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" I'm pleased the first friendly is coming that quickly, I organised it so in a sense I knew what I was doing when I did that. I think that it is important that the football starts as early as possible. The fitness levels of players these days are extremely good and our group is no exception. They have come back in good condition and the one thing that we obviously can do is tone that right up and get it ready, but I can't give them real football experience, and the football practice starts on Friday.
" We are delighted to go down to Kendal and give the players that, it will be their second session of the day. They will train on the Friday and we will go down to Kendal and use that as part of it, but it will be probably the most important day or evening of the pre-season to date. Lee (Ashcroft) spoke to Dennis Booth and the relationship was there more than I, although I have come across Lee a time or two and we've met each other.
" We're delighted to get that together and say that we will go down there and take that game. I think that is a nice game for both clubs, they are a small club looking for some finance which we are delighted to offer them in terms of our game. From my point of view though I know that we will get a good game, the pitch is good I'm told and we'll get a team that, not being funny, but plays properly and does it right against us. We are both trying to get players fit for the new season and Lee will do that I'm sure.
" We've brought four players in in January, I've brought two players in now to get that and we are trying to extend that. I think it's important though that we try to get the right ones, the six players that I have brought in since January have all been what I call first-team players. It's not as if they are young kids and they are waiting a year or two for them to come. "
" We've got our nice little group of that with people like Gary Madine, in a sense he is a new player coming through as well within the football club. Darren Campion you saw at the end as a new player coming through so I think that there is a lot to look forward to with the group that we have got. It doesn't stop me looking to try to improve though and I'm very hopeful that by the time the season starts there will be another face or two in.
" It's too early to say about Dean Nicholson, he has been in the football club since we started last Thursday. We've just been doing, not just fitness work, but there has been a lot of football going in that and Dean has looked OK in there. He can certainly run, he's a big boy, he's six foot plus, and we'll have a little look at him down at Kendal so if people are interested, as I am, then we'll see what we can see there on Friday night and I'm looking forward to that.
" I haven't seen enough yet to say if he is worth a chance, as I say, we have been doing different football work and it's something that maybe even half a game at Kendal is not going to be fair enough for him. We know enough though, or we have been offered enough advice that this lad is worth a look.
" If he comes under the category of young players that are worth developing, along with Dan Wordsworth, Campion and Madine, those sort of guys at that age group then I have got no problems in doing that. I'm quite happy to look to the future as well as the immediate and if Dean can impress us enough then maybe that is an opportunity for him, but it will probably go on beyond the Kendal game as well to be fair to him. "
" They (Chris Howarth and Ben Williams) are two young goalkeepers with a lot to offer. I like Chris Howarth, I think that Chris has improved tremendously in the time that I have been here, and I am not claiming any credit for that because it is not down to me, but he has got better. When I first came in there was possibly a thought that we might need to look to change that, but Chris has improved terrifically over the season.
" He has just been on a one week course with Fred Barber down in the Manchester area doing his course there which he did last year. The people down there are saying that he has done well and he is great. Ben comes with a really good pedigree, I have had letters off Crewe supporters telling me that they think it is a really good signing and they are disappointed that he has left the football club.
" So I think that I have got two young keepers there with a lot to prove, two extremely hard-working young boys as well that want to get better. The competition is good and that is exactly what I want in that position. Keiren (Westwood) was a fantastic keeper, and I don't think that anybody can deny him the chance to go to the Championship. We have now got to try to work hard and produce these two guys and see if they can follow in his footsteps basically, but certainly do the business for us.
" Joe (Garner) trained with us last week, he is having a few days with Blackburn this week and he'll be back up with us on Friday. So as far as I am concerned we get on with that until somebody tells me different. We want to keep Joe Garner, Joe Garner is a top player and he is going to get better. We are trying very hard to do that within the football club, certainly myself as the manager would like to see Joe Garner put a Carlisle shirt on again, and I'm not ruling that out at this moment."
" There haven't been any enquiries for any of the other players, but I am pleased about that. I have got a good squad here, and I know people like new faces and it's important that I don't do it for the sake of it. We've got a strong group that has finished eighth and then fourth last year, and I'm hoping that that finish of fourth and just missing out to Leeds last year will strengthen the resolve and galvanise this group.
" They are young enough to go forward and have another go at this league. It's very important that if I bring a new face in, yes it competes. But for me I want it to be at first-team and a good one to come in and compete with these guys that have already learned the right way through to try to do this top six again next year.
" We've been fine on niggles so far, we're pretty, at the risk of blowing our own trumpet, Greg (Abbott), Dennis (Booth) and myself are pretty experienced, Neil Dalton as well. We've been through pre-seasons, we're building the players in, they are at a good level when they come back. Way gone are the days when Dennis Booth came back two stone overweight and had to run for six weeks to lose it.
" These guys are athletes and they are good, they are very proud of how they keep themselves and that's why I am quite happy to play my first football within six or seven days of coming back. So no niggles at the moment and I hope that we haven't tempted one or two by discussing it like that. "
" Even the football work in training, it's been proven that if you are playing your football and you are doing it properly then the work-rate is a lot higher than just simply running around poles. That's good for stamina and it keeps people right and you can pull that stamina work out in February if you like. I think that certainly we have had a football out every day.
" We've trained twice a day, the boys have had football each session so there is a lot of football work going on. The eleven v eleven though is the one thing that I can't really do properly enough. So those games now that are coming up in pre-season are important to us.
" Someone asked me about last year you know, what happened last year, and I think that the strength of the group was pretty compact and tight. Then perhaps towards the end if there was a weakness it was because it was compact and tight. We didn't perhaps have enough numbers if you like to go and carry through, the sending-offs of (Danny) Livesey and (David) Raven.
" The injury to Joe (Garner) in February and things like that, and that is for me to learn as well as my players. So they are the things that we have got to try to just step into and deal with. We just missed out at the end, our February and March were excellent, April was the one that just let us down where we couldn't sustain the pressure if you like, or the power, to get through the final part of the season and get automatic. "
" Which we were really in with a good chance of doing, so just looking for that to have been a good learning curve, if you like. Not all experiences have to be terrific to make you better, so that was a disappointing one but the experience of that to galvanise everybody. Certainly I have not come back with any sort of disappointment about it, but looking forward to trying to push on if we can.
" It's going to take a mammoth effort for us to do it, and we've picked up the best ever home record for the football club. So for us to get better than that, that's what it will take, it's a fantastic effort to try to go for. The challenge is there though and I want the players to stand up and have a go at the challenge.
" 48 games and suddenly it was finished last season. Come Friday morning and I spoke to the players individually and we all felt that after 48 games we had little or nothing to show for it. I think that would be really a damning verdict of the team though. We did finish fourth, we had this fantastic home record, we probably produced things that the club hadn't seen before.
" There were good things in that season for us to look back on. I'll try at my age and my experience though to look back at things and use it for knowledge rather than get in despair and what if we had done that and if only that had happened. I think that is what I have got to try to portray to the players, yes that's what happened to us, we did it, why did we do it, what can you do to make it better. "
" I think that if we ask ourselves those questions and we can find one or two answers then who knows, maybe we can take that extra step. As I say though, we'll need everybody's support, we'll need everybody behind us and we'll need every massive effort from the team, and hopefully we'll get those.
" Someone told me today that David (Allen) had said that he thought Leeds would finish top, it's an opinion, the game is full of opinions and we're all entitled to certain things. I would disagree with him though in a sense that you can't really come up and say those things at this moment. I see why he is saying it, they are a big club and they have got some terrific players and I think that no-one would be surprised if they went in that department.
" They didn't do last year though as a big club and big players, we played them four times and we had two games win apiece. Hopefully we can go down there again and say that it is a big club but everybody raises themselves against the big clubs, and we found that towards the end as well. So Leeds have got to deal with that and it's a big expectation upon them, so I don't think that it will be quite as straightforward for them as perhaps David thinks, but I can see why he thinks that way.
" I think I am still after a striker, I've always liked to have four or five really good strikers. We know Joe is not going to be fit, and there is still that little uncertainty about Joe Garner. We've got Scott Dobie, I think that people are happy with him, Danny Graham had 16 or 17 goals last year, we've got to be happy with that even with a spell of 16 or 17 games without a goal. We'd hope Danny wouldn't have that again and we've got to look at 20 goals there. "
" So those two guys particularly are strong, we've said Kevin Gall can have a free transfer if that can happen. Danny Carlton has still got to come through and he has got the opportunity to try to do that. Young Gary Madine is unlikely to play probably 30 or 40 games because the kid is not 18 until August, so we have got to be right and careful with him.
" So they are the reasons I think we probably need another face in that department and if we can do that then I think that that again will strengthen competition. Also it will give me, when everybody is fit, it will give me good options probably even on the substitutes bench, and I do rate that as very important.
" I'm not exploring letting Luke Joyce out on loan because I don't want that to happen. I want Luke Joyce to be a player for Carlisle, and that's the reason that I have offered him another contract. He has signed that with the view that yes he is going to be in there fighting with everybody else. He is now though going to be fighting in the position with obviously people like (Paul) Thirlwell, (Marc) Bridge-Wilkinson, Grant Smith, those guys that have done it all, (Chris) Lumsdon, who have been there and done ever so well.
" So he has got a lot to do but I rate Luke Joyce, I think that he is a good footballer, he finds a goal regularly from midfield as he did against Port Vale when he came on. So this young man for me first of all has got to try to work hard at his first-team place here, it's that with anybody, and I've got a squad that really does cater for first-team.
" I guess that when everybody is fit and I am picking what I think is my best eleven there are going to be one or two knocking on the door asking where they are going to play. Hopefully it's not Luke Joyce, I haven't signed him for that reason, but if that is the case then we'll look at each player's views on their merits. "