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" Everybody has noticed that the crowds are down and it is a concern for everybody. We are trying to play the best football that we possibly can, results are going OK at the moment, albeit it is very early on in the season. There are a lot of issues with the attendances though in terms of why they don't come, is it down to finance, is it down to the credit crunch, people are finding things a little bit harder to come by at the moment.
" The part they play though, and this is maybe a plea, when we have got fans there getting behind us at Brunton Park we are awesome. I always say that they are a 12th player, they are our twelfth man. If you have got them behind you, and you just look at the influence that they had on Cleveland (Taylor) who is finding his way to get them on his side. As soon as they are cheering him and clapping him, and putting up with the mistakes that he will make like every other player, he is a different boy.
" When you get a group barracking or knocking or not there it doesn't half affect the performance. From my point of view I just say keep coming, keep shouting, put up with the mistakes because we will all make them, I will make them, the manager will make them, the players will make them, fans make them. Fans often say things that turn around and are proved wrong, so let's all stick together, let's get down there and try their hardest and get down there to support us.
" Because the more fans that come through the more revenue there is created, the more players that we can bring in, the more resources we have got to work with. I just think that is a massive vital part of what we are doing, we all together, fans, right from the top to the fans themselves, it is a real team effort.
" I think that John Ward and I are actually chalk and cheese, we are so far different that I think that is why we work well together. John is calm, he is composed, he is methodical, I would like to think that I am organised a little bit, but I am a little bit excitable if you like. I have a passion for the training field which the manager has as well but we show it in different ways. "
" I think that ultimately though the common aim is that we are both really passionate about making sure that Carlisle get good results and good performances. That thing is the same, however he shows it in a different way to myself, the ultimate goal is the same I would think. Possibly we have both had a big influence on each other, it would be difficult for me to say for John.
" He has taught me though in certain situations not to react, not to say things, think before you speak so to speak and I am getting in less trouble with fourth officials and stuff like that. I am instinctive, I am emotional instinctive, I say it as I see it, I don't hide, I tell the truth, I tell John stuff that he doesn't want to hear sometimes. I never hide behind an opinion, if I have got an opinion then I tell him, ultimately John's decision is the one that counts.
" He listens, and sometimes he takes it and sometimes he doesn't, but he always gets it. I always tell him what I believe in and I will never hide from that. I think that we have got an honesty between us, I think that there is a trust built up between us and we have only known each other for 12 months really, well we have known each other before but not to work with. It is a short period of time to build up a trust, I think that John does trust me in what I do and I trust John in what he does, and then it is working very well together, which obviously is good for the club.
" I am having a little side bet with the managing director John Nixon and I have lost eight pounds in three weeks. Slimline tomorrow, and I have got a diet chicken curry to go home to tonight. Seriously though, we are asking for 9,000 at home, we are trying to do our bit and you take everybody's point that finance is involved and it is hard work for other people, for some of the people. It would be fantastic though to try to get 9,000 as an average and then the bigger games get 10,000, 11,000 or 12,000.
" Because I remember the Leeds game, the first Leeds game in the league last season, it was a fantastic atmosphere and I think that in the second-half that the fans were blowing the ball into the back of the net. Just to reiterate that they have got a massive part to play and we really appreciate them being there and do understand the problems they have with the money side. Don't take the wife shopping though, come footballing instead. "
" We need the fans down there and we have said that before, they have a massive part to play. If things are tight and the fans get behind us it just gives us that extra little bit of push and gives the players, they find some extra energy for the fans. They all appreciate them and there is nothing better than players scoring hat-tricks and crossing balls in and the fans backing what they are doing, Danny Livesey making a last-ditch tackle and the keeper making a great save.
" The fans are vital, I have to say that, the fans are vital to what we do. We are a small club in relative terms compared to the others but we are a close-knit club and everybody plays their part. The fans for me have got to try to come down and just back the team, we will do our best to play entertaining football and attacking football, and hopefully try to win games, tomorrow let's hope that it starts there.
" I don't have any sympathy for Mike Ashley at Newcastle I have to say. I agree with what Kevin (Keegan) is coming out with, there is a lot of politics going on there and I think that you have got be careful what you say and what opinion you offer, because you don't know the full story. If Kevin is coming out though and saying that if he is not in charge of what sort of players come in and who he wants to sign." As well as which team he wants to play and he has not got complete control over that then he is actually not the manager is he. I think that the manager has the right to do that and that is what he is saying, interference from other places, other sources, that don't coincide with his opinions, then it can't be good for him and it can't be good for the club. It's shambolic though what is going on there at the moment.
" Dennis Wise could play an important role if he is Kevin Keegan's man. If Kevin decides that he wants somebody in there to monitor the transfers, to do the scouting and to work alongside him then that is fantastic, it would work hand-in-hand. It sounds like to me that it wasn't Kevin's appointment, he is not quite working hand-in-hand so it is absolutely the wrong thing to do. There is no way that you can have the board appointing people to do a job within the football side of things that doesn't coincide with the manager. "
" I don't think that the next manager will be Gus Poyet to be fair, if there is one club where fans have got power then it is Newcastle. The amount, the numbers and the passion, the loyalty and the honesty that those sort of people have over there. If they don't want Poyet and Wise, which they obviously don't, then I think that this one won't go away. Sometimes the boards make appointments and hopefully things die down in two or three days, and sometimes they do it at other clubs. At this one I don't think that the fans will let this one drop and I think that it would be a foolish decision to do that.
" Funnily enough I know Jimmy Lumsden actually who is Everton's assistant manager along with David Moyes. He lives in the same place as me, he actually said that he knows Rio Ferdinand and Rio Ferdinand said to him that he (Louis Saha) is the best centre-forward that he has ever played against. The problem though is keeping him on the pitch, that is his issue and I think that is probably why they (Everton) have got a chance of getting him.
" Probably no players at that level would say not to pay them until they get fit, he has obviously earned big money, he has been at Manchester United. He is saying to them though that he really wants to come because he wants to play. The key though is getting Louis Saha on the pitch, if they can on a regular basis then I think that he will be a really good signing for them.
" Jamie (Carragher) is one of them where you think that looking from the outside is really honest, is a great professional, he would be proud to wear his shirt for Liverpool and proud to wear his shirt for England. To hear him come out with the comments that he has done about England, it does hurt because I think that most people would give their right arm to play for their country. If they lose then that would be the be-all and end-all, that comes first, club comes second, but times have changed a little bit. We were all playing for England weren't we at seven or eight years old.
" Manchester City is shocking, an absolute nightmare for football. I despair sometimes at the amount of money involved and what is going on in the game. Are they there for the long haul, is it just a toy thing for them, have they got the passion that you need to have to be involved with a football club. We are taking all the passion and everything out of football that has been good about the game.
" How can the fans relate to the camel-wielding Shieks and whatever they are. It is just a nonsense for me but Manchester City, fantastic for them, they are going to have a great side. They will assemble a world class league of foreign nations and probably go on and win the league if they spend the millions that they are obviously going to do. "