Keith Curle on staying in focus and being ready to go
Manager Keith Curle confirmed today that a loan move lined up for defender David Atkinson was no longer on the table following a change of circumstance with the interested club.“There was a financial situation at the club who were going to take him and they can no longer afford the loan,” Curle said. “They really wanted him, and we wanted him to be getting competitive game time, but we haven’t been able to get this one over the line.
“The pleasing thing is that David wants to be playing football. He hasn’t had anywhere near the pitch time he’s wanted to have so far this season but he’s working hard in training and he knows we think highly of him.
“Ideally his loan would have given him competitive football at a good level for a month, but we aren’t in a position to allow players we value to go out for nothing.”
“We’ll continue to make sure all of our players are ready to perform with the training sessions we have and the reserve games we organise,” he commented. “We have a game against Burnley on Tuesday afternoon and the youth department will take the Cumberland Cup game on Tuesday night.
“The Burnley game will give minutes to those who need to top up and we’ll be able to take a look at a few other players as well. The game against Cleator Moor is a great opportunity for some of the younger lads to play against older players.”
“It’s another busy week but the focus through all of it will be the Hartlepool game on Saturday,” he said. “People are obviously talking about the unbeaten record but the incentive for these players is the three points on offer for each game.
“The focus within the group is fantastic because they know they have to take every opposition on its own merits. There are good habits in the group now and even when the football isn’t the prettiest on the eye we still get our jobs done.
“That’s because we believe we’re going to win games. Even when we were getting draws there was an inner belief that we weren’t too far away from turning them into three points. There’s a lot of confidence in the dressing room and hopefully that will help us to keep the run going.”
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