Sean Maguire: 'No limit to where Carlisle United can go'

“It’s the most enjoyment I’ve had with my football for the bones of a year and a half, I suppose,” he adds. “This time last year I was in and out of the team at Preston, and when it was coming up to Christmas I kind of knew I was leaving. Then my time at Coventry…you don’t tend to enjoy your football when you’re not playing.

“Off the pitch it was great there, but you’re a footballer to play games on a Saturday. I haven’t done that regularly in quite a while. So I’m enjoying it here on and off the pitch, with the football, with the lads.”

Maguire, who joined Carlisle on the eve of this season, has become a sharply influential player in their early League One endeavours. The 29-year-old Republic of Ireland international admits he would have preferred to score more than the one goal he currently has, but in other respects he has steadily flourished, in particular on the right of Paul Simpson’s attack right now.

• READ MORE: Sean Maguire on the poignant story behind his goal celebration

This is Maguire’s seventh season of his sustained run in English football, which began with Preston North End in 2017. Maguire had good times at Deepdale, but a half-season spell at Coventry City last term was bittersweet.

The Sky Blues were en route to the Championship play-off final and Maguire could only gain a bit-part role. “I joined Coventry at the end of January, and they were just starting to pick up results,” he says. “I joined at the same time as [another] Irish guy, Luke McNally, and we were speaking about it towards the latter stage of the season – the fact they only lost one or two in 20 games.

Maguire, left, spent the second half of last season at Coventry but struggled to force his way into the team (Image: PA)

“So it was hard to get in the team. In the game at Wembley, when we lost in the play-offs to Luton, I wasn’t even on the bench, so I felt I wasn’t part of the team.

“I’m not one to sulk in the corner and make the manager feel he’s bringing that into the dressing room. I just got on with my daily work. I knew I wasn’t playing - on the bench, coming on for a couple of minutes here and there - but I didn’t let it affect me. That attitude can creep into a changing room.

“I don’t like to let anyone else know that I am sulking. But I was hurt not playing. It’s a short career and you want to play football every single week and enjoy it.”

Maguire, who left Coventry at the end of the campaign, then took time to consider his next move. When United called, the pieces thankfully slotted together.

“I went back to Ireland for the summer, trained with a group over there, on my own, and early in July I had a couple of options that didn’t really feel right for me,” he says. “It was mid-July when the interest from Carlisle came. It took a couple of weeks to materialise, and in that time I was speaking to Hunts [his ex-Preston team-mate Paul Huntington], the manager [Simpson], Greg Abbott [the head of recruitment].

Maguire says he discussed Carlisle with some of his former Preston team-mates, including ex-Blues midfielder Brad Potts, left (Image: PA)

“I said to myself and my wife, ‘I think this is the right move for me’. It’s a club where I feel it is on the up, on and off the pitch. I think it’s got the makings to be a really top club in terms of fanbase, the club itself. It’s a small [city] but it’s a big [city]. You’ve got real loyal supporters. They travel in big numbers.

“I haven’t seen anything like that where you have 4,500 at an away day [at Bolton last weekend], travelling two hours away. Even going down to Stevenage, Lincoln, getting the bones of 8-900 people…I feel like I want to be part of it."

Has the fervent level of United’s support surprised Maguire? “Yeah, it has,” he says. “Speaking to a few ex-players who’ve played here in the past, they said they loved their time here and the fans are brilliant. But I never expected them to be this good.

“Getting 8-9,000 people at home games is really good going. A few people mentioned to me there are a lot of Carlisle fans scattered around the country, so the fans at games in London aren’t all travelling four or five hours – but, then again, people in London do travel four or five hours for home games too.

“It has caught me by surprise, but they’ve been brilliant. Even the home games, when we felt we haven’t been at it, they haven’t once got on our backs. It’s a credit to them. It has got the makings of a club that can really push on. In the year and a half the manager has been here, he’s done a great job and he doesn’t want to settle for a team that’s just ok in League One.

“He wants to push it forward. The people around the stadium, the town… it has the makings of making this club even bigger.”

Maguire talks more about the former Blues players who he spoke to before committing to United. “One of my best mates is John O’Sullivan who was at the club when they got to the play-offs that time [in 2017].

“I spoke to Luke Joyce, who had a good few years here. There was Pottsy [Brad Potts], who I was at Preston with. And obviously Hunts, I had six years with at Preston and have a good relationship with.

“It means a lot to Hunty, doesn’t it? He’s from the area, has a family here. I knew a few of the other players in here as well like Jack [Armer], who was at Preston when he was younger, and Garns [Joe Garner] as well.”

Maguire had not worked with Simpson before but already feels in tune with United’s manager. “People I spoke to said he’s the nicest man in football, and being in this environment now I can see why he gets that reputation," he says.

Maguire has become a key part of United's attack (Image: Barbara Abbott)

“You just have to look at the job he’s done here. And seeing the hard work he puts in on a daily basis, you know he’s not just in the building from 9am-2pm, 9am-3pm. It’s stuff he does outside. He looks back on training and makes sure everyone’s at it. In games he lets you know when you’re not at it, keeps you on your toes.

“I feel like if you slip up in performances he’ll let you know, which is a good thing for me. He’s getting back my love for the game and I feel like he’s really getting the best out of me at the moment. I’m truly loving working with him and I feel things can only get better from now on.”

Maguire feels Simpson has unlocked something positive in his recent tactical change, switching to 4-3-3 from 3-5-2. Maguire, on the right of the attacking three, has provided some elusive running in positive United showings against Peterborough United and Bolton Wanderers, where they took four points from two highly fancied teams.

“I played that role a couple of years at Preston, and probably the best spells I had at Preston were off the right wing, off a player like Garns,” he says. “That’s how I suppose the last couple of performances, against Peterborough at Bolton, went.

“It looked good, and with Gibbo [Jordan Gibson] off the left…we complement each other. Against two teams in the league who are possession based and going to be right up there, we’ve done really well, and on another day we could have gained maximum points.”

Maguire feels the wily Garner, as the central striker, can be pivotal to this system. “When it goes into a fella like Garns, he’s going to make things difficult for centre-halves. He holds it up, and he’s a fox in the box when you get the ball in there.

“He’s created chances for me and, when I’m playing off the right, I like to support as a second striker, making runs in behind. It’s paying off at the moment.”

Maguire’s only goal to date came in the 2-2 draw at Stevenage, while he could easily have earned United umpteen penalties through his sharp movement in the box. Finally a refereeing decision went his way at Bolton when Kyle Dempsey’s challenge upended him.

“There was the Lincoln one, and the Peterborough one was definitely a penalty,” says Maguire of past close calls. “There were a couple more when we should have had one against Peterborough, and a few more occasions. Then we got two in one game [at Bolton].

Maguire, having been denied a number of strong penalty claims in recent weeks, was finally awarded one when tripped by Kyle Dempsey at Bolton (Image: Richard Parkes)

“I thought we thoroughly deserved [the win] there. Not just because we got those penalties – I think we could have scored five or six goals. I could easily, on a good day, have had three goals. Gibbo’s gone and got myself and Garns [who had the first penalty saved] out of jail by coming up with a hat-trick.

“I think it was one of our best performances of the season, although that result against Bolton [a 3-1 victory] means nothing if we don’t go and win [against Leyton Orient] on Saturday. That’s what we’ll be aiming to do.”

Maguire says he is encouraged by his and United’s performances lately, and feels there is ample potential for them to grow together.

“I suppose the results this season haven’t really reflected on our performances,” he says of the 19th-placed Blues. “I think we’ve done quite well, and if we’d got a bit of a rub of the green we could and should have a few more points on the board.

“As a team you’re stepping up a level, bringing in new players, and it’s going to take time. I feel the turning point was the Lincoln game, also maybe Stevenage, where we stepped up a level or two in performance.

“I know at the end of the day it’s a results business. We’ve done really well performance-wise, and now we’re starting to get results on the board which is really pleasing.

“Personally, I’m really enjoying it. While there’s still a lot more to come, the only thing I’d be disappointed about is I haven’t scored a few more goals. Against Bolton, I would say I had one of my better games but I missed a good one-on-one chance and the keeper made a couple of good saves.

“But all in all I’m still really happy with the group, and as an individual with my performances.”

Maguire’s opening goal of the season, at Stevenage, was the type he prides himself on. “I think that’s what I’m in the team to do, and it's a typical goal for me – ball over the top, making smart runs. I think the more games we play with each other, we’ll start to click and you become telepathic in a way, when as soon as Cal [Guy] or Mox [Owen Moxon] or Alfie [McCalmont] get the ball, they know I’m going to make those smart runs. Hopefully I can add a few more in the next coming weeks.”

Maguire is not a striker to subject himself to statistical targets. “I’ve never been one for targets. I tend to take it game by game. I’m never going to set myself a target like 15 league goals because you’re putting added pressure on yourself. I’m just really enjoying the role I’m playing in the team and the way the manager wants me to play."

Maguire stresses that United is a club harbouring real potential, and says he and his team-mates are paying attention to the takeover situation in which the Piatak family from Florida want to unlock that potential.

“If people say players don’t pay attention to that kind of thing…well, we all do,” he says. “Whether it’s our mates texting us saying, ‘Have you seen this or that…?’ or something on social media, everyone hears about it in some sort of way.

Maguire feels Carlisle has massive potential (Image: Barbara Abbott)

“Fingers crossed that goes to plan, because it’s got the makings of being a really, really massive club.”

Maguire wants to be a fundamental part of that “massive” club now and in years to come. Asked how important this step is in his career, he says: “Big time.

“I look after myself with sleep, my diet, things like that. My missus gives out to me most nights because I won’t have a couple of biscuits with a cup of tea…I can do that at the end of my 30s or 40s, plenty of time for that, a new life begins I suppose when you retire.

“Right now I feel the fittest I’ve been in a long time. I’m 29, with hopefully my best years ahead and hopefully it’s at this football club.

“There’s no limit where this club can go. You’ve got everything – you’ve got the people, the town, the fans, the manager, hopefully the new owners, and really good players in there, who can really drive this club forward.”