Cumbrian-born stopper Adam Collin out smiles on the faces of United's fans this week when he concluded talks on a new deal which keeps him at the club until the end of the 2019/20 season.
The 34-year-old glovesman made 47 appearances in all competitions last season and took his Carlisle United tally to 206, having now played for the Blues in two spells since first joining the club in 2009.
“I was pleased to get the deal sorted last week,” he said. “I can now enjoy my summer after what has been a long season. To get a few weeks off without having to worry about my contract and that sort of stuff is nice.
“David Holdsworth informed me a few months ago that the club were going to trigger the clause in my contract to keep me here for another year, so it was just about finalising some improvements to that contract, which is what we’ve been doing for the last couple of months.
“I’ll get my head off football for a few weeks now so I come back fresh in June. We can then concentrate on getting a good pre-season under our belts and focusing on next season.”
On what was a superb run of performances last term, he commented: “I think last season was one of my best seasons on a personal level. I was pleased with the consistency I showed throughout the season which was probably why I won a few of the awards at the Sunday night function.
“It was a nice way to round off the season and a bit of a pat on the back when I picked up the awards. I put a lot of hard work in and did a lot of travelling last year, which is tough at times, but it’s rewarding to get those awards, especially when they’re voted for by the fans."
With a catalogue of points winning saves to choose from as what might be his stand-out moment, he told us: “It’s difficult to pick one save that’s my favourite from the season.
"A couple come to mind straight away - the one in the second half against Bury where I got a hand on the shot to get it over the bar was decent. The other one was at home against Colchester in the first half, which was another sharp save to my right where I managed to get it over the bar again. Those are the two that stand out the most."
“It was a season where I was always confident with my own form," he admitted. "The season before, I was playing for a team in Notts County who had just reached the play-offs, so I was happy with my form then and it just seemed to carry on from there.
"I’m comfortable and confident playing at this level and I still think I could play higher."
This week's news that Louis Gray has also signed a new contract means that the goalkeeping department remains unchagned heading into the new campaign.
“I think it was important to get Craig [Wight] and Louis [Gray] signed up for next season as well," he agreed. "I think it was a no-brainer for the club to sort the goalkeeper department out.
"As the old saying goes, if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it. To get us three signed up is one less thing for the manager to worry about, and we can now concentrate on our own stuff as we head towards pre-season.
“Louis will be pushing me all the way for that number one shirt, there's no doubt about that. He’s still a young lad in terms of being a goalkeeper, but he trained really well last season and played well in the reserve games he was involved in.
"I know he’s there waiting to take my place but, and as always in these situations, I just have to concentrate on my own form. If I produce the levels that I did last season, then that will be great."
“My target for next season is a few more clean sheets," he told us. "I got 11 this season, so I’d like to get 15 next year. Generally, if your goalkeeper keeps 15 clean sheets in a season, then that will hopefully get you promotion.
"If we can get up to that number you never know where we’ll end up."
And on the reaction of the hugely positive reaction from the supporters to the news that Collin had committed to the Blues, he said: “The fans have been great with me ever since I signed the deal.
"I’m going into my sixth season with the club now and they’ve been great. They were happy when I came back last year and they’ve been very positive all season.
"They’ve also then obviously given me their votes, across a few different fan groups, when it came to the end of season voting. As I said earlier, to get that support has been fantastic and it means a lot.”
