United skipper Paul Thirlwell (PT) spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria's Paul Newton (PN) at today's press conference for the local media, Thirlwell first talking about the Blues having had a good pre-season :
PT
We are all really looking forward to it, we have had a good pre-season behind us, we have been fairly fortunate with injuries, although it is obviously disappointing for Paddy (Madden) with what happened to him last week. But, yeah, all fired up and raring to go. These young lads keep you on your toes and you see them running out there full of energy day in and day out which the older lads try to do but maybe not as enthusiastically as they are sometimes.
But, that is nice, I think we proved last year that we have got some really good young players here, and added with the experienced players that we do have and that you do need at times. I think the manager (Greg Abbott) sort of went on record last year to say that he wanted to bring a few older heads in, as he has done with Welshy (Andy Welsh) and J-P (Jon-Paul McGovern) and they have settled in ever so well, and hopefully it will stand us in good stead for an even better season this year.
PN
Is that going to help you as captain having some more experienced players in that dressing room take a bit of the burden off you in that respect?
PT
Yeah, I am sure it will, I think the more experienced players you can have it is only going to help the younger lads. But, to be fair to the young lads last year they were great, they take on board what the gaffer says and then when we are on the pitch if they get shouted at or they make mistakes they just listen and they get on with it. So, they will have benefitted as well, they are not the young lads that they were at the start of last season, a lot of them have full seasons under their belt now so they will benefit from that.
PN
Have you as a team discussed your ambitions for this season? What do you think realistically you can achieve?
PT
I just think you have to say you want to improve on last year. Last year was a mid-table finish with winning a cup so it was a successful season. This year we obviously want to finish higher in the league and as the season goes on we will see where that takes us. But, I think any manager or any player will tell you if you can have improvement from the year before that has got to be the aim.
PN
Tough start for you on Saturday?
PT
Yeah, it always is, I mean every manager will be telling players the same thing, everyone wants to get off to a good start. The good thing is that we are at home, we had a positive result at home with Brentford I think it was last year so hopefully the fans will turn out in their numbers as I am sure they will and we can get off to a good start.