Carlisle United Football Club

“That will have been a good introduction for Martin,” he said. “He’ll have learned a lot from that. He’s captain of the U21 side at Sunderland and there’s a reason for that. He’s aggressive in the right way and he has a good level of maturity. 

“He has a real hunger to have a career and this is his first real stepping stone. He needs to get up to speed with the pace of this level of football, because it is different, and that’s why I didn’t start him today. 

“I’ve watched him a lot recently and I’ve seen something in him where I think I can take him to the next level. He listens well and he has a good range of passing. I think we’ll see more and more from him between now and the end of the season.”

On Luis Pedro he explained: “We’re waiting for international clearance so that we can sign Luis.  Sarah McKnight worked tirelessly on getting both signings done on Friday but we couldn’t get that one over the line. Hopefully he’ll be done ahead of the Easter weekend.

“He’s another we’ve enjoyed working with over recent weeks. He has an arrogance about him which means he likes to protect the ball and he likes to do his work in the final third. We got to see him in a game situation against Barrow last Tuesday and we liked what we saw. He’s different to what we’ve already got so it’s one we want to get done.

“He scored twice in the Barrow game and he’s one who likes to operate in the final third. We found him through contacts Lee Dykes has and we think it will work out for us.”

And on 1,000 appearances for club physio Neil Dalton he said: “Dolly is Carlisle through and through. His association with the football club is excellent and the fact he’s been able to keep his job through so many managers shows how adaptable and good at what he does he is. 

“Ultimately he’s good with the players and he was once a player himself, so he understands that. Somebody has said that it was easily identifiable during his playing days that he was going to have to be a physio, so it worked out well in the end!

“Seriously though, he knows the club, he knows how to conduct himself and he’s very professional. There’s room for improvement with everybody and the one thing I do tell him is that I’d like him to smile a bit more, even if that’s just once or twice a week.

“On a definite serious note, when I look for players I want to see reliability, dependability, honesty, professionalism and a willingness to work hard. Dolly has that in abundance and, being honest, he brings even more. 

“I’m pretty sure we’re about to put a plaque in the dug out where he sits because everything he does is spot on.”