United manager Graham Kavanagh (GK) spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria's James Phillips (JP) following Carlisle's 2-1 League One defeat away to Port Vale, Kavanagh saying it was a disappointing afternoon for the Blues:
JP
What did you make of that one out there today, so many chances to make it 2-0 and kill this game off and somehow you wind up losing?
GK
Yeah, it is a very disappointing afternoon in terms of the result. I thought the lads gave their all but it wasn’t to be today. We battled away today, we didn’t play as well as we probably have done, we didn’t pass the ball well enough on a very difficult surface which was very lively and very bobbly.
But, we definitely created the chances to certainly go 2-0 up but we didn’t take them. We got caught on the sucker punch, we had a great opportunity to put the ball away and we don’t and they go up the other end and score, and you can see the morale of the team is a little bit affected, and it is disappointing without a doubt.
JP
Approaching the hour mark it looked like the classic away performance, you were defending rigidly, you had got your goal, what do you think happened then?
GK
Well, goals change games and they change mentalities, I have said that all season. They were probably the better team in the first 15 to 20 minutes, they were a little bit more direct than us, and we struggled to pass the ball on a difficult pitch, but we looked defensively sound.
We get the goal from a set-piece and we go in at half-time, the tails are up, pretty confident, we have had a good week and you think we will kick on. I thought we did in terms of the chances we created, and they were getting deeper and deeper towards their goal which was pleasing me.
I looked around and their manager [Micky Adams] was making three substitutions, that is always a good sign, right at that moment we had a chance with Liam Noble to put it in the bottom corner and the keeper [Chris Neal] gets a hand to it and saves it and they go up the other end and score and he decides not to make the changes. So, that is the margins we are working on at the moment but it is tough, we have got a very young group who are giving their all. Disappointing, but we go again next week.
JP
Everything is relative of course, last week a great performance, great match but you lose ground on the relegation places, this week you do get beaten and it is disappointing, but you lose no ground at all. But, I suppose on the other hand it could have been five points the gap tonight?
GK
Well, it could have been yeah, it is an opportunity missed, it most definitely is and it feels like that at the minute. We will have to dust ourselves down and we go again Monday, the lads and the dressing room is disappointed but on many occasions this season they have produced performances.
We have pulled together as a team, we have reacted to disappointment and we have got good results. That is exactly what we need to do now this week. So, it is a big week coming up which we knew it was before this game, disappointing we couldn’t take anything from it but again, we have an opportunity to put it right on Wednesday.
JP
What did you make of the manner in which you conceded the goals, two in three minutes obviously but they both seemed to come from crosses didn’t they which weren’t quite dealt with?
GK
Well, the first one wasn’t a cross, the first one was a long ball which was chased down and then he [Ben Williamson] cut inside. We sold ourselves on the outside and we gave him an opportunity to come inside onto his stronger foot and get a shot away, which is everything we spoke about during the week in terms of their wide players, if it was Jennison Myrie-Williams on one side and Williamson on the other.
I am not sure who scored, I think it might actually have been Doug Loft who scored [ed – it was Ben Williamson], but we should have forced him wide of the goal and we didn’t. It is a lack of concentration, I think maybe that is a little bit hard but it is probably a little bit of desperation because we are desperate to get that win. But, it is a mistake, with the makeshift defence that we have had for a long period of time and with players playing out of position, we are just making the most of the situation, it worked last week and it didn’t work this week.
JP
It is easy to criticise those two goals in that span of time, but what would you do as a manager, you would change the personnel, you would change the shape, you don’t have that option, is that really crucial now that you get yourself that extra bit of depth, it is possible this week?
GK
Well, it is definitely easy to get players in, that is an easy thing to do, but it is getting the right players in, it is getting the players that are going to make a difference to the group. I have been working tirelessly up and down the country looking at games and exploring all the contacts we have to get players in.
But, at this time of the year nobody wants to let their players out and I understand that. But, we will we endeavour to keep trying to improve, we will keep working hard, we will keep working with the players we have, and if we can bring one or two in well then that is what we will do.
JP
Sheffield United in the week, that is one of those games where they are in such good form, going to Bramall Lane is always tricky, one of those where you can almost just go there and see what happens isn’t it?
GK
I thought you were trying to cheer me up there.
JP
It is one of those big games though where Carlisle historically seem to really raise their game?
GK
Yeah, we will raise our game, I am sure we will. I watched them last week, they are a good team in good form, full of confidence, energy, belief. But, they are certainly not world-beaters, that is a fact and I have seen opportunities that I feel we can exploit. The only disappointment I had today was when we did go 2-1 down we became disjointed as a team, we became a 4-2-4 which I didn’t want, I wanted us to become a 4-4-2.
For some reason the two wide players played much higher up the pitch, their back four occupied our four up the top and their midfield four picked up the second balls against our two, our two being Noble and Brad Potts. We get another injury today with James Berrett which is a bit of a nightmare, but our midfield two endeavoured and worked and tried and scrapped as much as they could.
But, they lacked that experience at times and Bez gives us that and Paul Thirlwell gives us that, so it is what it is but I think everybody needs to be more clever in the way we defend as a team and just a little bit more compact. We are away from home, so you need to understand the circumstances with which we are playing. So, there is lots to work on, there is obviously lots of disappointment right at this moment, but there is a big game to look forward to on Wednesday and we will prepare on Monday and go again.
JP
As soon as he looked frustrated coming off, Chris Lumsdon said immediately in commentary that James Berrett is an injury, it is not about coming off, so any idea, is it a flare-up of the same problem he had?
GK
No, no, no. It is a quadriceps problem, I think he has got………… I wasn’t sure if he had pulled his quad or he had got a dead leg, I think he has got a dead leg. But, the fact that we kept him on for the few minutes that we did because we didn’t have a great deal of options from the midfield on the bench, other than Jack Lynch who hasn’t played for four months.
So, I was going to put him on and I thought it would be a big ask of him and then I thought his fitness might be a question with half an hour to go in the game, so it probably would have been unfair. So, I decided to go with a little bit more experience with Lewis Guy and it didn’t work, although it nearly worked, we did create chances but we just couldn’t put them in the net.
So, yeah it is disappointing and it is frustrating but with ten or eleven games to go we have got to to just put it to bed now. We have got to dust ourselves down as I keep saying and just have a very positive feeling around the club in the forthcoming weeks.
JP
You have talked very honestly about a lot of things and you are disappointed, just a highlight from the game if you can talk about it, what a superb ball in from James and a great header and a great first goal for Courtney Meppen-Walter?
GK
Yeah, well I said to Courtney yesterday that he has had a clean sheet last weekend, can he put a consistent performance back to back, him and Dave Symington, and if Courtney is going to go up can he got himself on the end of something. Because, there have been times he has gone up and he has headed them over, but today he gets on the end of it, a great ball in, a great header and it was a really pleasing start.
I was hoping we could obviously build on that and get the second goal, which would have given us real belief. But, away from home it wasn’t to be today and it is a little bit sour and a little bit sore I would say. But, it is what it is and we have just got to definitely get on with it.
JP
And then a big game coming up at the weekend, we have got Sheffield United in the week but then Stevenage at home, that is a huge one now coming up?
GK
To be honest I am not really bothered about the opposition that we play because I think they are all big games now. We know where we are in the table, we know what we need to do in terms of points, we know that we need to look after ourselves in terms of getting wins and we certainly know we need to defend better in the key moments.
For long periods today we did but we became ragged and disjointed, which won’t be acceptable and it can’t be because the consequences of that is that we won’t win games. So, we will work on it as I say, we will try to get some bodies in and we will try to freshen the group up if we can, but we lost three points today and that is all we lost.
JP
Any hope of getting anything in ahead of the game on Wednesday?
GK
Well, yeah, I am hoping.
JP
I know you have said you could get anyone in?
GK
I am always hoping but it is getting the right one in. So, I will be on the phone this evening and all day tomorrow and we will see if anybody comes in for Monday?
JP
And what about Danny Redmond and Jordan Pickford as well, two whose loans expire I think I am right in saying after this one, are you hopeful of extending them and do you want to extend them?
GK
Yeah, I want to extend both of them, yeah. I spoke to Wigan who are very keen for us to carry on with Danny, which is great. Jordan is the same but we are just obviously relying on what happens to Sunderland’s goalkeeping situation because at any moment he can be pulled back.
Mark Gillespie has been away this week at St George’s Park getting some work that is much needed. I am hoping that is a positive when he does come back, but we definitely need to have Jordan available for as long as possible and performing at the top of his game.