With the second pre-season friendly of the summer just one day away, as United make the short trip to Frenchfield Park to face local rivals Penrith on Saturday afternoon [kick off 3pm], manager John Sheridan spoke more about what he wants to see from his squad as the games start to come thick and fast.
Looking back to Tuesday night’s trip to Barrow, he said: “The work out we had was good.
“We got punished for our mistakes, but I know we can keep the ball better. We need to show more and get ourselves going, because none of us were happy with the end product.
“I’d like to develop good habits of creating more chances and keeping clean sheets. That comes from hard work and we’re prepared to do that on the training pitch and with the players.”
“Listen, I don’t like to lose, but I don’t think it’ll do us any harm losing that game [on Tuesday],” he added. “As I said, I’ve taken the positives and I known exactly where we are and how much work we need to do.
“I know we’ll be ready when we need to be, and the players know what’s expected of them. This next four weeks or so is about building up and making sure we’re ready for that first game at Exeter. I know we will be because I know what’s needed.”
On the ongoing search to add new faces to the mix, he commented: “I’m in the process of trying to do that and hopefully I’ll get it done sooner rather than later.
“We’re close, but I can’t say too much because we’ve been there many a time when it then doesn’t happen. You think you’re at 98% and all of a sudden it doesn’t happen, for whatever reason.”
“We’re looking at loans, but permanents would be better,” he continued. “Loans help us financially, if other clubs can help us out, but we’ll go ahead with whatever suits all parties best.
“Like I say, the sooner the better, because the people we’re looking at are players who are training and keeping fit at the moment. Hopefully they’ll come in and they won’t be behind what we’ve got and done already.”