John Ward - Radio Cumbria Interview

John Ward

" Around the team there is a sighting of people not quite concentrating enough at that particular time. Whether we think that we're there or what I don't know but it's a stiff lesson for us to learn and hopefully we'll be better for it if and when we're in that position again. It doesn't always stand that you are going to win when you score first but I can't argue with the statistics. The bigger picture of it all is that we are doing OK and if we can improve on those positions that you are talking to me about then we are really in a good position.

" So if that means that we have got to take that at this particular time coming up to Christmas and, say we in these positions and it has happened to us before. Then come on, we have got to be better when it approaches us again. If we can get ourselves ahead at Tranmere for instance then we have got to make sure that we do see those games through. Not just see them out, because you can be leading, as we were half-way through the first-half, you can't see a game out then, but you have to just toughen up at that period and say that there is nothing still going to happen.

" Situations occur that you can't really legislate for, Keiren (Westwood) will blame himself for the first goal for instance, it has gone underneath him a little bit. The guy has had a lot of room on the edge of the box though to get his strike away so it's not just that one person or one area. It's too easy to do that and I think that we've got to make that a collective situation that we just tighten up that concentration period, particularly when we are leading games. "

" I've come in at a great time, you guys have been through three years into the Conference and out of the Football League altogether. I obviously kept an eye on that having a connection with Carlisle from four years ago with Paul (Simpson), so I understand that and I do recognise the position we are in now is a very good one and that people want it yesterday as well. So just keeping everything in perspective, it is a very good position for the team to be in, and the club in general. That is the best thing about it, the club is in a good position now as opposed to those periods of time.

" We are in a position though where we have increased the expectancy level, and that's fine, that's OK, I want to deal with that and it's something I want to be involved in, and I want my players to have to deal with that. I've come out of a dressing-room on Saturday that was exactly the same as you are saying about supporters in that it is disappointing. They've come out as if we've lost the game, I've come out from a group of players that are so disappointed and so upset that we have conceded a late equaliser.

" That again for me is a sign of the times, if they think that they are better than that then that is always a good thing to have in your dressing-room too. So it hurts us and it hurts the supporters but when we have the good times, like we did against Leeds and Swindon, then those times are equally as good as well. You have to take things on the chin in sport, not just in football but all the way through. You have to make sure in the long run and the long term, that is coming up to May, that we are hopefully in a similar position where we can continue encouraging people.

" The other thing is that we are very much concentrating on Carlisle United, you can bet your life that people at Swansea or Leyton Orient are saying the same things. Thinking that if they hadn't conceded this goal or that goal, they'll all be saying exactly the same things and it is the way of life in sport. It's up to me, and the other managers, and the other people running the places just to make sure that everyone is kept on an even keel.

" We need to keep working at what we are doing because a lot of it is good, a lot of it is right and a lot of it is bringing us success. Every now and then we will get a kick up the backside, the same at Arsenal, Arsenal have just had a real shaking up over a couple of games and they are one of the best teams in the country. So if it happens there it gives you a little bit of compensation at Carlisle I reckon. "

" Joe (Garner) trained on Monday, much to my pleasure really because I thought that we might have to leave him out a couple of days. It wasn't a hamstring pull though, he indicated that his hamstring was tightened up and it was a good decision by Joe really. He is a young guy, he's not really had that problem on the pitch before and he immediately let us know. We took him out of it as you saw thinking at the time that it was a pull but it was just a tightening up and he's fine actually. He's OK, so that's good news, he'll be OK for the weekend.

" He (Gary Madine) has caught my eye since I came into the football club and I've talked to the staff and to Eric Kinder who has worked with him throughout since we brought him into the club. We feel that it is the right thing to do to offer him that contract now and settle him down. He would have to have had the decision made on him in the summer anyway so we are only six months early with Gary.

" We think there is a good footballer in there though, we think it's important that not only do we encourage Gary, but I think that it should encourage some of the other young players. In the FA Youth Cup match tonight there are something like eight first-team boys in that team so they have got another 18 months at that level, and working at that team. We think, the staff here, we think that there is more than probably Gary that could go on and become professional footballers.

" So it's a very encouraging sign for the club, the club in recent times has got a good record of having young players come through and probably in the last three or four years it has had other issues to consider itself with. Hopefully now though we have got a very good structure here and if Gary Madine is the first of a few then we will be delighted with that.

" There is theory to it and a method to what I try to do as the manager and push that through. We are bringing in one or two players on loan with a view to maybe signing them at senior level and things like that. Let's have a look at them, let's bring them in, let's test the environment, and it's the same with youth players, if we think they are good enough then let's make a decision. There is no point sitting there wondering shall we or shan't we because young kids will be up and down all day and all week in different performances. "

" We think there is a good level of performance from some of these young fellas and what Gary now needs to do, and he will do, is step into the first-team training squad when it is right to do so. He'll put himself up against people like Danny Livesey and Peter Murphy and test himself out at the training ground which is brilliant, we'll find out then how good a player he is or maybe isn't.

" We think he will be though and that's the plus side of it, but he has got that period of time now where he is not wondering if it is going to happen. It's get on with it now Gary and good luck to you and see if you can make your career work. It's a lovely little story with Gary applying to be a window cleaner, football is full of it anyway, when you get to my age you have got loads of stories to tell but I've never actually been a window cleaner.

" Good for him though, it'll be something that you can remind him of if he does make it and gets through, you can tell him that he could have been cleaning windows mate so well done. I think that it gives him that spur of encouragement as well that here is an occupation that, whilst it doesn't last a lifetime, there is a lifetime of memories that you can gain from it. So if in another 20 years he looks back on his career and thinks that it was good then he can have his own window-cleaning business maybe and not just have his own ladder so good luck to him.

" We've got players in the squad that can cover the right-hand side for us, we'd looked at trying to bring a player in actually prior to the window closing this time around but we couldn't do that. We were unable to get a couple of players, so we were trying to do that and deal with it but Joe (Anyinsah) has done well. We'll get three or four games without him that we know about but within the squad someone has got to come in and do that.

" Kevin Gall has done it previously and you can't grumble about the results or anything. We have got into the position we are in because everybody has worked at it in the squad, whether it is Kevin Gall or someone else, or we shift it around a little bit, or use two or three players in that position then we will cover it well. We'll get to the end of December and look at the position then, because then is the time we can maybe get someone in to cover that position for us. "