Sitting too close to the bottom of the table is never a nice place to be, but director of football David Holdsworth insisted at his Thursday press conference that talk of a struggle against relegation isn’t an option, with a more positive outlook the order of the day.
“I don’t want to be disparaging, but it’s stupid to think that way,” he said. “Think positively. I don’t want to go down that road of thinking about that word.
“I’ve never been relegated in my life, I’m not even considering that. I’d rather worry about the salt and pepper on my chips.
“Of course I understand the fears and frustrations of the fans. They’re good people, they pay their money.
“It’s about time some people roll their sleeves up. I’ll give you transparency. I’m not thinking about that, we’ve got to be positive and work hard.”
“When you’re in a difficult league position there’s always pressure,” he added. “You have to enjoy it, roll your sleeves up.
“The fans want three points, they want to see their team win, not be third from bottom, I understand that. It’s not a position I’m very happy with.
“Every day I see myself looking forward rather than reflecting and thinking what’s the point. The point is we want to make this club win.
“All I can say is I want the fans to be happy. I want to be transparent with you. That’s why I’m here. I’ll be transparent with supporters about any subject I can give you the belief in, and I’ll give you the answers to.
“We don’t want to get this one wrong, I don’t want to be sat here, this is a pain in the bum, and with respect to the supporters, I want to be able to help them enjoy their football and I’ll do all I can to support the board in the next hour, 10 minutes and next few days. We want three points on Saturday, let’s hope we can do it.
“It’s the same at every club, you get pressure when it’s not going well. I managed Lincoln and Mansfield Town, both clubs were in a terrible place, one financially and secondly in a position where the managers had failed.
“I inherited those players, people with a losing mentality. You have to transfer that, make it better. When you have those clubs who’d been at the bottom of the Conference, they’d been badly run.
“We have to make sure Carlisle United is run professionally, and astutely, financially, and make sure we can change this into a positive move.”
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