we have got broad shoulders and we need to take that. We are in a position where we take the responsibility and at the end of the day it stops with us. At the end of the day we will be looking at everything we can do to improve things at the club and do the best that we can."
" It certainly won't be the beginning of a downward spiral if we get relegated, and we need to make sure that that certainly doesn't happen. If we do go down, and we are going to do everything to make sure that we don't go down, but if we do go down then we need to be doing everything that we can to get straight back up.
" These are very, very difficult times though, our gates maybe will be down in that division (League Two). Certainly the distribution that we get from the Football League will be less and these are very, very difficult times anyway. We are in a recession and it is difficult.
" It is a big game for us, it isn't a big game for Millwall though, they are in the play-offs anyway. We do know that they might only bring about 350 supporters. It is a massive police operation though, to our fans, just stay out of the way of the Millwall people and just come and enjoy the game.
" The discussion with the police about costs is still ongoing and it is an issue that is being taken up at other places as well, not just by Carlisle United. What we have done, we have appointed Stuart Jardine as Police Liaison Officer to work on behalf of the club to liaise with the police. It is going to cost us about £26,000 to police the game on Saturday, which is a lot of money for a small football club. "
" Admittedly fan safety comes first but we have got some good stewards and a good system at the club and we will continue those talks with the police. The police have been very good with us, allowing us to open up the Waterworks End for the children this Saturday to hopefully get a good atmosphere. We just want to continue working with them but get the costs down.
" You don't want to be volunteering to pay the bill too soon do you when you are in talks and that, but obviously if there are bills to pay then we will pay them. We are not doing anything like holding payment until we get a reduction, that sounds like a little bit of blackmail and we don't work that way, but there are talks with the police. They are ongoing and we will get Saturday out of the way and then we will see where we are going from there.
" We have got to look now at just getting up as high as we can. If the worst comes to the worst and we do go down then we have got to get back up and get back up certainly to the top of League One, where we were before. We have to pay for those police whether we are successful or not and that is a big worry. Finance is a big concern now, not just for Carlisle United but for an awful lot of football clubs.
" These are very, very difficult times and I think that we will see some football clubs in difficulty after the end of this season. We have got to do everything that we can to make sure that we don't get into those sorts of positions, there are lots of other football clubs do get in that position though. We just want the fans to get behind us, get behind Greg and get behind the team. If we win on Saturday and stay up then that will help us just in itself.
" We aren't close to administration at the moment, no. We are trying to run the club on a sound business model now, obviously the gates are down and we don't have the money that we thought that we might have had at this stage, but that is how it goes in football clubs. "