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" I'm very pleased with the season, you come into a football club not knowing really what to do because I have never been a manager, although I've been a coach before. Coming to a set of players you don't know, you haven't really seen, to start off winning your first game 1-0 against Doncaster. Then going through the season where we have had ups and downs, probably more ups than we have had downs which is excellent.
" Our away form wasn't the best, we said that we had to improve that if we wanted to go up the league and we certainly did that at the turn of the year. To take four points off Nottingham Forest I think is one of the highlights and to finish the season against the champions, trying to finish in the top eight is more than I could have asked for. The statement when I first came to the club, and I keep on repeating myself, was to try to have a team that excites people, I think we've done that because of the crowds that have come in. We've broken the 31 year record of home average support.
" A team hard to beat, we've had 18 clean sheets which I think is an excellent return in the games that we have played. Overall, just trying to get the best out of the players and we've certainly got the best out of the players. They've played to their full potential, not all the time but the majority of the time, and that's why we have finished in the top half.
" Swansea and probably Crewe were the worst, when you think that we didn't play poorly against Crewe and yet every time they had a shot it seemed to go in our goal. That was 5-1 which was our biggest defeat of the season then, then to go to Swansea and have the problems that we had. When you think that nothing else can go wrong and then we get another injury in the warm-up, then we are down to bare basics. We were always up against it and they are a very, very strong team, I still think they are a very, very strong team and if they get in the play-offs then it is going to take some team to beat them.
" On Saturday we didn't really get close to them, we didn't try to stop them playing, the centre-forwards were having their own way in the first-half. Obviously the early goal helps them to settle down because it is a nervous game, it is a high pressured game because of the circumstances of trying to get into the play-offs. We didn't do ourselves justice in the first-half though, we did well to keep it just down to one I suppose with Keiren (Westwood) making a couple of good saves. "
" Then in the second-half we just asked the players to step it up a gear and to move the ball on a little bit quicker. We obviously changed the system, we got at them and we got behind them and really we should have taken the lead. We should have been not just 2-1, I thought we had a couple of chances to go 3-1 in front as well and that would have probably killed the game off. Then trying to chase it at the end we get done with a, still in my opinion, handball goal.
" I've watched the video and as the lad (Darryl Duffy) takes it and he shoots he automatically turns round to have a look at the referee to say 'well have you spotted the handball?' Then obviously the referee said no and he has run off to his fans and they have won 2-1.
" Our crowd got behind their team, they saw that we didn't play very well in the first-half so hopefully you never get two halves the same, which gladly we didn't. We had a right go at them, it's not for the fact that we didn't want to have a right go at them in the first-half. They were right on the button, they were passing the ball, moving, and they were a little bit sharper than us in the first-half. In the second-half though I think we turned the tables.
" We have needed the killer instinct all season, but it showed the teams (Bristol City and Swansea) were well organised which we have been. They were very, very strong all the way through the team which I think we have been strong at times, but sometimes we've showed our weakness through a lack of experience and a lack of finishing teams off to a certain extent and letting them back into it. Bristol City didn't let us back in and Swansea almost didn't let us back in. That's a sure measure that we have to get stronger, we have to, if we can, improve the squad to make sure that we are nice and strong and we can compete with teams like that.
" We've made contact with players that we fancy bringing in next season, we've been watching them on a regular basis since Christmas. A little bit of a dossier to have a look playing in their own environment, some players are in the first-team, some players are on the verge. There is a fine mixture from the clubs that we have been looking at so it's just really trying to make the phone calls, have a little bit of feedback and see whether the deals are do-able. "
" We're speaking to two or three people already and they are ongoing so that is encouraging, but I'm not quite sure how long it takes because I've never been in this situation before. Whether it takes until pre-season starts or whether it takes until the end of May of or end of June, we'll just keep on chipping away at the people that we are talking to and try to persuade to come to Carlisle. Because if we finish eighth then that is a good position to be in after two consecutive promotions. It shows that we are nice and strong, it shows where we are trying to get to and it shows that if we do recruit players to make the team stronger then that gives us a chance to push up the league.
" I think it is time for them (Karl Hawley and Peter Murphy) to come out and say what they are doing. We have one game left, which we have nothing really on it apart from professional pride, we certainly don't want to lose three games on the trot. There are going to be 1,600 of our fans going away, Scunthorpe are going to be celebrating and drinking champagne probably and looking to show off their trophy to their supporters. So we have to be party-poopers and do it properly.
" These players have been involved all season, they have kept their cards close to their chest and now it is time for them to come out and tell us what they are doing. Because sometimes you move past players, sometimes you are trying to bring new players in to replace and the club moves on. I can see the point of view from the supporters and it has been frustrating on my part that I couldn't give them any good news that they were both going to sign.
" They have both been offered very good contracts, they've both been well looked after at the football club. If I was a different person I could cut my nose off to spite my face and say 'listen, you aren't playing because you haven't agreed or you haven't given me any indication whatsoever of what you are going to do.' I've stuck by the players because they are good players, as I say, we have looked after them, we have treated them very, very well. It becomes a stage though where when there is nothing on the league apart from, yes three points, but we are safe and in a very, very good position that it would be nice to know wouldn't it.
" On the other players, we still have a very, very important game against Scunthorpe. We just played our last reserve team game yesterday which we won, we've got the County Cup final the following Tuesday. So I would expect that once the game is out of the way on Saturday that we'll be sitting down and finalising everything, then early in the week we will have some news for you. "