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" I am really pleased to be here and I'm looking forward to what the future holds. There is a lot of excitement at the club at the moment, it's in a good position, started the season extremely well and I hope that I don't spoil it. That's the thing isn't it, it's trying to keep it going. I think it would be foolish of me to come in and start waving magic wands around saying that we are going to do this and we are going to do that.
" I'm happy to sit back and just say keep doing what you are doing boys because at the moment it is good enough. If we can help to improve it together, not just about me, but about Greg (Abbott) and people like that. Work together and get it a little bit better than we are at the moment then that would be terrific. I certainly hope that Greg will stay, I've spoken to Greg four or five times, Greg is very disappointed that he didn't get the job and quite rightly so.
"I understand that and respect that but hopefully when I get a chance to meet him face to face on Thursday and get him into the next game he and I will get on and we'll work together. I want to that happen, Greg has played a major part in the last 18 months or so in this football club and particularly in the last few weeks when he has been in charge of it himself. I'm happy to work with ambitious people, I want energy people, I want people like him and the players obviously get on very well with him and respect him. That's something that I want to keep here at the club and it's right to do so.
" I do now see it as an achievement to keep Cheltenham in League One, I see it more and more since we did it. At the time I felt that it was a little bit hollow celebrating survival which we did with two games to go but then when you realise how much it did mean to everybody at the club. It was the first time they had ever done that, they'd got promoted once before and then went straight back down so it was a first for the football club in it's league history.
" It's only a short-term league history of about eight years so the two years we had of getting promoted, going through the play-offs and winning there is fantastic, it's the best way to do it if you can, if you know that you can do it. Then staying in that division with the way that we did it with two games to go and winning 4-2 away at Rotherham. I saw directors in a situation in which I have never seen them, dancing on a football pitch.
" It hit you then what had actually happened and it's to everybody's great credit at the club that that was the case then. Now though it's a chance for me to move on with a club that is probably harbouring wider and bigger ambitions and I'm really looking forward to that as well. Cheltenham have done brilliant and they have been great for me, and I'd like to think that I've done OK with them with a lot of good people behind me.That's the vital thing, that's what I'm saying about Greg, having good people behind you at Carlisle can help you be successful. "
" JJ Melligan is now at Leyton Orient as you know, he was a guy that I tried to keep in the summer, he went out of contract. Because of the sort of lateness of our season there was an uncertainty about contracts, which league we may be in at Cheltenham and obviously that would affect the wages and what-have-you. During that time though it allows other clubs to contact your players and Leyton Orient had done so with JJ and Gillingham had done so with Craig Armstrong.
" So I lost two key players at the end of the season because of that sort of late survival game at Rotherham and JJ is a big miss. He's a real character, I'm not sure that you could do an interview with him the same way we are doing one, you wouldn't understand his Irish brogue. He's a very lively young man around the dressing room but on the pitch as well he would deliver crosses and get a share of goals. He would be close on double figures most seasons as well so a good guy to have around, he's done very well for Leyton Orient I've been told.
" I don't personally give myself a timeframe, I want to come to try to move things on as quickly and as early as I can. You want to be successful and over that four year span of my contract you'd like to think that we could really push the top of this league which we are doing now and do it progressively. If we can get out of this league and get into the next one then that becomes a different situation. That is a big league to go into and work with.
" That's something that we'd all dearly love to achieve but how quickly we can do it I really don't know at the moment. If we could do it this year though it would be fantastic and get on with it. I'm not one of those that will tell you what I want to do, we'll try to improve things in the quickest way possible without causing any problems to the club. We've got a good base of players here and it's really up to me to stand back and say - well go on then, what are you going to do now? If they continue with the way that they are going forward, maybe I'll take a quieter look at everything and let them carry on because I'd be a fool to interfere.
" I think the gaps between divisions could be getting bigger but I'll tell you what I also looked at this morning when I was on my way up and stopped for a cup of tea. I looked at the attendances in the Championship and there is just around 10,000 at Burnley, there is 10,000 around at Plymouth, there is 9,000 around elsewhere. I'm thinking that, I tell you what, you get Carlisle United into the Championship and they will be above those figures.
" So you can achieve, you can get there, we should be looking at getting higher attendances than that for home games, particularly in midweek under floodlights where it is a terrific atmosphere. This is a one-club town anyway, there are no real places to go to watch their football, they are coming to Carlisle and they want to support this town and this football club. So it would be nice to do that and compete at that level but it would be extremely difficult. "
" The Premiership is a fantastic league, it's way out of a lot of people's thoughts at the moment but I think it's feasible that we could talk in the next few years about stepping a league higher and seeing if we can stay in there. That in itself would be the next challenge.
" I made a very professional mistake at Bristol Rovers when he (Dennis Booth) came as my assistant. We shared a flat together and it lasted for two years, that's one mistake I won't make here, I won't do that with him again. He wasn't a very good cook, I did the cooking and he did the shopping. Dennis is a character in football that football needs and Dennis needs football. I've known him for a long time but I have to make sure that I don't let friendship step in the way of professionalism.
" I want to keep Greg and Dennis around the football club, Fred (Story) is aware of that, I can manage Dennis and I want them both to stay around and be a big part of what is going on. Because if we can be successful I want them to thoroughly enjoy it as well, and with Dennis around you you know that you are going to have some good times anyway. We'll all be different personalities and if we can blend it together and get the best out of this group of players then that is exactly what I am aiming for.
" I'm not here to shuffle anything around, I've got no major big ideas about changing this and changing that. Like I say, I'd be a fool to do that and I'd like to think that one thing I am not is a fool. Dennis and Greg are very much part of the plans that I want to go forward with and are very important to me.
" When I've been asked the question before about moving around in this industry I've always said that it's our choice. It's my choice to be in this game and in this profession and the day that I stop enjoying it or stop taking the challenges on is the day that I shouldn't be doing it any more. This one excites me and regardless of the geography and the position of Carlisle the job itself is exciting. My wife is very happy for me to come and do this and get on with it. She knows that it is something that I want to do and I've great support at home which is invaluable as you well know, to get a job that can be antisocial.
" I'm really looking forward to it though and you won't see me get uptight and too excited too many times but inside I'm really excited about this job over the long term. I'll feel my way carefully and quietly and I want to be successful. I really want to do this so I am looking forward to it immensely. "