The arrival of experienced defender Paul Huntington this week added more depth to the squad at a time when injuries have started to cause frustration, but manager Paul Simpson took time to remind everybody at his weekly press conference that there’ll be a period of settling in for the centre back before he’s ready to play his part.
“It’s a signing that has got to boost the group,” the gaffer said. “Thinking back to when I was a player, when your club makes a signing you tend to look at it and think either ‘why has he come in’ or ‘wow, he makes us better’.
“I think people will look at Paul coming into the club and they’ll think he’ll make us better. He’s got good pedigree, and to play at the level he has for as long as he has doesn’t come through luck. He’s got something about him.
“Now we have to get him fit as soon as we can, but not too soon so it’s a risk, and hope he can bring that knowledge and experience into our group which will ultimately make us better.”
“We had a meeting with him this morning with Jamie [Roper] to find out exactly what he’s done and to talk about what our plan is with him to get him fit,” he added. “Paul is very knowledgeable as well, and he’s a deep thinker who knows what he needs and what his body needs.
“We’ll keep working with him and building him up into the group. The base fitness is there for him, he’s in really good shape and he obviously looks after himself. What we have to do is get the football fitness into him.
“It’s easier when you’re training on your own because if you know you’re running in a straight line then you’ve got a bend coming up, you can see it coming and you’re ready for it.
“When it’s a chaos session and you’ve got somebody running at you and you don’t know which way they’re going to run, and you’ve got to adjust and adapt, that’s the stuff he needs. I’d like to think, because of his experience, that it will come back very quickly.”
And we wondered if the Papa Johns Trophy group game at the end of the month is a target for his first full appearance.
“I’m looking and thinking I’d like it to be before that if I’m going to be honest,” he commented. “I’d like to think we can work with him and get him to the required level for the Gillingham game.
“At the moment, we’ve got a plan for him going to next weekend, then I think once you get there we can reassess it and readjust what he’s doing. If we do two or three days with him and we think he’s capable of doing more, we’ll maybe take him to that level.
“It’s a bit of a grey area at the moment because we don’t know where he’s at. He’s telling us what he’s doing and that he feels fit, it’s the actual getting him out on the grass and seeing how he copes with it now.
“We’re hoping for a bounce game for him. Now we have a free week after Stevenage, there’s a possibility we might try and get something in then, even if it’s to get him 60 minutes.
“If we aren’t able to do it, we’ll make sure we do sessions in training that gets him the same amount of high speed running, and the right amount of sprinting. We can simulate the work he needs to do in training, although I would also say it’s much better to do it in a game environment.”
Speaking more about what he feels the player can bring into the mix, he said: “I think it’s a great signing for us. I’ve said all along it’s really hard for players to understand what Carlisle United is all about.
“Because of the location, it can be a stumbling block. We’ve got a lot of players who travel a couple of days a week, stay over when we need them to, and I want as many players throwing themselves into being in Carlisle and finding out about the area as possible.
“It’s a hell of a bonus we’ve got a lad who lives in the area, understands the club and wants to be part of it for the right reasons.
“He’s a player who’d just come out of the Championship, he’s had a tremendous career where he hasn’t had to drop to League Two, he’s earned the right to play at higher levels and initially when we spoke he wanted to see if he had options higher up.
“He did, he had some really attractive offers, but he’s thought about it and he got back in touch. I said we need to have a football conversation, I need to be clear in my mind that this isn’t just a convenient club on your doorstep and you get your slippers on and take a nice easy way to the end of your career.
“I needed to know he was totally committed and that I was getting an experienced player who wants to come and achieve something. That’s what I got from him, Greg spoke to him and got the same feel about it.
“I’m really pleased we’ve got it done, delighted the board have backed us to do it. We are now pushing the budget to the limit, but they’ve realised there’s a need for strengthening.
“They’re trying to find extra funds to make it as strong as we possibly can. I think we’re all enjoying the positivity that’s going on at the moment and we want to make sure we keep it.”
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