Carlisle United say they want to give something back to the fans on Saturday as a thank-you for their superb support during a dismal season.
As part of the #OneCarlisleOneCommunity game against Stevenage adult tickets are just £10 if bought before midnight on Friday.
Manager Paul Simpson said: “It would be nice to go and make it a really good day for everyone. The supporters have turned up in their numbers all season and they’ve been absolutely outstanding.
“Our results, and sometimes our performances, haven’t paid that back. Hopefully this weekend the fans will get something back in terms of the reduced prices, and in terms of the entertainment and everything that is going on around the ground.
“It’s the club’s way of giving something back to the supporters for their loyalty over the season. All I can do is hope that we put on a performance that makes it a good day for them and sends them home happy.
“The way I look at it, this football club has moved forward because of the way the players went about it on the pitch last season especially. We got such a huge lift from that, so when it comes to the way the hospitality, commercial and retail are all booming, that’s because of the work the players did last season.
“If we want to keep that, we need the players to understand that they have a responsibility to go and perform.
“I have a responsibility as the manager because all the blame comes to me, but I’m really hoping that this weekend we can put on a performance that keeps our home fans smiling and sends them home happy because we haven’t done that enough this season. If we do that then hopefully they’ll turn up again.”
This week is also the EFL Youth Development week, which shines a light on local players making it through to first team level.
With three Cumbrians in the first team squad in Gabe Breeze, Taylor Charters and Jack Ellis, Simpson added: “I think it’s important that we do highlight the great job that EFL academies do.
“Everybody wants to talk about Category One academies and what they bring to the game, but I think everybody forgets league clubs have academies who do a good job as well.
“After being involved in the England teams I realised how important it is that these lads get opportunities at first team level because there’s a difference between playing in academy football and stepping up to first team football.
“There are so many players getting opportunities who have progressed to the England senior team and the other home nations teams who have played minutes in the EFL. That benefits the national teams and that can only be good for the whole country.
“You look at the lads who have been involved in our first team but you also look at the likes of Jarrad Branthwaite, James Trafford and Dean Henderson who all started off in our youth system. Some of them got sold earlier and moved on which is perfectly normal with the way the EPPP system works, but there’s real value to it.
“That’s why it’s important that the academies are set up properly and are run properly. We’re hoping the changes in our academy will give it a boost and a leg up to improve moving forward. Hopefully in years to come we’ve got even more players who have come up through our system who are representing the first team.”
The manager also commented on the recruitment process for a new Academy Manager: “I think a decision has been made. We’ve gone through the interview process but I don’t know when it’s going to be announced if I’m honest with you. A decision has been made and hopefully that will be announced very shortly.
“I was part of the first stage of interview where we interviewed six in the first stage. There were some good candidates out there.
” And that six were selected from probably around 40 which I’m led to believe, was a much stronger group of people who applied for the job than the previous time it was available. The final stage went to a one to one interview with the owners and the decision was made so, as I say, hopefully it’ll be very soon that that will be announced.
“The biggest thing to go from a category three to a category two, you have to have facilities. So that’s where the big step has to be with a training facility.
“So that the plans are in place to try and do that and it involves getting an indoor dome. So that’s part of the plans and hopefully they’ll all come to fruition and we’ll be able to be looking somewhere further down the line of being able to progress from Category Three.”
