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JP
That wraps up the home part of your League One season, how have you found it then this year?
GA
Well I just spoke to Chris (Hutchings) coming off the pitch there and he said 'I am going to tell you something mate, I am absolutely mentally and physically exhausted, what about yourself?' And I said 'you couldn't have put the words better.' It is a long season, we don't have it easy, neither of us as managers, we know what we have got and what we need and what we are trying to achieve.
It is very, very difficult, numerous things to deal with, but the season to be fair, most of it has gone reasonably well, reasonably well. Probably the school report says maybe could do better, but it certainly says showing signs of good progress.
Chris has just shook me there and given me a big hug and said 'keep it going, good luck to you.' He is a good friend of mine and I think he shares the same sort of problems but he has the same sort of sympathies. There are only 92 of us around and we have to help each other along I think at times.
JP
I am sure you certainly do. Looking at the game itself today, it could so easily have been one of those end of the season games, two teams with nothing really to play for, but it was actually a very entertaining match.
GA
Well, I think he (Hutchings) has got the same principles and morals about football as I have. We have been talking all week about the Oldham game and how disappointed we sent the supporters home that day, and that they want to see some passion and some determination.
But it is not an easy pitch to play fantastic football on because of the state it is in, and that will improve next season and hopefully everything else will. But we said 'let's roll our sleeves up, let's play as aggressively as we can, let's play as much attacking football as we can and let's give the fans something to shout about if possible.'
We had a go, I don't think it was fluent football from either side at times but I thought we tried to play, we tried to get the ball out wide, we tried to get it into the frontmen and tried to get crosses in and we did that. We are probably reasonably happy with the performance, as probably Chris is.
JP
Another good strong solid performance from Ben Marshall, he is one who I am sure you would love to get here again next season from Stoke if you could?
GA
Yeah, I think Adam (Clayton) has done a great job for the team as well, he has popped up on the wide side left and wide side right and put in a good shift. He is a clever player and he can adapt to that and he did it. But Ben has been terrific, we have an 18-year old who has got what we he wanted and that is pitch-time, and we will make enquiries to see if we can resurrect that deal for next season, I would love to him back.
JP
What would you like to do right now? Best case scenario, I know that you are saying that in the next eight to ten days you will be hoping to resolve all of the future of all those players, what would you like to have ready for next season as quickly as you can at the moment? How close are you to having exactly what you need?
GA
Er, not very close, not very close. It is an impossible question and there is no-one in League One at the level that we are at that can say they have they got the squad they want. We know what we want and we have made massive inroads into that, but we have got to make three or four incoming signings happen.
If we can do that, and I had a fantastic chat with the chairman (Andrew Jenkins) and the other two owners (John Nixon and Steve Pattison) yesterday. They are supportive of what I am doing, they know where we are at with it and then it is a matter of trying for those ones, and if they don't happen trying for the next level that we have got.
But what we want on July 1st is a squad that is better than we have got now and that is the key. Obviously it is well documented that the financial levels have got to be roughly around where they are this season.
JP
And you sent this home crowd away reasonably happy with the way today has gone, but more with how the season has gone. A lot, lot better than last year, real progress and that is what the club and yourself have wanted to talk about.
GA
Well, I think you have got to have realistic ambition, and our ambition was that we were a team that was fighting for our lives on the last day of last season. We are not this season and we have had a couple of good cup runs in the FA Cup and League Cup, and an excellent one in the Johnstone's Paints.
So, that is what we are saying, school report says decent progress, we need to improve on that now and try to play more attacking, more aggressive football at times next season and then be a bit more cautious at times.
It is a mixture, it is a balancing, but we have had a full season with it, a full season with the players, they know what levels of determination and attitude we want. Let's hope we can start next season and improve on what we have done this.
JP
On a school report theme, what lessons have you learnt? What things do you think you can do differently for next season from this experience?
GA
Well, it is not what we think you can do, it is what you are allowed to do different. At the start of last season we couldn't have any transfer money until the Danny Graham situation was resolved. The league, as fantastic as they are, gave us four days between the Tuesday tribunal and the first game of the season, and obviously everything was wrapped up by then.
So, we were on the back foot straight away, at this point in time we are miles ahead in terms of recruitment and I think we will be allowed to go. We have identified the targets and I think work is going on, well work is going on now to try to make those signings happen. So, we are further forward and we hope to be able to do that, and if we do we will be better than we were this year.
JP
I guess the big important thing now is just this week to ten days to wrap up and see who essentially you have with you for next season from the players who are in the balance?
GA
Absolutely.
JP
Is this going to be maybe the toughest week of your career as a manager so far?
GA
Not at all because this will be an easy week compared to the last week of last season when I needed to win a game and hope that other teams lost. So, I am absolutely fine this year.
JP
But could it be one of the more defining weeks in terms of convincing those players that their future is here?
GA
I don't have to convince them, if they need convincing to stay at Carlisle United then they are not the right type of players we want. They will make their own decision, I want them to stay because of what we might be able to achieve here and they need to be determined and their attitude is 'I want to play for Carlisle United.'
And if they don't and I need to go beyond the realms of convincing them then maybe they aren't the right type of players. But we have made good progress with them, the final decision is I want them to come to me and say 'I want to play for Carlisle United.' If they do fantastic, we crack on.
JP
In terms of the future of this club that you clearly hold dear, Carlisle United, players on the pitch who are very young but young players coming through off the bench and coming out of the club's youth system. That must be pleasing for you as it is for the fans?
GA
Yeah, I mean everybody wants to see local boy done good. We have started to integrate a few into the team and a couple have done well. I thought Gary Madine was excellent today, I thought his games that he has played since he has come into the team with all the problems he is having off the field have been terrific.
That bodes well for the future, we have just seen the infancy of Ryan Bowman's career, we have seen Tom Aldred have three or four games and do very, very well. We had Steven Swinglehurst on the bench today which is fantastic, local boy, works exceptionally hard, and it is reward for his attitude and determination this season.
So, that is a good side of things, but I think what we need to do to start the season is have them ready to come on and play bit parts up to a certain stage, certainly not Gary. Gary has put himself right in the focus and the focal point to start the season, he has put a right claim in. What we need to do is integrate these players at the right time when we are in good form.
JP
Anyone picked up knocks or anything today or anyone likely to come back ahead of next week as you know it at the moment?
GA
As we stand we are alright.
JP
Just finally, a feature on Football Focus this morning which puts everything into perspective talking about the 25th anniversary coming up of the disaster at Bradford City with the fire there. Of course you were involved that day, what are your memories of that day?
GA
Probably the worst day by a million miles in my career. I have been invited to a civic reception a week on Tuesday in Bradford on the 11th, which is the actual day. It is 25 years, I couldn't believe it, I went to a dinner, a charity dinner to raise money for the burns units and attended that the last home game afterwards.
It was desperate to see what had happened, but fantastic that the club has risen from that and grown together and they have got a lovely stadium from that. That is a testimony to the people that aren't with us anymore, but it is a thing that will never leave me and it is a thing that nobody is going to tell me that I can't still grieve even to this day.