Crawley boss Richie Barker spoke to his club's official website ahead of his side's League One game against Carlisle at Brunton Park on Saturday afternoon, Barker bemoaning the 690 mile round trip for the Red Devils:
“It must be one of the longest trips in the Football League, certainly in our division this year. Luckily enough the club agreed that we could go up on Thursday. We sat down and we talked and we said that by the time we had trained, even when we went up to Preston the other day we didn’t get there until the best part of seven o’clock, and Carlisle is another two hours past that.
“So, we sat down and worked out the best way of preparing and luckily enough the club enabled us to go up another day before that. Preparation is key, especially when we only last played on Tuesday, it is a long way and we wanted to try to prepare right so we trained in Crawley on Thursday morning and then travelled up there to get there late last night. That has then enabled us to train properly today as Craig Brewster has a contact and arranged for us to train at Gretna today.
“The trip up yesterday was long and tiring as we expected but by coming up a day earlier we will make sure we have the best possible preparation for what is going to be a very tough game. Carlisle are on a decent run and it is a difficult place to go, they went 14 or 15 games last year without being beaten at home so that is going to be difficult, and I dare say the location is a fair part of that. But, they are very well organised and they are a well-established League One side.
“Carlisle are always going to be a top eight, top ten side. Greg Abbott has done a fantastic job there. They are very well organised, they play the game the right way and they've got some good players, so they are always going to be there or thereabouts. They are one of the teams that very rarely drop in the bottom half, they're very rarely in the top two or three but they are very consistent. I know exactly how they will be playing and I know they're tough to beat up at their place.
“I think sometimes the way we play might suit playing away from home, but we need to be doing it on a regular basis and we need to turn that into home games as well. But, certainly I think the lads are relishing going and playing at nice stadiums on nice pitches in front of decent crowds, so long may it continue. It is a nice big pitch at Brunton Park as well and certainly one of the ones that gets looked after, I am sure it is difficult with the climate that they have up there but it is a nice one and hopefully it will suit the way we want to play.
“For the Swansea game we had to leave Michael Jones out because he was cup-tied and Kyle (McFadzean) was obviously injured so they were two changes that were enforced on me. But, in terms of one or two who came in I thought they were excellent so it has certainly given me a selection headache. We have got one or two who are touch and go, but it has given me food for thought and one or two people have played themselves right back in with a chance again."