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" It's a strange feeling, with not experiencing having promotion or relegation to worry about before we have to make sure that we are in tip-top shape. We've had another good week of training, and we're ready to go and play the champions which is excellent in the last game of the season. I think that every team can look back over the season and think that we maybe should have got another three points there or another point here. We've not been far away I suppose, everybody is looking at a few results to see where they are coming from.
" You can't be disappointed really where we are, we gave ourselves a good chance with winning five on the trot and drawing one. Then we have come up against probably the three best teams in the league for the last three games which makes it very, very difficult in itself. I'm not so sure about those teams being of better quality than us, maybe strength of squad, these teams have been building up over the last two to three years trying to get promotion.
" Swansea were in the play-offs last year and Bristol City have got a very experienced team that they have built up over a couple of seasons. That's what we must continue to do, is build and make our team stronger so we can compete a little bit better than we have done against those teams. Although we've competed against everybody in the league this season so far and we've never let ourselves down.
" In hindsight I'd possibly have changed the routine for the away games a little bit earlier instead of travelling and then training. We tried to mix that up and I think our away form has improved since we got that little bit of a routine going. Changing systems sometimes is something that you learn but I think we've become two ways that we can play, not just one dimensional which is good. There have been a lot of positives and I've got to hang on to those positives and make sure that those positives are flowing and flourishing next season when we start off another campaign.
" Hopefully you can see that I'm enjoying it, we've got the best out of the players which is what you to try to do as a coach or a manager. The players seem to have enjoyed themselves, we've had some great crowds, we've broken the record haven't we for 31 years on home attendances which is excellent. That means we have been playing some good stuff, and we've certainly improved our away form because it was quite poor really wasn't it. Then the turn of the year came and we're on a little run away from home at the moment anyway with four wins out of five.
" Talks with possible targets will be ongoing, I would imagine, all the way through the summer. Hopefully we'll have a little bit of news for you as the weeks go on and then keep chipping away, plugging away and keep making the telephone calls to the opposition managers to see whether we can strengthen the team. That will probably go all the way up until the first game of next season. "
" We've had some good conversations with managers, John Nixon and Fred Story have been speaking to the relevant people at the clubs. It hasn't all been people saying 'no' in the players that we have been chasing, it has maybe been 'come back at the end of this season, see how we have finished, and see where we all lie', then we'll be into heavy discussions again.
" We're still speaking to his (Danny Graham's) advisors, we're in discussions on trying to tie up a deal. I think Danny enjoyed his time when he was here, he scored seven goals in eleven games which is an excellent return and for him to come across last week for our last home game of the season shows I think that he wants to come. The deal has to be right though for everybody.
" The situation with all of the players is that we have a very important game tomorrow, we've got the Player of the Year 'do' on Sunday which I think all of the players will certainly enjoy that with the fantastic season that we've had. Then we'll be speaking to each and every one of the individuals in the professional squad on Tuesday so we'll have a better idea of where we are at and where we are going to. He (Paul Murray) has only played 14 games this season and scored once. He's done well to get back from injuries but, as I say, I'll be speaking to each and every individual on Tuesday and we'll have a better idea of where we are at.
" He (Jermaine Beckford) has done extremely well, maybe it might have been a point that he came to us that we weren't playing as well. That's the reason I went after him though, I knew he could score goals, he scored his first goal in professional football for Carlisle which I'm sure he's proud of that. We gave him a collage of photographs from that day and he really appreciated that because he's never had that off anybody before in a Carlisle top.
"We'll be looking forward to pitting our wits against him. He's certainly showed that he can score goals at this level, he scored one for us out of five games, which sometimes you think that might be a little bit disappointing. He's still a young lad though, he still needs experience and he's obviously got that with us. Then he's gone to Scunthorpe and scored a hatful, I hope he doesn't score tomorrow.
" The supporters have been second to none all year. They rightly so gave us a little bit of stick because we weren't picking up points away from home, although I thought our form was pretty decent away from home early on in the season. Then we've re-addressed that as much as we possibly could, and we've done fantastically well away from home. They have had a long way to travel but I'm sure in the games since Christmas they have been coming away from the games with a huge big smile on their face because their team has played well, picked up points and won games. "