Carlisle United Football Club

"It was tough when I came back against Coventry, because I hadn't had much of a pre-season, but I felt much better on Saturday," he said. 

"It was a great performance by the lads and I really enjoyed playing. Once you get that winning feeling back you really start looking forward to games, so we can't wait for Stevenage now." 

"I'd only trained a few times before the Coventry game so maybe it was wrong of me to put myself up for selection on that Saturday," he admitted. "I trained all week ahead of the Sheffield United game and felt a lot better in myself, so it was brilliant that we managed to get the result. 

"We know we've had a disastrous start but we all believe that we've got a team capable of climbing up the table. Even though Saturday was our first three points we aren't out of reach and we've already climbed a few places. The league is so tight that if we win again at the weekend we're right back up there, which is a really positive thing." 

"Monday was a hard day because Greg [Abbott] was liked by everybody," he told us. "All we could do was concentrate on our jobs. It was Greg who brought me in and helped me out in the first place, so I was disappointed to see him go. Kav has been brilliant since he took over and all of the lads really got behind him, Davie [Irons] and Caigy [Tony Caig]."

"A real positive to come out of the last couple of games is that we've stopped conceding the silly goals," he admitted. "I look at the league a lot and you'd probably think that we've conceded the most goals, but I think there's three or four teams worse off than us in that regard."

On his new partner at the heart of the back line, he said: "I think I've only played against Troy [Archibald-Henville] a couple of times, so I didn't know much about him, but I really enjoyed playing with him on Saturday. He's a big, strong lad who is very vocal and I think our partnership will only get stronger. 

"The win on Saturday was massive for us and hopefully we can build up a bit of momentum now. The longer we went without our first win, the harder it was going to be to get it, so hopefully we can just keep looking up now. Even if we get a point at Stevenage it will still be a good point and we can push on from that."

"I am getting towards being fully fit," he said. "Pre-season was frustrating because it was a bit stop-start for me, but I just want to get on with playing games now. Stevenage will provide a different test than Sheffield United did on Saturday. They had a lot of the ball, but the majority of it was in front of us. I think Stevenage will be more direct and more physical."

"The lads are right behind Kav [Graham Kavanagh] and Davie [Irons]," he added. "They've been brilliant in training and all of the staff have been really encouraging, which has made the transition go smoothly. We all want to get the three points on Saturday and keep it going."