City's Keith Curle On His Side's Heavy Defeat

Keith Curle

Keith Curle, who was speaking exclusively to the Chester Evening Leader, talked about the quality of Michael Bridges, his team's defensive woes and what he thought he went wrong for City in the game:


“It was men against boys. Saturday’s result was a realisation as a football club of where we are. I said in the changing room after the game that players are playing for their careers at the football club. The pleasing thing is that there are players in the changing room whose contracts are up, but you wouldn’t have thought that on Saturday’s display.

“My players know that they had played against a better team, but they let themselves down. They can’t afford to try and go out and play people on an even playing field – we can’t let teams play when they have the ball and expect them to allow us to play when we only have the ball – sometimes you have to be physical, sometimes you have to knock people out of their stride and not allow them to play at their tempo.

“Carlisle came out and started well, and I think the two penalties changed the game. We were 2-0 down and had an opportunity to score from a penalty. If we had scored it would have put a different complexion on the game. But they then scored their third goal after converting a penalty after a bad decision from a defender. That goal changed the game and then it was men against boys.

“We knew Carlisle would start the game well, but we had to give ourselves an opportunity by keeping the ball and making the right decisions when we had the ball. We had to play the game in their half for the first 15 minutes, but we couldn’t get hold of the ball or get into their half, and when we did get into their half the ball came straight back.”

“Michael Bridges is a good player, but when you play against good players you have to unsettle them, you have to use other things in your armoury, you don’t allow them time or space, but the amount of ball that Michael Bridges got suggested he was going to hurt us.

“I take no consolation in the fact that Carlisle have gone to the top of the league table, but they are a good team, but on Saturday it looked like men against boys. It is time to grow up, but that’s not just a message for our debutants, it’s a message for all the players in our changing room.”