Roberto Martinez on the Football Family and the Everton Fans Forum
Everton manager Roberto Martinez spoke to us about the Football Family and the Everton Fans Forum after the FA Cup fixture on Sunday."First and foremost we have to give incredible credit to everyone at Carlisle United who managed to provide this sort of environment for the game today," he said. "To be able to create that atmosphere after what happened with the pain and heartbreak the floods brought to the community was incredible.
"As a football club we want to be associated with that sort of work and our Fans' Forum wanted to reach out straight away. They've done an incredible job and for me it's an example of how football should help societies and communities. It's been a good opportunity to show the rest of the world how to face adversity in life.
"We are a very special football club and the football family is a great thing. We've been very competitive on the pitch and we wanted to win, but we also wanted to help. We did that with the right values and sense of integrity."
Speaking about a return to Brunton Park for Leon Osman, he said: "Leon [Osman] used his loan period with Carlisle to become a man and a footballer. The career that he's having is quite special but he will always have those memories of the time he had here."
And on the game itself, he told us: "We've been playing really well in the cups this season but the FA Cup is always tricky. We've seen Carlisle play quite a lot and we know they did well against another Premier League club earlier in the season.
"We know that they are flexible tactically and we knew they could put teams under pressure. With that in mind we kept a very good clean sheet.
"We started the game well, which we knew we had to, and we then went on and managed the game well. A lot of credit has to go to Carlisle United and we wish them well in the league now."
