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" It's excellent here, we've got a terrific training pitch, the hotel is good and the food is first class as well, so there is not much more that the players will want. We have worked them very hard, and we've got the focus on the game which is exactly what we wanted and everybody is enjoying it. We are based just outside the west end of Glasgow, just on the outskirts of the city.
" Today for instance we have obviously done a full day, we have worked later this afternoon, gone out at 4pm full through to 6pm and got dinner at 7pm. We have worked for two and a half hours this morning as well. The programme is pretty strenuous in that respect because there is a lot of physical work being put in. So they'll be looking at that kind of programme, we'll ease it off a little bit on Friday because we have got the game on Saturday at Partick Thistle.
" They are a pretty together squad anyway as I keep saying before, but we have got one or two new faces in. Even the guys that came in January, Cleveland (Taylor) and all those guys and obviously then Ben (Williams) coming in with Josh Gowling recently, it gives them a chance to get to know each other.
" The focus is obviously on football because there are no other distractions for them, they are not having to travel home, they have not got anywhere else to go as it were. So the football we can work at wherever we want, so it's really getting down to nitty-gritty. One is getting the group tighter together if we can but making sure that we can emphasis the football work. "
" There are no new faces in the squad up here apart from Connor Tinnion. It's a little early for me to say if he is in the first-team picture. Connor has got a good future ahead of him we feel and it is important that at this stage that we try to push him through. We had made the decision on Dean Nicholson on Friday and we said to Eric Kinder that we wanted to take Connor up.
" He has trained with us quite a bit last week and done very well, and we think that he will benefit from being around the senior boys. Certainly when you see him play in the squad you wouldn't gauge that he was our youngest boy in there. I think that someone like Connor, and you've got Gary Madine obviously and Dan Wordsworth, all three of them around and about similar ages.
" We are just sending messages through to the club really, and particularly the youth boys, saying to them if they do well then they will get opportunities and your stage will be there with the first-team. I think that is a good message to send through so it is a big encouragement for the other boys as well as the three young men that we have got here.
" Joe Garner hasn't travelled with the squad, there was no point in him doing that. Joe is working on his rehabilitation as everybody knows at Blackburn Rovers, I spoke to Dave Fevre their physiotherapist there and thanked him and talked to him about it. Joe is doing extremely well, but we haven't got that facility up here.
" We have come to train and Joe is not at the level of training that I'm requiring at the moment. So we've left him at Blackburn and I know that he is working really hard there. There is no change in his situation as I am talking to you. Joe is still a Carlisle player, and I've said before and I'll say it again that I'd like to see Joe in a Carlisle shirt along with a lot of other people. "
" So that is something that has got to be maintained, I think if that hadn't been the case, if we hadn't said things then that might not be there now. The club is trying to do that though, but again we have got to take in the considerations of other people, and particularly Joe as well. So we'll see what happens with that but there is no further news on it.
" I say there are no new faces immediately on the horizon but two or three phone calls can make a difference in football, it happens that way. I'm actively working on trying to get some new faces into this football club. I've spoken to certain managers this week as well in a view to trying to find out people's situations and what the possibility may be.
" So again I won't name names, it's wrong of me, and I won't comment on speculation. At the same time though I know that people want to see things happen, but I can assure them that things are working in a way that we are trying to improve this squad. I've said before that I've got to work hard to do it because it is a good squad.
" It's finished eighth and fourth in the last two years and we are trying to nudge it that extra mile and get it into that top two group or whatever if we can, make sure that we are play-offs again. That is going to take some good players to do it, so I'm trying hard but I'm working on a lesser front of names of players than I probably would be if we weren't as high as we had finished last year. "
" This pre-season work was undertaken some months ago as well, in trying to get this programme together and get it worked the way that we felt would benefit the team. When we come back after Partick Thistle on Saturday it's a Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday-Tuesday off we go again. It's going to come pretty thick and fast and by the time we get into the Morecambe game obviously we will be looking at finalising some detail on it.
" I am only looking at two or three weeks where it is hard work, the games are going to become the priority rather than the training. So it's the development that we wanted through this period, and I have to say that at the moment the fitness levels of the squad are very, very good. Hopefully these games will make them even better.
" Gary Madine has had an operation in the summer, a small operation on his stomach. We decided that with Kendal being his first eleven v eleven game that it was important just to give him half an hour and then make sure that he was OK. That has worked, he is OK, he's up here training and he is fit and well, so it was just a question of being careful with Gary more than anything else.
" I haven't had any enquiries for Kevin Gall yet, I have let Kevin make those moves himself if he wishes. Or certainly if people want him to go then they can speak to me also, it's not a problem, Kevin is no problem with me in that sense. I have allowed him, if he wants to get his future fixed up then he can do, and at the moment it has been pretty quiet on that front. He has got an agent, and we've e-mailed everybody to say that he is available, everyone has got my phone number if they wish to call me. So again, that could change in the next day or two or the next week or two.
" The team for the Partick game will depend on the next couple of days or so, but I won't be doing two 45 minutes with a group. We'll probably narrow it down, we've got 24 here so I won't get them all changed, there will be a number, one or two of the young ones will probably sit out and watch and learn. We'll have to get maybe an 18/19 man squad changed and see where we go. "