Andy Hall - Radio Cumbria Interview

Last updated : 24 January 2010 By Thetashkentterror
United media officer and first team kitman Andy Hall spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria's James Phillips shortly before Carlisle's League One match at home to Stockport, Hall first talking about the Lee Peacock rumours in the press this morning :

" The Lee Peacock thing is a strange one, I have spoken to Greg (Abbott) this morning just to see, because as you can imagine the manager has got his business to do. But as the media guy I have gone in there and asked about what I say to the media and he just looked at me completely 'What? Where has that one come from?'

" I think what has happened is because Vincent Pericard has gone down there it has sent Lee Peacock down the pecking order. I think a journalist must have asked him something along the lines of would you come back to Carlisle? He is obviously going to say yes and then things have grown from there. But at this moment in time, and I don't mean there is likely to be any, certainly nobody from the club has spoken to Lee Peacock or any of his advisors.

" You can see why there would be some speculation, and certainly with the questions that these players get asked. If he is going to be asked about which clubs he is going to go to and if a club is named then we are going to be linked with it. That is the transfer window for you, all we can do at the club is guarantee people that work is going on. But what we want to do is report on things when they happen and not on the speculation side of it.

" It is a frustrating time for League One clubs, I think you are always working behind the clubs at the top level. You are waiting for things to happen before you move, and having said that it is condensed, so you are having to work hard and try to make things happen within this five week block. "



" Sometimes it is just doesn't happen that way because there are so many factors that come into moving a player from point A to point B. It gets the fans frustrated, it gets the manager frustrated, it gets the board of directors frustrated. Because sometimes all you want is something to happen but the work has got to be done first.

" You can look at the Vincent Pericard thing, which it was almost a whirlwind affair. Sometimes you do unearth that signing where it just happens, we have had it in the past. The likes of Joe Garner where people say who is he and all of a sudden you have got a thunderbolt on your side. Sometimes it is just a case of finding the right player at the right time and it happens, on other occasions it drags on for weeks.

" To stop those of us in the media from firing "after the Lord Mayor's Show" at Greg, the boys have got to start doing it for him haven't they. Because whatever he says, he is aware of the fact that it has been happening. We have performed against Charlton, Southampton, Norwich City, Leeds United, Portsmouth, Everton, we have got to start doing it at the other end as well.

" Because however well we were playing, and we can talk about the four defeats in seventeen. The fact of the matter is that the real seventeen we have to worry about is the position in the league table. The only way you can change that is to get the points, and it is teams like Stockport that you have to put to the knife at home. "



" It has been impressed on the players that we are only two points above the drop zone, they have been made very, very aware. They have also been made very aware of the fact that there was a gaggle of us sat in the coach's office the other day with SKY TV, and the ticker tape started about Stockport County signings.

" You are looking at the first one was (Danny) Swailes, then it was (Jemal) Johnson, then it was (Jabo) Ibehre and all of a sudden you are thinking, hang on a minute. All the preparation that has just been done is out of the window because this is a changed team.

" Speaking to the (Stockport) Press Officer just before I came over to speak to you, he was saying how well they have been playing. Apparently they played exceptionally well on Tuesday night even though they got beat 1-0. So this is a team that maybe is on the brink of kicking something off, we don't want it to start today, we have got to play properly to make sure that it doesn't.

" Greg has been more forceful with the players about it I would say. The training sessions towards the end of this week, he has been making his point that we cannot just expect to come here today and take three points just because they happen to be bottom of the table at the moment.

" There is always active work going on to bring players in, there are always things happening. What I will guarantee is that anything that does happen in this transfer window will be for the benefit of Carlisle United Football Club. "