United caretaker manager Graham Kavanagh (GK) spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria's James Phillips (JP) following Carlisle's 2-1 League One win at home to Notts County, Kavanagh saying that there has been a massive response from players, staff and fans alike:
JP
A Freudian slip there from Paul Newton, he called you the manager then quickly corrected it to caretaker, we wonder how much longer it will be now?
GK
I don’t know, I mean obviously it is three games and three wins now and there has been a huge and massive response from the players, the staff and to be honest the fans as well. The fans have been different class in the two home games, got right behind us and we have managed to get the wins. So, I think it puts a little bit of pressure maybe on the directors and the chairman, but it is a good headache I am sure they have.
JP
I chat to a steward before every game and he loves a moan, and he was one of those that wasn’t convinced that you were the right man but he has turned around as well, I think a lot of people have come around and I suppose results and the way the team is playing and the way the feeling is around Brunton Park now will always help change people’s minds?
GK
Like I said, it is trying to change people’s opinions and the easiest way to do it is obviously results, but you also try to do it with obviously the way I come across in the interviews and the media and different bits and pieces. But, effectively how you play and today wasn’t a particularly brilliant performance in terms of fluent football, certainly from our point of view anyway, I mean there was a lot of good football played by Notts County.
I had a go at the players at half-time because I didn’t think we had the same energy levels we have had in the previous two games. In the second-half we rode our luck a bit but we earned that with the hard work that they have put in, not just today but over the three weeks.
JP
Forgetting the link with it, the three wins back to Greg Abbott, nobody had done that for Carlisle since 2008, John Ward on that run of six games I think he won, so there is the challenge for you. But, what does it feel like to get the sort of consistency that three wins on the trot brings?
GK
It is a fabulous feeling now obviously, I mean today, I have just had a quick chat with the staff there, and today is probably the day I have felt the most exhausted. It was a to and fro game and they had a lot more possession, I wouldn’t like to see the stats, I thought they were very good, I think they are a very, very good side. I think Chris Kiwomya is a very, very good manager and I hope he gets the time to do it because they will cause an awful lot of teams problems.
He is a very good football man with an awful lot of integrity and I think he deserves a good crack at it, and I think it will only be a matter of time before they turn it around. I just said to him at the end of the game, I didn’t think we actually deserved to win the game, but obviously you take it and I am just really, really pleased.
JP
That is football isn’t it that occasionally that happens to teams, you don’t quite get what you deserve out of the match. But, that said what does it say about your team that when you were under a lot of pressure from Notts County they were able to resist them, because they had plenty of quality?
GK
They have got a lot of quality all across the pitch and they have got quality coming off the bench, but every Wednesday we have been watching videos of how good we can be and how good we can be in particular areas. Especially the units up and down the pitch with the goalkeeper and the back four, the midfield three or four or whatever it may be and the top two or three in whatever the system is.
You can be really good without the ball, you can be really good at sliding and closing and denying space and also giving information. The word we keep coming back to is intelligence, and if you play with intelligence and you play with honesty and hard work then in this league it gives you chances. I said to them, if they do manage to break our lines, which at times they are going to, we have got an excellent goalkeeper who can keep the ball out of the net, and I thought Mark Gillespie was absolutely magnificent today.
JP
Well, let’s talk more about him, he got man of the match, very clear why?
GK
Yeah, I mean Mark, I think when you talk to goalkeeping coaches and you speak about potential, it is very easy to say that he is a good shot stopper or he is this or he is that, but Mark is a very, very level-headed individual to start with. He has got a very good temperament for a goalkeeper, he is extremely hard-working, he is extremely dedicated and he is very critical of himself, which is a good thing.
Not in the way that it affects his confidence, but in the way he is always looking to improve, and the early part of the season when we lost a couple of games he was probably even man of the match then. But, I said to the boys at the back, that being said if we are going to concede chances then you should take confidence from the fact that we have got such a good keeper in goal.
So, he hasn’t had too much to do in the last two weeks but his concentration levels have been very high and I thought they were outstanding today. I thought he got the little bit of luck that he needed because there was an awful lot of opportunities on our goal.
JP
What is the situation with Liam Noble’s injury and him having to come off, that is another blow as you have already had a couple of injury problems going into the game?
GK
Well, I mean we have had a couple this week and we have had to adjust. Troy Archibald-Henville being out I thought was going to be a big loss, but Danny came in and did well. Then Mark Beck came in as a replacement for Lee Miller and I thought that was going to be a big loss, so there was some disruption but again, I have said it all along, we need a big squad and we need a squad that is capable of competing in any game we play.
You need replacements to come off the bench or to come into the set-up and know exactly what their duty is within the team. We have been doing an awful lot of work within the shape of the eleven, but I have been asking the players who haven’t been involved to pay special attention, if they can affect the game coming off from the bench it is important that they do that. So, they are all getting behind it at the moment and confidence is now going to be extremely high going into next week’s game, so we look forward to that.
JP
Lee Miller couldn’t make it today after coming off last week, any sort of timescale on how long we might be missing him for?
GK
Well, it looks like he has a grade two tear of his calf, I think it is two and a half centimetres. It depends how quickly it heals really, I think the length of time at the moment is looking to be about four weeks, and he is obviously already a week into that. So, if we can get him back quicker then brilliant, but I think today I would like to focus on the players that played and just say a big thank you to them. Because, it has been difficult, the first six games the confidence was hugely affected and they have managed to turn it around and they have shown how good they can be.
JP
Have you any idea what Liam has done and any idea on how long that might keep him out for at this stage?
GK
No, I mean he has damaged his thigh, not sure if he has pulled it or strained it or just got a knock, I am not too sure. But, he was struggling and he certainly wasn’t himself early in the game, but hopefully he gets that sorted and we have him for next weekend.
JP
And I know you did want to focus on today’s game, but with Troy missing of course what was the last game of his loan from Swindon is there any further news on that? Are you hopeful or have you managed to extend it?
GK
No, there are sort of one or two issues that we are trying to get to the bottom of and see if we can, and if we can then we would love to have him. But, he has been a massive part of what we have done and a massive part of the two wins previous. So, he is certainly somebody we would love to keep, but I think there is a lot of work to be done on that one.
JP
And in the terms of the feeling of everyone today when all the work has come together in this sort of way, three very different wins but three wins on the trot, what was the atmosphere like at full-time with all your players?
GK
For me it was relief because I couldn’t wait to see the end of the game. As I said, I thought Notts County were different class today, I thought their system really affected us, they were very brave to push the full-backs on and create the overload out wide, and their central midfield player dropped in and caused us problems.
But, once we got the second goal you know that the mentality within a team who is struggling at the bottom of the league is going to feel very down. But, I thought all credit to them, they kept going, they were getting chances and I couldn’t wait for the clock to run down, so just relief. But, in the dressing room the boys are extremely pleased, I just had to remind them again about the work-rate and the honesty and the intelligence which we need to play at, and they need to put in those demands.
They can’t keep coming from the staff all the time, they need to put those demands on each other, let’s not be talking about two or three or four wins, let’s be looking longer term and seeing if we can get a run going and start looking at the top end of the table rather than the bottom.
JP
And just a final one from me, have the board said to you anything or have they told you their thoughts on this on-going process as to whether they are going to appoint you or someone else as manager? Have they given you an indication of when they might make their mind up?
GK
Well, they want to meet me on Monday, so I am hoping it is here’s the job. I am not taking it for granted but I am hoping that may be what it is, but I think we probably couldn’t have done as a staff and as a group any more than we have already done.
But, either way, I mean I will just look at it now and prepare for next week, focus the minds of the players come Tuesday , we will have a good week of training again, and as I say, the previous three games now are gone, they don’t count for anything, it is what happens going forward. That is the message we will send, but if they want to be reminded that it is three in three and they want to give me the job then I will shout it from the rooftops.