Mark Stevens is our new Blues Store manager and we caught up with him as he and Sonia unpacked yet more boxes of stock for the grand opening in a few weeks time.

Mark is very enthusiastic about the job in hand and he told us, "I moved up here around five months ago.  I love the area, particularly the countryside, and previously I've been working at John Lewis's in Sheffield and Cambridge.  When I saw this job advertised I knew what an exciting opportunity it was going to present."

In an amazing quirk of fate Mark's first trip up to Carlisle was the day that the heavens opened back in January.  He said, "the weekend I came up here to look at houses was the actual weekend of the floods, so I was very aware of what was going on and what needed to be done here.  It's a very exciting opportunity for me though, especially as we are starting off in a brand new shop.  The amount of money that has been spent, and the quality fixtures and fittings, mean it's on a par with higher division teams, which is great."

When asked exactly what his job entailed he explained, "I'll look after purchasing the stock and finding lines that people might like.  We will be trying hard to source new ideas, and that's anything that might sell well.  That won't just be the standard kits, scarves and hats as we are also very keen to set up the online shop.  As soon as we have sufficient quantities of stock in store, we will be taking pictures of the lines.  Then we can get them on the website and that should appeal to all the fans who can't get into the shop on a regular basis.  It will mean we can reach out to all our supporters, wherever they are." 

Away from matters of work Mark added, "I love the mountains, that was one of the major attractions of coming up here, so I hope to spend some of my spare time enjoying them.  I do enjoy football and I'm a Cambridge United fan.  They are the team I grew up with.  They are having a bad time at the moment but they are still my team.  I've seen quite a few encounters between Carlisle and Cambridge at the Abbey stadium.  Since I've been up here I've managed to get to a couple of Carlisle games.  I went to the York league game at Brunton Park which was a cracking match.  I've always enjoyed supporting my local team as, after all, I'm a football fan."