Danny Grainger on signing his new deal
Defender Danny Grainger put pen to paper on a new one year deal this morning which keeps him at Brunton Park until at least the summer of 2016.
Penrith-born Grainger, 28, has made 16 appearances since signing for the Cumbrians in June and was recently handed the captain’s armband having impressed the manager with his attitude and application at left back and at the heart of the back line.
We caught up with him to get his reaction shortly after the paperwork exchange had been completed.
“It came as a bit of a surprise to get the contract offer so early in the season,” he said. “It felt the same when I got the captain’s armband so it’s been a good couple of weeks for me. Hopefully the team can start picking up and moving forward.”
“I’m delighted to have this done,” he confirmed. “As soon as it came to light I knew I wanted to get it signed. It was a really easy decision to make because I’m from here and my family has settled round this area.
“I have a young family and I think I’ve said before that I love playing for the club I support. I’d been through a bad spell for a couple of years so it’s good to be here and enjoying my football again. It ticks every box for me.
“The deal is until the end of next season but there’s an option, if things are triggered, that it can go an extra year after that.”
“The manager actually told me I was going to get the offer in the dressing room after the Portsmouth game,” he explained. “It came as a total shock. He said I had to go and see him on the Monday morning and he told me he was rewarding me for what I’d been doing.
“He’s shown a lot of faith in me and hopefully I’ll start repaying him by helping to pick up results. It’s a case of having to prove him right with the decision he’s made about me.
“If I’m being honest, I wasn’t even thinking about a new deal when all this cropped up. That’s why it came as such a shock. It hadn’t crossed my mind because it’s only a few months ago that I signed my first contract. It’s come along earlier than I expected but I’m really happy about it.”
“Coming to work and feeling good about it is massive for any player,” he commented. “Playing with a smile on your face on the pitch on a Saturday makes things much easier. Being captain has been great and I think I was the oldest in the team before last Saturday’s game!
“Having the armband hasn’t changed my game in any way because I’ve always been loud. Some of the lads say I’m too loud sometimes but I do try and talk as much as I can. That could be what the gaffer has seen and liked, but it’s an honour to wear the armband while Paul Thirlwell is out.”
“The manager has put a lot more demands on me since he came in,” he said. “He’s done that with all of the players and results have changed because of it. He’s started to tie down a few of the lads and hopefully we’ll get a solid team for what’s ahead.
“My main aim is to get Carlisle back to where they should be - that’s in a higher division than this one. It’s too big a club to be at this level. I want to be part of the team that gets them back to where we all want to go.
“I’ve said before that we have a group of talented people in that dressing room. Things just haven’t gone our way so far this season but I think it’s starting to turn now. The fans are getting right behind us and that makes it a lot easier for us.
“What we’re looking to do now is push on and make sure we’re picking up points regularly so we can start to climb the table. We’ll be doing everything we can to pick up three points on Saturday.”
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