Manager Paul Simpson spoke to us late on Thursday evening once the transfer business had been completed.
“We’re really pleased to get Georgie in,” he said. We’ve signed him on a long-term contract. I see him being a big part of the future of the football club. I’m really excited to see him get out there and show us what he’s all about.
“He had a fantastic record playing over in Irish football where he first came to my attention. He came over to Rotherham and it’s probably fair to say he’s had a frustrating time there because he’s had an incredible amount of substitute appearances, about 44, and four starts, I’m sure he expected more than that.
“He’s been kicking his heels and wanting to play, but he’s got a few goals for them. The opportunity came for us to get him – we talked about him last summer but it looked like he was going somewhere else then Rotherham decided he wasn’t going to go.
“So we’ve jumped in now and managed to get him. He joins us with a little bit of a niggly issue injury-wise where we’re hoping in the next couple of weeks he’ll be fit, but we couldn’t leave it until he got fit because we’d have missed the opportunity, and as I said he’s a long-term one for us. He’s a target man who I think could be a really good addition to our football club.”
The gaffer also confirmed the potential loan signing had fallen through: “We had a guy come up and he’s done his medical, we were given information of what he’s done but when we checked and examined him, we feel it’s too risky.
“Because it was a loan, the way we see it we don’t believe he’s going to be fit within the next three or four weeks. We might be wrong, we might have made a mistake on it but I wasn’t prepared to take that chance.
“I’m upset for the player firstly, because he’s missed that opportunity, but we’re here at 10pm trying to make sure we’re making the right decision, I feel it’s the right decision for Carlisle United Football Club, it’s obviously not the right decision for the lad or his parent club but ultimately I have to do what’s right and what I believe for the club – and I wasn’t prepared to take that chance.
“I’ve apologised to him and to the club, but I think it’s the right thing to do. We then tried to chase up three or four other different options we had in mind who were on lists of our scouting report, unfortunately we’re not able to do any more so that’s us done for the day. And I’m sure everybody’s just glad to get home now.”
Midfielder Owen Moxon made the move to Portsmouth earlier in the day, and Simpson commented: “It’s disappointing for us, but fantastic for Owen Moxon. I am disappointed we’re losing a player like Mox, but it’s the nature of football.
“I do think once he’d made that decision that he wasn’t going to sign a contract, I think it is in everybody’s interests to get real clarity on it. There was clarity in my head once he told us he wasn’t going to sign, then it was a case of a team coming in, Portsmouth did that, and they have been totally respectful in the way they did it.
“Owen’s gone down there, passed his medical, signed, unfortunately we’re going to see him in the next couple of weeks – that’s how football works. We wish him all the best. He was a real integral part of our promotion team last season. We had real value out of him when you think we got him for nothing, he's played a big part in the club. It would have been fantastic if he could have stayed long-term and made a real stamp on Carlisle United Football Club, but he's chosen to go. I genuinely wish him all the best. He’s been a good part of what we’ve achieved here and we have to move on.”
On other outgoing moves, he said: “Max [Kilsby] has gone to Queen of the South for the next stage of his development. There were a couple of enquiries for other players, and I was going to allow them to go, then they dwindled away.
“It wasn’t a case of me or the players saying no, the clubs moved on, simple as that. We’d said we were interested to talk about it, we explained what the situation was, but it hasn’t happened. We are where we are and we’ve got to make sure we knit this group together.
“We will look at the possibility of some players going to the National League. We have too many players, I don’t like the situation that we’ve got a bench of players and then five, six, maybe seven once we get everybody fully fit who are not going to be involved.
“It’s no good for the players, for the spirit and morale around the club. That’s something we need to get better if we want to get ourselves safe. We need a better morale and that comes from having a tighter and smaller group to work with.”