With constant heavy rain falling in the South Lancashire area this afternoon Hull-based referee Mark Brown made three pitch inspections of the Gigg Lane playing surface before finally postponing this evening's League One fixture between Bury and Carlisle with the ball bouncing inconsistently on the sodden pitch, Brown calling the game off due to concerns over the safety of the players. United assistant boss Graham Kavanagh (GK) commenting to BBC Radio Cumbria's James Phillips (JP) on the late call-off:
GK
Obviously it is disappointing, especially when you get to the stadium and you have prepared all day mentally and physically. Obviously, we felt like we were in good shape after a good training session yesterday and the game has now been called off. We got down here at about four o'clock and it wasn't raining, and since we have left the hotel about half past five it has obviously been bucketing it down.
But, the referee has gone on and inspected it, the ball is not rolling, it is not really bouncing, and to be fair it is probably the right decision because obviously players can get injured. But, to travel all this way we are certainly disappointed, but we just have to get over it now and get back to training tomorrow.
JP
I suppose for the fans at least it is not the longest trip, but there are no short trips really for Carlisle are there?
GK
No, not at all, and as I said the other day, I think financially we are all in the situation where we have to watch the pennies. So, if you are travelling down and you have spent money on petrol and diesel it is obviously a nightmare. So, it is disappointing from the fans' point of view and it is certainly disappointing from the players' point of view. The pitch as we look at it now looks OK, but when the referee went on it there was no true roll on the ball, there was indifferent bounces on the pitch, sometimes it was just sticking and sometimes it was bouncing.
To be fair, for the safety of the players and also for it to be a true game without any mistakes based on not bad judgement of football, but by a bad football pitch, it could end up costing you over the course of the season. So, it is probably the right decision, but we are disappointed, we get on with it and we will look forward now to Saturday.
JP
How revved up had you got the players for this game looking for that reaction after Saturday and will you be able to replicate that now for the weekend?
GK
Well, we will just have to, we analysed the game yesterday, we thought we actually did quite well in respect of chances created, but we weren't happy with the goals we conceded. We did a little bit of work on it yesterday and we were certainly looking to kick off tonight I suppose with a clean sheet mentality, and then obviously take the game from there. But, it hasn't happened, we now go into Saturday's game hopefully fresher, hopefully with an attitude of doing the same as we had prepared to do tonight, and hopefully get back to winning ways with three points against a Walsall side who are doing OK at the moment.
JP
Are there any nicks and knocks in the squad that you will actually benefit from having the extra time to get better?
GK
There have been one or two but nothing major, we sort of knew about them on Saturday so it is irrelevant, I don't think they will be fit.............. I think J-P (Jon-Paul McGovern) was one who I don't think was going to be fit for tonight, well he wasn't going to be fit for tonight and we don't think he is going to be fit for Saturday.
But, as we spoke about today just in relation to the squad, the same players are playing all the games so it might not be a bad thing just to give them a little bit of a breather, have a bit of a break from it. Albeit we were set to play tonight, it has not happened now, we have got to get on with it and we have got to prepare now for the game on Saturday. Hopefully the rest will do us the world of good.
JP
Life is full of ifs and maybes isn't it, but the fear for some fans will be now that you will wind up getting Bury when it is rearranged when they are in better form than they are at the moment. Because, they are really struggling aren't they?
GK
I know, and generally when you come here, in the years we have come here apart from last year when we got them early in the season and the pitch was lovely. The pitch actually looked very green tonight with a lot of grass on it, we certainly wouldn't like to be getting into the latter end of the season in March or April time when it is going to be a bobbly tough surface, and it will be difficult to actually pass the ball on.
So, from that point of view that is a real disappointing opportunity to play on a decent pitch which we felt it would have been if it hadn't rained. But, such is life, for whatever reason it has transpired to lash it down with rain tonight, I don't even think the forecast was down to rain as heavily as it did. But, as I said, the referee gave it every chance and looking by the sky at the minute it looks like it is going to continue for the rest of the evening.
JP
Do you have to do quite a lot of restructuring now with when the players are going to come in and that sort of thing after they didn't have this game. Would they have had tomorrow off for instance and then back in, how does that work out?
GK
Yeah, well over the last few weeks generally what we have done is when we have played at home we have had a warm-down and a cool-down the following day for the players who played, and the lads who haven't played have done extra. A little bit of extra running and a little bit of extra football just to keep on top of their fitness. We will have to now look at that in relation to what we are going to do tomorrow, if we are going to be in or we are going to be off. We will have a chat now with the gaffer (Greg Abbott) and see what the decision is and then whatever happens we will be good to go on Saturday.
JP
And it will be a completely different proposition to prepare for as well won't it, so all of the work that you have put in over the last few days goes out of the window at least for a while?
GK
Well, it doesn't really because when we go back to the way we played on Saturday, we spoke about the cohesion and the fluidity that we probably played with at times in the 4-3-3 system. Looking at the DVD yesterday we spotted one or two instances where we actually think we can improve, and regardless of who we were going to play tonight we were still going to have the same mindset, which was the clean sheet and having the foundation at the back that if we can build that platform, have that confidence in each other to know that we are not going to concede, then we always feel that we will create chances.
Obviously, it is up to the individual players to put the ball in the back of the net, but most successful teams, and we used Stevenage as the example last season, they conceded very few goals and managed to get where they needed to be. It is sometimes easier said than done achieving that, but the work as I have said that we did yesterday and the meeting we had this evening was all based on that. That is now where we are looking to rebuild again and to look to improve on for the forthcoming games, so the attitude won't change, I am sure that will still be the same and it is now looking forward to Saturday.