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" I'm used to it now but it doesn't get any easier. It's been a wonderful season but you always know that this day is coming. Let's just put it on record that it isn't my decision solely, it is the manger's (John Ward's) final decision. I go in and add my opinion, we talk about it, at the end of the day the manger makes a decision and it's just not a one person decision. It goes to down to the old senior staff and it's still hard when it's negative.
" Dan (Wordsworth) when I first came to the club 18 months ago, Dan obviously was a first year and he had a couple of problems. He always liked arguing with linesmen and referees and to be fair to him he has sorted that one out. There was never any doubting that he has got a lot of ability, and he came back in the summer, we had a talk, we did a one-to-one with him at the end of last season and he came back a different person.
" He's been outstanding this season, not only for the youth team but for the reserve team as well, when you are doing that for the reserves week-in and week-out you have got every chance of getting a contract. He realises that he has still got a lot more to do, which is a massive plus. People sometimes think that when they get offered a contract that they have actually done it, Dan actually knows that he has still got a hell of a lot of learning to do. So with an attitude like his, and with the progress he has made over the last 12 months, if he does exactly the same next year then he has got a great chance of making a living in professional football, and he fully deserves his contract.
" Only one is a disappointing return, it happened last season as well. When I came into the job I vowed to work as hard as I can and get as many people through as I can. I want more than one, I really do, and being honest with you I see that as a failure. I think if we are only taking one out of the full-time lads then something is not right, whether recruitment hasn't been right before or whether the coaching hasn't been right I'm not sure. I take it personally, I think that one is not enough and it is isn't, I hope to put that one right in the next few years. "
" He (Gary Madine) can play in the youth team next year, he can't play in the FA Youth Cup because he is two days too old, but he can play in the youth league next season, we won't even consider that one though. I'm probably being a bit hard there by saying that there is only one, but Gary has actually got one more year to go so I won't be classing Gary as a success on next year's intake to the professional level.
" Even though he has and he has gone in 12 months early, so you can either say that he has gone in with Dan this year and that we have got two through. Or we can put him into next year's because that it is when he will actually finish his youth contract. When Gary finishes his youth contract lets hope that he has got a lot of first-team appearances under his belt by then.
" That (Stephen Hindmarch) has probably been the most disappointing one, Stephen is a wonderful lad and he is a fantastic footballer. He's had some memorable moments at Carlisle in his two years as a YTS, his goal against Manchester United will never be forgotten. He has been around the first-team nine times, but the question is but… Stephen, we just felt that Stephen hadn't got the burning desire to go on and make it as a top class footballer.
" He still is a top class footballer if you understand what I mean, if he can come back, and I've told him this, I want him to go out and I want him to come back in two years time and prove us all wrong. I really hope that he does, I'll be the happiest person going if he comes back another way and proves to us that we have made the wrong decision. "
" Because he is capable of doing it, I just hope that he can find the desire and the enthusiasm to go with his talent, and if he does that then there is still a chance for Stephen Hindmarch. I thoroughly enjoyed working with him though and I have got a hell of a lot of time for Stephen. It's been a hard one for me this week and I hope that my little bit of criticism that I have probably given him in the press will sting him and will make him come back and fight hard to prove us all wrong, and I hope that he does.
" There are thousands and thousands of people out there in professional sport who have got the talent and failed, and it is always going to happen. There are thousands of people who have played professional football who have got talent and waste it. Whatever it is with Stephen I don't know, I really don't, I've pestered and pestered and pestered him for 18 months now on certain things, and there are certain things that have actually let him down. There are people out there though and there are thousands of them, like I said, have got masses of talent but it doesn't mean enough to them.
" I just think that to reach the top in professional sport you've got to actually love it, every minute of it, and you've got to work at it every minute to get there. It is really hard work or we would all be doing it, we all would, we'd all want to be professional footballers but some of us haven't got the talent and some of us haven't got the application. Probably the second one is always going to be levelled at Stephen, I hope that he comes back and definitely proves us all wrong, I'd be the happiest person going.
" It's never easy, I've done it a lot of times now and I get used to doing it, but it's still very, very difficult. Yesterday afternoon was sat in the manager's office with the three lads (Brown, Hindmarch and Wood), I can't describe how you feel because you get close to them. We have gone through a hell of a lot this season as a group and you do get to close to them. "
" I just don't know what to say to them afterwards and I just hope that once they have all settled down, they probably don't think a great deal of me at the moment. I hope that when they do settle down and they realise what we have been trying to do, that one day they will come back and understand the reasons, that's all that we can do.
" We've got two more games, we play at Morecambe on Wednesday night and we play at home to Preston to round it all off. The one thing that I've asked all three boys, we are forgetting about Matthew Brown and Matthew Wood here who have been incredible people around the club. Woody is such a funny enthusiastic lad, Browny is a bit dead-pan and dour but always gets on with his job, he never lets me down, and Woody is a fun character.
" In their own little ways they have been the cornerstone of the success of the youth team. I asked all three of them privately whether they would like to finish the season off. Because I want them to come and finish the season off, but I fully understand if they turn around and say that they don't want to play anymore, we don't want to face anybody, I would understand that. Credit to them though, all three of them want to play on Wednesday night, all three of them want to play on Saturday to finish the season off.
" We'll say goodbye as a group because we have been together now since July 1st and all three of them want to come in on Saturday, play against Preston, sit in that dressing-room and we'll say our goodbyes. We move on to the next stage, they'll move on to the next stage of life and we'll get preparing for July 3rd when the youth team report back with six new bodies to take their places, and off we go again. I'll be the first one to go over and shake all three of their hands if they come back and I really do hope that, and I mean that sincerely. "