John Ward - Radio Cumbria Interview

Last updated : 12 September 2008 By Thetashkentterror

John Ward
United boss John Ward spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria on Friday evening as he talked about tomorrow's big match away to Scunthorpe United, Ward though first giving his opinion on England's 4-1 win in Croatia on Wednesday evening :


" People go over the top in deriding England, I think that people quite enjoy it. I was at Morecambe at our reserve game on Wednesday and whilst there weren't many people in the stand, they gave an announcement that the score was 1-0 to England. People were annoyed, I got the feeling that they were quite annoyed that England were winning.

" I think that we have been fed that much from the national press in deriding English football that we don't appreciate the good times anymore. We think that we should beat everybody, but when you actually think that our opponents were rated fifth in the world and we were fifteenth then we had no right to win 4-1 at all, so it becomes a fantastic result.

" I think that Arsene Wenger's first comment afterwards was not to expect this off Theo Walcott all the time. I think that he is absolutely right, he (Walcott) is just 19 years of age, it is a wonderful night for him but as I think Mr Wenger said, even consistent players at international level don't get hat-tricks all the time. So they are special occasions and I think that Mr Wenger will deal with him the best way possible, because he appears to be an exceptionally good club manager and knows how to treat his players.

" He will look after the interests of the player for Arsenal, but at the same time he knows that he deals with a lot of international players, of course he does, so he knows how to treat them and how to look after them. Particularly his young players, he covets them and will bring them through, and that will be good for Arsenal and for England of course. "



" Michael (Bridges) felt his hamstring at Morecambe, as I said, I was at the game and we took him out of it after half an hour. He had been feeling it very slightly and we were very fortunate enough that we caught that in good time. We have had a scan on that and we are talking maybe a couple of weeks with Michael. So we put him away, we have just sent him back home to recover for the weekend, look after it, and we will start the rehabilitation with him on Monday.

" I am very hopeful though that we are maybe looking at two to three weeks rather than five to six weeks, which those sort of injuries can be. It's not a major injury and that is the plus side of it, we don't want to lose Michael at all because I think that he said himself that he is getting back to full fitness, sharpness and where he wants to be. He showed that last Saturday and it is a bit of a setback for that because he needed to play a bit of catch-up, and he has done that but now he has had a wee setback, but hopefully it won't be for too long.

" I have said before that the strength of the squad is there if it stays fit. With that will be our biggest test but we have got Scott Dobie back in who had an exceptionally good start to the season. He was really disappointed to miss three games, but he is, I don't want to say an automatic one back in, but he is a considered player isn't he, a good player to have back in the squad for the weekend.

" We are really healthy on strikers and I have said before that these lads want to play. I think that if you saw me chopping and changing the team while it is doing pretty well then people would be surprised. We are very much aware of Karl Hawley's position, we didn't know that he was going away but we were aware that he was available. As we have said though, we have had these players playing well in our first team and that is how it has got to be, they have got to stay and play and do well for us. "



" The Ronnie Wallwork situation is still very much an open arrangement with him. He has been up for the last two games, he has trained every day, we will have a chat with him next week to see where he sees it going and where I see it going I think. It is very much open-ended though, he is helping us, we are helping him, there is no catch involved in that sense so it can be decided either way.

" They (Scunthorpe) are fourth and we are second as we sit at the moment, whilst people say that they don't pay any attention to it, me included, you do don't you. Two good sides and I have to said to the boys today at training that I think that they will be having the same team-talks as our lads but just keep changing the names.

" For (Grant) McCann it will be (Marc) Bridge-Wilkinson, for (Sam) Togwell it will be (Paul) Thirlwell, that kind of thing. It is really just getting the best team on the day, and if either team is just slightly off it then the other team can take advantage. If those teams are right on their game though then anybody that is going across to that match will see a really good game of football, I am sure of it.

" He (Cleveland Taylor) will be selected, I don't mind telling you that, Cleveland will be playing simply because he has been playing very well in the three games that Scott Dobie has missed out on. I am not going to take him out of it, it is a big lift for him the way that he has gone about it and the response of our supporters towards him. He's going back to his club where, we had to work really hard to prise him out of Scunthorpe United, that meant conversations with the chairman (Steve Wharton) as well as the manager (Nigel Adkins). So he is thought of exceptionally highly at Scunthorpe United, but that might change at 3pm.

" There is big respect between the two sides I think. I have got big respect for what they have done at Scunthorpe, I have talked about that in the last week. That hasn't changed and I don't think that it will change tomorrow afternoon. I would guess though that these people at Scunthorpe will be saying similar things about Carlisle United, we have got big respect off them too. "