Close to 6,000 fans came to the first Cumbrian derby of its kind held at Brunton Park for 46 years on Saturday, and for manager Keith Millen it was a demonstration of the potential the club has as he was greeted with a very noisy reception ahead of kick off.
“Honestly, I love it,” he said. “I stand in there, I can hear the crowd, it gives you a real buzz.
“I wasn’t sure how the players were going to react to a bigger crowd, but I felt it inspired our lads, which is good.
“The players recognise the fans getting behind them and the fans recognise that the players are giving their all to try and win a football match.”
“If we’re going to turn this around, and we will, we need to do it together,” he continued. “I loved standing there, listening to a big crowd cheer. It’s fantastic.
“But we have to play our part, make sure we work hard, try and play an attacking way of football that they enjoy, but you want to win football matches.
“We have to find a way of winning football matches, and then hopefully we can get this whole club moving in the right direction.”
“If the club’s separated in different directions you’ve got no chance,” he insisted. “It goes from the top all the way through the club to the supporters.
“The board all know what I’m trying to do, I speak to them all the time, they understand what we’re trying to achieve, we’re all on the same page. I try and tell as much to the fans as I can, this is what we’re trying to do.
“If the fans understand what we’re trying to do, and there’s an effort, they’ll go with you. Saturday was brilliant, the players definitely rose to it.
“We have to all be pushing in the right direction if we’re going to get the results we want.”
