Norman Steel, chairman of the supporters trust and a Carlisle United director, spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria on Tuesday night about how things have gone on the pitch at Brunton Park this season, Steel also talking later about how the Trust could be involved with the club in the future :
" It was excellent really on Saturday although you can't disguise that it has been a massively disappointing season. When you consider where we were this time last year, I think that I am right in saying that by the third week of April last year that we needed one win to assure automatic promotion. We didn't get that win and here we are 12 months later having to win the last game to stand any sort of a chance of staying in League One, after two successive promotions not so many years ago.
" I think that it has been well alluded to that we lost Keiren Westwood, Joe Garner and Simon Hackney and arguably those players were not replaced, sufficiently anyway. People were brought in, but I have just been having a check before coming on air, 38 players, 38 professionals have been on the books at one time or another this season. It is just too many isn't it, you can only play eleven of those at the same time.
" If you add to that the injuries that we have had, I don't want to be making excuses but injuries have been there nonetheless. That doesn't auger well for continuity within a settled side. The blame lays in our home form I think, last season won 17, drawn 3, lost 3, this season won 8, drawn 7, lost 8. There is the difference so our home form has to improve dramatically next year I think for us to stand a chance of doing anything.
" I thought that the performance the week before at Cheltenham was a strong performance as well, considering what went on. If you boil it down though to the team having to do it on the last two games of the season to stand a chance of staying up, and fortunately other results went for us. There needs to be scrutiny of the early months of the season next year to ensure that come the end of October or early November we are in a decent position to challenge at least for the play-off spot. That would be my take on it anyway. "
" We have had several fundraising events of late, we have another one organised in July, another one in October, so those are ongoing. The unfortunate thing, and it is only right that I am totally honest and frank about this, the Trust has tried to seek a meeting with the other members of the club board to discuss a way forward on this fundraising issue. They have declined the offer up to present though to meet with us, which is somewhat disappointing, particularly with the current predicament of the club.
" The money from the fundraising would go towards the running of the club but we are not just going to hand it over and say there you are chaps. We are seeking a meeting to discuss constructive ways in which the Trust may be more involved in the running of the club, including fundraising. I am invited to the various board meetings and matters are discussed, but it is fair to say that things could be a touch better. We have put our case in writing on several occasions to the club board and the issues have so far been rejected.
" We have in excess of 300 members, it has taken us seven or eight years to get where we are, going back to the Michael Knighton days. So we have come through a little bit of thick and thin as they say to get where we are, and we are certainly not going away. Players, managers, directors, they come and go but the supporters are usually here for life, and that is what we always stick by.
" Fundraising for the club would result in specific targets having to be identified, we wouldn't just be handing over money for the club to come and do what they wanted with it. Specific targets would have to be identified. There is one way to change any communication issues, let the supporters join the Trust and they will be kept fully up to date with what they are supposed to be up to date with. I think that you will find that if you go on the website now, within the last two weeks or so it has been updated. "
" What we would be saying to the club about handing money over is that there is a clearly defined objective for the course of that money. I am changing tact for a second here, such as in the last five or six years the supporters club have handed over many thousands of pounds for such things as the audio equipment in Foxy's restaurant.
" Pysiotherapy equipment for Neil Dalton, which he will confirm, and I believe that there is about £36,000-worth of various items of equipment has been installed there, so that sort of thing. Clearly defined objectives in which the money could be used for. We would go along with it for a player up to a point, as long as everyone was aware and it was above board that that is what the money was going to be used for.
" The Trust would be looking for investment at the club because the times in which we are living in, and particularly in the football world, ultimately it is investment that is going to take the club forward. I am not really in a position to advocate putting the club up for sale one way or the other, things may become clearer after a meeting later this week.
" The Trust have for the last seven or eight years raised the best part of a million pounds, £800,000 of which has gone into the football club in return for shares, fair enough. Nevertheless though £800,000 minimum has been invested into the football club. I was directly responsible myself for introducing £400,000 of new finance to the club back in 2006 when the old share dispute was settled by means of mediation. As a result £400,000 of new investment was introduced to the club.
" I would like to see the Trust have at least a say in the actual running of the club, which was one of its original objectives anyway. I think that there needs to be greater continuity of the team on the pitch and improved home results, those would be my two targets for next year. "