Former United defender Peter Murphy (PM) spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria's Paul Newton (PN) on Tuesday evening after his release from the Blues, Murphy looking back on almost 12 years at Brunton Park:
PN
It has obviously been a tough 24 hours for you?
PM
Yeah, well obviously because I have been here so long, as the season went on this season I was still third choice centre-back. So, I was thinking with not being a starting choice that that would have reflected in what I thought would have been a contract offer, but I also had in the back of my mind that maybe because of Mike Edwards having a contract for next year and we already have three centre-backs on the books then I might not be getting one. But, it was a bit of a shock because it came out of the blue.
PN
Arguably I can’t imagine it was easy for the manager as well yesterday to have that conversation with you?
PM
No it wasn’t and to be honest I felt a bit sorry for Greg. Whenever I have spoken with Greg all the time he has always been very good one-to-one. He was saying nice things about me which was nice to hear, but he was getting a bit upset himself saying sorry and that he couldn’t offer me a contract. But, I said not to worry about as it business, I could sort of see the way the club is going. I was expecting an offer or hoping for an offer but that is the way it goes, these things happen. I have a new challenge ahead of me now so I am looking forward to that.
PN
Yeah, I guess the way it ended for you on Saturday wasn’t ideal, it would have been nice perhaps to have the chance to say goodbye to the fans?
PM
Yeah, a couple of have asked me about that now and some are saying that I should have been brought on for the last ten minutes to wave goodbye and all that. But, I think that would have been maybe the case that I would have known something before being told about a contract offer. But, I think myself, I have said it as well, as a manager you have got to think that you have got a team out there that you are pushing to get results.
Because, obviously Scunthorpe, I think Greg has got a friend there in Brian Laws, so he needed to do them justice, it wasn’t just for a showcase for myself. We are in a business, there is a job to do, so I don’t think, although the fans would have loved to see it and I would have loved to done it, as a manager I don’t think there is that sentiment there because you are out there to do a job and try to get the best result.
PN
Of course you weren’t alone in being told you weren’t getting a new deal yesterday, that must have been a tough day all round?
PM
Yeah, but there were none of the players really around. Everybody had different times for their meetings so I had only seen Frank Simek, and Frank was like Danny Livesey, earlier on in the season I think he had a deal where if he played a certain amount of games he had a certain amount of time to get an extended deal. Unfortunately for Frank he was out a bit too long and it left it that there wasn’t a deal there for him. But, if you look at all the players that have been released, there is Frank Simek, Jon-Paul McGovern who has played the majority of the games all year.
Andy Welsh has been in and out, when he came in he did a good job, we got good results and he did a good job for the team. There a few players there who you would think would maybe have deserved another year because they have played most of the season. But, I think it is more financial than about the player and the way they play football, it is more financial, so it is just the way the game is going at Carlisle United.
PN
Ideally are you still looking to remain in the Football League?
PM
Yeah, definitely, there is also the fact that people have been saying that geographically I would probably want to stay around Carlisle, but football has always been something that I have loved to do. I am not really, if somebody offered me a chance to play at a club that was five or six hours away I would jump at the chance because I just want to play football. I have three or four or five hours left hopefully, it is a very short space of time when I feel like I have been here ten or eleven years and it seems to have just flown by.
So, Carlisle will also be a place for me, Lisa and I have just bought our home, a family home for the future and it will always be a place where we will return to. But, whether I am still here and travelling and commuting from here, it is not really an aim of main, it is just to find a good club and hopefully there is one out there that wants me.
PN
I am sure there is, if there is one memory that stands out for you above the rest from your 12 years with the club which one would it be?
PM
I suppose I am going to have to go for the Wembley weekend when Oscar my son was born. It was just the way that all unfolded, what happened the year before against Southampton, scoring the goal after 12 minutes. That is the stuff of dreams and I was lucky enough to have that here with Carlisle United.
PN
Just finally, you have always had a good bond with the Carlisle United supporters, you have become one of their own over the last 12 years, any messages for those fans tonight?
PM
Well, you say I have become one of their own but it hasn’t been hard to become one of their own. Because, Carlisle and the people is such a lovely place to be and they are lovely people. So, we have been lucky enough to have some good times, and even through the bad times I think I have said when we got relegated, I was coming off the pitch devastated and I looked at the fans and I was apologising to the fans as I was just getting near the tunnel.
The fans then though were shouting not to worry about it and that we would be back next year, it was always so upbeat and that for me was unbelievable as well. Even saying it now makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. The fans have been brilliant, they are brilliant, at every club I am sure they are brilliant but I have been at Carlisle for ten or eleven years and have seen how the fans are.
It is tough times at the minute, but without the fans would be nothing, so I have been lucky enough to have a great bond with the fans because they have been so good to me as well. So, it is not hard and they are brilliant, so I would like to say thank you very much for my time here and I hope to see you again at some stage.