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" It has been good, obviously you want that break but personally it gets really boring for myself. I am a big kid at heart and I love playing football so to not play football even now, it has been only two or three weeks probably and I am still getting itchy feet to kick a ball about. It has been good, it has been nice to relax and after all the pressure of the season, especially the last day of the season, to get a bit of relaxing and spend a bit of time with my family and people close to me, it has been good.
" I am just looking forward to a game of football again really. I think it is like the school holidays, you are buzzing with the school holidays from school and then when you get off you don't know what to do with yourself and you want to get back to school. It has been good spending time with close ones but I want to get back out there and play some football.
" I think that signing Ian Harte shows massive intent and a statement to how the club wants to go. I think that if you look around our squad it is a fantastic squad, a lot of Premier League quality, or people who have played a lot of their careers in the Premier League. Championship players who have played in the Championship and obviously the League One players who have played a lot of their career in League One.
" So the nucleus of the squad is very good and to sign Hartey was a big signing for us, all the lads wanted him to stay. We made it clear to him that we liked having him about and I like to think that we made him feel welcome. For him to sign now is only a good thing for the club and we look forward to it next year. I think that it shows a massive statement from the club though and a signal of intent of how we want to do next season. Hopefully we can do it next year. "
" I am bad for the transfers me, I am glued to SKY Sports News or the internet. I love to see who is moving around and what different players are going where and who is going, especially to teams in our league. I want to know what kind of players they are bringing in and if they are being stronger. To be honest it passed a bit of time as well knowing who is coming.
" Don't get me wrong, the profession that we are in, there are a lot of pressures that go with it if you are at the top of the league or the bottom of the league. I just enjoy playing football really though, whether or not it is a massive game. You could feel it on the pitch a little bit in the Millwall game, I think that you feel it in the first five or ten minutes but once you get a few good touches in it is just another game of football.
" You have got to play it to the best of your ability and if you do that and everyone else does it to the best of their ability then you know that you have got a fantastic chance of winning football games. I think that it was like that against Millwall, I think that everyone played to their maximum and it shows that when everyone does to play to their maximum in our team that we are a match for anybody.
" So even though it was a pressure game you couldn't really sense it in the dressing-room before the game. Everyone was really focused and positive and that is how you have got to be really. I was on loan at Cheltenham last year and I went through a similar thing with Doncaster coming in and they were going for the league and to get automatic promotion and Cheltenham were trying to stay up. "
" So I had a little bit of a taste in it anyway, that probably did help me mentally to deal with the situation that we were in last year. It was a great game, a great game to play in, you want to play in the biggest games in the profession you are in, and last year that was one of the games and I was pleased with the end result really.
" I think that the second goal took the pressure off because of us conceding late goals in the other home games. So I think that obviously the second goal for everyone was a massive relief. We always felt confident in the dressing-room and on the pitch, you could feel something brewing, you could feel that something was going to happen.
" Kav (Graham Kavanagh) and Thirs (Paul Thirlwell) have scored fantastic goals. I think that if you rolled that one to Kav again he would probably score it five out of ten, even four probably. It just shows what a player he is and what technical ability he has got. With Thir as well, I think that it is his best goalscoring season he has ever had I think as a player, so that says something as well. We got a second goal though and I think that we kind of relaxed a bit more on the pitch. We got our passing going and maybe could have had a couple more on another day.
" People say why can't we do that every week, I can't tell you, I really couldn't tell you. We go into every game wanting to win every game and the preparation for games is good and we have got a great team spirit. Training is fantastic and great camaraderie in the dressing-room so we couldn't put our finger on it why we were sometimes going into games a bit lacklustre. That is all behind us now though, at the end of the day we stayed in the division, that is what we wanted to do, we are looking forward and positive for next season.
" Everybody's body is different, we have obviously got some fitter players who don't put on weight easy and then there are some other players that maybe put on a bit more weight in the summer. I really couldn't tell you how they are, you will have to ask Dolly (Neil Dalton) if he ever comes on again. Dolly has given us a specific day that he feels that we need to do so we are sticking to that. "
" Everyone is different though, some people might need to start before, some people can maybe start a bit later. You know your body yourself and how you feel and that is it really. With myself I have just been going to the gym and ticking myself over. My girlfriend works up here now so obviously she is working so I am bored really.
" So I thought that to kill my time I might as well just go to the gym for an hour or so, a couple of hours, and do my work, and then you feel better for it after and you can enjoy your day then. Everyone is different and people are more experienced than me, I am still only young, it is probably only my third or fourth pre-season so the older you get the more experienced you get about knowing your own body.
" I am naturally quite a big guy but to be honest I have been working hard on my physical fitness and my body shape and everything about that. Obviously going to America on holiday, they eat massive portions but you have just got to be careful what you eat. I have got a specific plan that I am going to take over with me and stick to that as much as I can, I will be quite disciplined with that.
" You have got to be, in the profession that you are in you have got to be disciplined. I feel like I am getting the hang of it now so to speak. I think that when you are a bit younger you are a bit more naïve and think that you can get away with a bit more but as you get older you get in a bit more of a routine and you can stick to it. I am looking forward to the break but I am also going to work hard while I am over there.
" I think that once you get into a sport at a young age I think that it is more mental. You think that you can do everything when you are quite sporty. I wasn't bad at cricket, I think that I was a bit of an all-rounder. I was decent at everything really but obviously football was my main thing and that is what I concentrated on really."
" When you make your debut that buzz and that adrenaline that goes through your body when you step out on that pitch. It is something that will live with you forever, you have just got to keep working hard, some people might get carried away, you have just got to keep your feet on the ground and not be a big time Charlie.
" It is a bit overwhelming that the fans like me to be honest, it is nice to know that the fans feel like that. After the Millwall game I spoke to some of them, my game is 100% and whoever's shirt I pull on I am going to give 110% and everything that I have got. That is just me really, at the end of the day I am still young.
" I am only 22 and that is really young for a centre-half, people sometimes forget that about me, with me looking obviously 33 and being around for quite a lot. I am still young though, I am still wanting to improve, we have got fantastic people at the club to help me improve. I feel like I did that last year and hopefully I can keep doing it.
" I think that the gaffer (Greg Abbott) has mentioned already in pre-season that a new season is a different thing. Last season has gone now and we have got to come back and show the gaffer why he was picking me. There is fantastic competition for places and everyone is going to be coming back and wanting to play.
" I think that if you go around any professional footballer and ask them what they want to do then they want to be playing football. If they say any different then there is probably something wrong. At the end of the day you can't keep seven players happy but that is what the gaffer is there for. He is the manager to manage the team and pick the right team that he feels is his best team. "
" It is fantastic and to be honest there is no bitterness there or anything. We are all good lads together and we all want to help each other. If I am in the team then they will give me a pat on the back and say well done and vice-versa. So if we keep that and push each other as well in training then it can only be good for Carlisle United. Last season we had a really good start, then we had a run of bad results and we never really recovered from that.
" The ticketing for the FA Cup is a bit of a disgrace really to be honest. Especially with Everton going for their first major silverware and all the fans have been backing them and going for it. Then to miss out on a ticket when you have been supporting them home and away all season, to miss out on one of the biggest games is bad.
" I think that when you try to attract the younger players it doesn't help when you are not an academy. Obviously the bigger clubs have the academies and players want to try to get to an academy because you play against the better teams. To be honest though Carlisle have done well, Eric Kinder and his team have accrued some very good players.
" I think that you saw last year, I think that young Tom Aldred is coming through and he has done very well last year and he needs to make the step up. He needs to learn coming into pre-season and do it. Quite a few of them have been offered contracts so they are all going to come in in pre-season with the lads. It is always hard when you are around people like Ian Harte and you are a young person trying to come through.
" You have got to show personality though and if you are moping around and not really saying much then it will work against you. So they have got to be positive, but there is Tom, there is Conor, I quite like Conor Tinnion the left-winger, he needs to believe in himself a bit more in his personality. Hopefully they will get that out of him and he can be a terrific player. We are quite looking forward to working with the lads next year and hopefully there will be many more to come. "
" At the end of the day Tom has done pretty similar to how I progressed when I was younger. When I was 18 I was involved in the Ireland under-19 team so our careers have gone quite similar with the age scenario. I am helping Tom all the time and I think that it is only right because people did that for me when I was there.
" That is a big thing, I am one of those people, at the end of the day if Tom is ready to learn then I am more than willing to pass on what I know. I am still young myself though so I am still learning and looking at older players that can pass on their knowledge to me. If he can maybe look at me in training and games and pick off little things from me then fantastic.
" I think that Gary (Madine) can be anything that he wants to be. He has got fantastic attributes for a striker, he is tall, he is good in the air, he has got a great touch and he is a decent finisher. He is far from the finished article, he is young and he is still a bit raw but I think that when Gary plays we can all see what potential he has got.
" I think that he doesn't need to get frustrated when he is not playing, I think that he found it a bit frustrating last year because he probably wanted to be involved in more games. That is a good thing but you have obviously got to realise how old you are and what is happening around you. As long as he keeps that enthusiasm and wanting to improve and wanting to learn then I am sure that next season will be a massive season for him and I think that we will see the best of him.
" People like Cooky (Andy Cook) and especially Gaz, with Danny (Graham) maybe leaving, if Gaz comes back and has a fantastic pre-season then he could find himself the main striker. Football is a funny game, it changes like that and you have got to be ready to take your chance when it comes along. Then you have got to be ready if the chance comes along, if they are not then it will soon pass you by and you don't want to be waking up thinking what might have been. "
" So they have got to come in and work hard first and foremost and listen to what people like Ian Harte and Kav and especially the gaffer are going to tell them. As long as they listen, take it on board and work hard then I am sure that they won't have any problems.
" I think that there is a lot of optimism about Carlisle and there has been every season. We don't want to be the ones that it builds up and we thaw out again like we did this season. We are really looking forward to it, we have come off the back of some fantastic performances towards the end of last season.
" If you take the last minute goals away from it then we would have been sitting comfortably in mid-table and still looking back on the season and thinking that we have not had a good season. So it just shows that small line between being a top six team and a bottom six team, so to speak. The last game was a fantastic feeling, all the fans coming on at the end, it felt like a promotion more than a staying up on the last day.
" It just goes to show the massive potential of Carlisle United Football Club and the fanbase it attracts and what type of fans this football club has actually got. Passionate ones and I think that is a great foundation for any club wanting to build something for the future. I'd just like to thank all the fans for getting behind us all last year, I know that it wasn't pretty at times and everyone was a bit frustrated, no more so than the players themselves.
" I'd just like to thank them for sticking by us and giving everything that they have got, and hopefully they can look back in the end and we tried to give everything that we have got. I'd like to say thanks, we are really looking forward to pre-season, a new season, and hopefully we can give you something more to smile about. "