Carlisle United Football Club

"It was a good workout," he said. "Queen of the South got a late shout yesterday so we have to say thank you to them for coming down and playing us." 

"They gave us a really good test," he continued. "We're working on our fitness at the moment and you could tell that a lot of the lads were tired towards the end of the game. 

"We know about the group anyway but it's important to see what they're like when they get tired in situations like that. We need to get it into them that they need to stay with their runners, keep their shape and work on their concentration." 

"These games are just a fitness exercise at the moment because we're still very early in pre-season," he said. "We ended up with eight first years on the pitch at the end of the game so it's a learning curve for them all. 

"They've gone from under 16s football, where the results don't mean too much, to a higher level of intensity. They'll learn quickly that they need to look after the ball and stay with runners or they will get caught."

And on what the first years can expect, he said: "We've told the eight lads who have joined us that this will be the hardest thing they'll ever do. 

"They've just left school and we've been doing very hard double sessions with them. They won't know if their legs are their own at the moment because they'll feel so tired. When they get to the other side of pre-season they'll be very fit and the hard work they put in now will pay off." 

"Over the next couple of weeks they'll get fitter and we can start looking at different things during the games," he explained. "We'll have different objectives as the weeks go along to make sure their all round game is where we need it to be by the end of pre-season.

"The games we're playing at the moment are an extension of the training sessions we're doing. That's really good for us because it allows us to get onto a bigger pitch and there is a result at the end of it. That's always important for the lads."