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JP
At the moment you must be really enjoying this pre-season? Plenty of football, plenty of action and another superb assist for you tonight.
MBW
It is nice to be out there, it is nice to be playing, obviously last season wasn't the best season for myself and I am obviously looking to get in that team come Brentford on the first day of the season.
JP
You really have impressed in this pre-season, you don't need me to tell you that, you must be feeling like you are playing at the top end of your game at the moment?
MBW
Well, it is nice of you to say that to start with. It is nice to be out there and playing and hopefully when I am out there I am doing myself justice. It is all looking towards the end of pre-season and the first game, so hopefully I will be in that team.
JP
Carlisle United have clearly tried something new with the diamond formation that we associate perhaps more with Chelsea and (Carlo) Ancelotti actually. But it certainly works, it certainly allows you to dominate the midfield, and it has produced a role sat in behind the strikers that you seem to quite revel in, although you do float around in the free space.
MBW
In that position it gives you the opportunity to drift slightly wider or drop in behind the front two. It is not a free role of sorts but it gives you that emphasis on that you can go wherever you feel there might be a little bit of space. As we played tonight, we played very well and we kept the ball and it is quite easy to get on the ball in that sort of game.
JP
What are your main aims for this season then? Obviously as you say, you didn't feature as much as I am sure you would have liked to last season. Do you have that sort of feeling, do you have that word from the manager (Greg Abbott) that if you keep working hard you will get the opportunity this time around?
MBW
Hopefully yes, the first thing for me is just to play, I want to play. Last season was very disappointing personally and it is the first season since I have been a professional that I haven't played, I haven't been playing the majority of games anyway. So, it was difficult last season and hopefully we will forget about that one and we will just get on with this season and hopefully get back in that team.
JP
Did it cross your mind, I am not saying that you have perhaps fought your way back into the team long-term just yet, I know it is only pre-season. But did it ever cross your mind that you may need to look elsewhere for football?
MBW
Not really no, it is up to the manager at the end of the day. I am here, I have got another year on my contract and all I can do is go out there and try to get back in that team. If I am not in the team then obviously I am going to be disappointed as are the rest of the lads that aren't playing. There are only eleven people that can pull that shirt on and the rest of us have got to do our best to get back into there.
JP
And just to get another view from within the camp, there was quite a high turnover of players leaving, with loan players as well departing this summer. But with the strengthening where we are at this stage, what is the feeling within the camp on what Carlisle can achieve compared to last year?
MBW
We are very confident, pre-season as you said has gone very well so far. The squad is perhaps not as big as the gaffer might like it to be but we have got a good squad there, we have got good quality and we really feel that we can achieve something this season.
JP
And just a word on a man who you seem to have struck up a real rapport with in the middle of the park, James Berrett, you fit in well with all the lads but you really do seem to have hit it off with him. It is almost like you have got a bit of telepathy between the pair of you.
MBW
He is an excellent player, he has come in, he has only been here two weeks now I think it is and he fits in with the way we have been playing, passing the ball and moving. He is a very good young player and I am sure he will do very well in the future.