Carlisle United Football Club

Danny Grainger on his best ever goal return

In the second part of our interview with club captain Danny Grainger we spoke to him about his best ever goal return of seven, which included a stunning right-footed Goal of the Season award winner against Portsmouth back in November.

"I was delighted to get seven goals," he admitted. "It was nice to beat Tom Miller as well because we had a little bet at the start of the season. Part and parcel of my job is keeping clean sheets, but when I take the dead balls I know I need to chip in with goals.

"Seven in a season is the most I've ever scored ... it's unheard of really. That's something else I want to build on next season."

On THAT goal against Portsmouth, he said: "I don't think you'll see many more of them! It's one of those you only attempt when you're enjoying your football. At other times I maybe would have put it into the box and hoped someone else would put it away.

"When you enjoy your football it gives you a lot of belief in yourself, and hopefully next season I can kick on again, because that's definitely the case for me at the moment."

"I've set myself some real markers for next season and it's a year I'm looking forward to," he commented. "The manager will obviously bring players in during the close season, and they'll strengthen our squad, and I'm sure we'll all be raring to go at the start of pre-season.

"The way we ended the season has given us and the fans some real belief. I was speaking to a couple of fans at the awards dinner and they were all saying they wished we could have put that Notts County performance on in front of the home fans. The lads all said that after the game, but we've still ended on a high and the support we got down there was fantastic."

On his relationship with the fans within his role as club captain, he told us: "I like to make sure the lads all show their appreciation to the fans. We take them over at the end of every away game and it's little things like that I've picked up throughout my career when I've played under different captains.

"I've tried to roll all of those things into the way I conduct myself. I think it's important for us as players to show how much we appreciate the support we get.

"We can't affect things which are going on behind the scenes, but there's nothing more we want than to get the fans behind us. All we can do is our bit on the pitch and show the fans how much we appreciate what they do for us.

"We all want to say a massive thank you for everything they've done. They've travelled some amount of miles. We go all over the place and we still say we've got the best travelling support in the country. They were brilliant at Notts County, but they were also brilliant in places like Yeovil and Plymouth on Tuesday nights."

On his preparation for pre-season, which kicks off again at the end of June, he said: "I'll probably give myself a couple of weeks off. I'm going to do my coaching badges this summer so I'm looking forward to that.

"It's something I enjoy. Riggy [Steven Rigg] and I have got the academy in Penrith and I've started helping out a little bit with the academy at the club as well. When I was younger I didn't think it would be something I'd be interested in, but the older I've got the more I've looked forward to doing it.

"Once I get those out of the way I'll hit the ground running again. As soon as June comes around I'm sure people will see me pounding the tarmac around Lazonby!

"I'll be aiming to be at the front of the group come pre-season because, as I say, I've set myself some real targets now. When I came back last year I was probably the fittest I've ever been. I spoke to Dolly and I lost a lot of weight over the summer last year. I'll be aiming to do the same again this season."