United media officer and first team kitman Andy Hall (AH) spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria's James Phillips (JP) this afternoon ahead of Carlisle's League One match at home to Hartlepool, Hall first referring back to an interesting press conference yesterday :
JP
The first thing I want to talk about is what we are going to refer to now as canine-gate, have you ever known a press conference quite like the one where the dog interrupted us yesterday, ever known anything quite like that?
AH
I don't know if it was a dog, it sounded worse than that didn't it? It was howling at the moon or something but it knocked us, actually no, it knocked you out of your stride, everybody else seemed to cope with it, what was that all about?
JP
Just not a professional at all, no, everyone was absolutely very, very amused by it, and I couldn't talk, I actually couldn't physically ask Greg (Abbott) a question at one stage.
AH
No, it was very funny to be fair, I think it caught you just as you were asking your questions as well, so you got the back end of that one, nice to see though.
JP
Yes, very good, look, he was in pretty good spirits, he knows that the players need to start delivering though he was talking about in the presser?
AH
I think the important part of the presser for me was where I think he revealed to you that he had had an afternoon, an hour in the afternoon, just with the players where he sat and talked about what he expected. Again, the type of thing that he had done pre-season just to remind them that there is a big job to do here.
It is League One football, there are eleven players every week, it doesn't matter who they are, they come up against you wanting to take three points away, home and away, and if you don't do the work behind the football that goes with that then you don't get anything from it. We have seen that first hand in the last three games so we need to improve, we know that, and we want to improve, we want to start getting the results because we are in the top ten and we want to stay there.
JP
Two ways of looking at today's game, going maybe up to as high as fourth I think Greg Abbott was suggesting in the press conference if the result goes United's way, if they were to heaven forbid lose today against Hartlepool ahead of two very, very tricky games in Tranmere and Chesterfield, all of a sudden times start to look pretty tricky?
AH
Yeah, we have said that before, I think it was you again who said that to the manager a couple of weeks ago. If you are losing these games it is hard to get out of that, it is like if you are winning them it is fantastic because you just seem to pick up results when perhaps you don't deserve them. But, when you are in this kind of run, if it goes on for too long you can play really well and lose a game anyway, nobody will remember the fact that you played well, it is just another one onto those bad statistics.
So, you have got to get rid of that as quickly as you can because it is important to get points on the board, important to get confidence back in the fans as much as the players. We haven't suddenly become a bad team, but results would suggest that is not going well, so you have got to change it, it is as simple as that.
JP
The first tweet we got when we tweeted the Carlisle line-up was that it was very attacking from one fan, so clearly he is happy with that, is that the way that United have decided to go about it today?
AH
Absolutely, but it was meant to be the way that it was supposed to happen on Tuesday night as well but we didn't get the reaction until the sending off, the first sending off I should say, on Tuesday night. You don't want that, you want to be out of the blocks, and a team like Hartlepool, they seem to be draw specialists, I think five of the 90 minutes that they have played so far this season has been a draw.
So, they are hard to beat and that means that they are scoring goals and keeping teams out as well, so it is all things that you have got to do on the day that have got to come together. The attacking is part of it, the defending is part of it, but the lads have got to play their football otherwise none of it is worth anything.
JP
And Lubo Michalik back from international duty, how has he been after his experience again with Slovakia? What sort of frame of mind has he come back in?
AH
Ah, he is just a big daft lad isn't he? I think he is frustrated he didn't get on the bench, particularly, I am not sure, I think he got man of the match, whether that was just us watching the game back in the UK in the friendly that he played in, I think he was frustrated that he didn't get the start in the games that he went over to watch in the end. But, it is still fantastic for him and the club that he has been recognised at that level because it is a big feather in his cap, in a very big cap I might say.
JP
And Frank Simek back here again watching the game today back over, any indication at the moment of how far off Frank is at the moment?
AH
He has got to be careful, it is one of those flexor muscles in the thigh area that if you take it too quickly it will tear again. I think Dolly (Neil Dalton) said initially it was a 50-50 on whether these things happened again if the rehab wasn't done properly, so he will watch that like a hawk. I think Frank is exactly as Frank is, but I think, again he has spoken to you, and he was very positive, talking about two or three weeks.
I am not convinced, I will be honest with you, I think Dolly would tell you the same, the lad has got to do it properly because he is a key player, we have seen with the negotiations with James Tavernier that that position is a key position as well, we don't know where we are with that yet. So, we need to make sure that when the right-back comes back he is in the right frame of mind and fit.
JP
Negotiations with who?
AH
Newcastle United.
JP
Ha, ha, ha, James "Taverneer", I was really struggling, even in bulletins and things I am struggling to get out of the habit of "Tavernier" because that is what we started with.
AH
He is shouting it up and down the corridors now, every time somebody says "Tavernier", he says "Taverneer", so he is a proper English lad isn't he in that frame of mind.
JP
Just finally on today's opposition, some strong Cumbrian links in there, one of the local derbies, relative local derbies for Carlisle, Mick Wadsworth of course the manager started with Carlisle in 1993, Evan Horwood sadly out injured today so not available, but of course Paul Murray in there as well, so strong links between the two clubs?
AH
Yeah, Paul Murray is a right engine room as well isn't he, Mick Wadsworth, he likes to do well when he comes back here. We have not got the best record against Hartlepool, they tend to nick one off us or get a draw when they come to this place. We have had some good games over there, I must admit, but they seem to know how to set up when they come here, they seem to know they are going to have work hard. So, we said it already earlier, you have got to come out from the first minute and play the game to win and hopefully that is what we will do.
JP
I bet they are delighted to see Lubo Michalik come straight back into the team?
AH
Oh, hey, that goal, what a goal that was, can we have that one again please?
JP
That would be great wouldn't it.