“Coming into work is fun again,” says Harry Lewis, and among the hopes for the new season at Carlisle United is that this sort of line will be heard often.
That will come down to performances and results, and hopefully better times than the Blues endured last term. At this point in pre-season their goalkeeper is thinking positively and feeling that way too, as he tries to move away from the struggles of 2023/24.
Nobody needs to be taken on a prolonged journey back there, but what Carlisle are trying to leave behind is still considerable. Lewis, in 20 games after joining from Bradford City, experienced 16 defeats, three wins and one draw, and had to fish the ball from his net 43 times.
Not part of the plan, it’s safe to say. And however much or little one ascribes those figures to the No1, such a load must still weigh heavily. Parking it, and making a fresh start, is “probably the biggest thing that personally I had to do,” says Lewis.
“I had to move on. It wasn't easy, but it was definitely what I needed to do to come back in with fresh eyes and be ready to go again.
“I think the change in goalkeeping coach [this summer] and certainly the change within the goalkeeping group was massive for that.
“As I say, coming into work is fun again. That feeling will hopefully increase and grow the more games we win, because football's always more fun when you win.
“I hope that I can be a really big part of a team that's remembered fondly at Carlisle, and not remembered for what happened during the second half of last season.”
Lewis, 26, was signed at good expense from Bradford to be part of better times. Vital to that happening will be mending any scars from 2023/24. Building a better and more robust team for the return to League Two, as well.
Hopefully that process is now under way, while for Lewis it is a matter of starting again under a new coach, Glen Johnson having replaced Dave Timmins in working with United’s keepers, while Jude Smith is another understudy along with the promising Gabe Breeze.
“We're very, very tight-knit and we've got real quality in our department now,” says Lewis.
“Coming to work has been hard – it’s not been a holiday camp, but it's been really fun and I've really enjoyed being back here.
“I live in Carlisle now, I love the city. I've really enjoyed being part of this football club and really excited about what we can go and achieve. I hope we can match the excitement around the place with what we can do on the pitch this year.”
Lewis is a thoughtful talker and someone who does appear committed to the idea of Carlisle improving and succeeding in all ways. He is also a new dad and if this heralds a more rewarding time for the former Southampton man, then United will be glad of the benefits.
At this point it is also a matter of developing new relationships. In front of Lewis is a defence that includes new centre-backs in Terell Thomas and Aaron Hayden, while there are additions at wing-back with Archie Davies and Cameron Harper.
Adjusting to such changes, and making them work, is critical right now. “I think that's massive,” Lewis says. “And I think that's something that people, maybe outside football, don't fully understand.
“It's massive knowing where the lads in front of you are going to go, what they're going to do, how they're going to play. It's really important for pre-season to have these pre-season games and to get minutes with these new guys and to train every day and all the rest of it.
“You believe that you're only going to get stronger the more games go on. We’re still a couple of weeks out from the real stuff and hopefully we keep going in the right direction that we're going in, and those relationships continue to strengthen.”
Lewis says his confidence levels are “good” as pre-season progresses. “The more games you play, the more confident you feel, the more you get to know the lads in front of you,” he adds.
“I get on really well with the guys that I work with and that's really helpful. It’s really helpful to have two guys that push you, but we also have a good time as we push each other and work hard. That’s a big part of it as well, and that increases the confidence that I feel.”
Carlisle’s most recent outing, the 2-2 draw at St Mirren last Friday, was an eventful and entertaining contest with positive aspects for the Blues blended with issues to address.
It certainly saw United looking sharp and competitive after their week’s training at St Andrews. “I think that's what we're going to be about.” Lewis says. “I think we're going to be real grafters, hopefully with bits of quality in there as well.
“Friendly games are friendly games, but you still want to win them, and you certainly don't want to lose them. You can’t read too much into results, but I think performance-wise, we've got to be pretty happy with how we went, even if they were poor goals conceded.
“It was a good exercise against a team that qualified for Europe, so we need to take a bit of confidence from that moving forward.”
United now face two National League sides, in Rochdale and Gateshead, before signing off their calendar of friendlies against a newly-promoted League One side in Stockport County. This is the supposed fine-tuning period before things start for real at Gillingham on August 10.
“For me, I find the games against Workington, Kendal and Penrith a little bit harder to get up for, to be honest, because they might sit in against the ball and they might make life a bit hard for you,” says Lewis.
“These are the games now against the likes of St Mirren, Rochdale and Stockport, that are a bit more realistic for what we might face.
“I'm looking forward to those next tests because you can train as hard as you want, but match fitness and match sharpness [from these games] is a completely different ball game.
“I truly believe that week on week we've got better as a team, we've got better as a squad, we've trained harder, we've got to know each other, relationships are building and, fingers crossed, we can keep moving in the right direction.”
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