United manager Graham Kavanagh (GK) spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria's James Phillips (JP) following Carlisle's 0-0 League One draw at home to Stevenage, Kavanagh saying he thought it was a great performance from the Blues:
JP
Everything but the goal today?
GK
Yeah, I thought it was a great performance, I thought we got everything bar the goal. We were the more energetic team, we were the team that was always on the front foot, we took the game to the opposition, we created loads of chances but we just couldn’t put the ball in the net.
JP
Did you go at it differently today, it seemed a lot more direct at times, really trying to get up to their goalmouth but you just couldn’t quite find the way in?
GK
No, it wasn’t so much that we didn’t pass the ball, the pitch is now playing very difficult and it is difficult playing through the lines now because there is a little bit of pressure, there is a little bit of anxiety obviously if you give the ball away in the wrong areas. So, we did try to pass it, we tried to get the ball up to Lee Miller and Sam Byrne, obviously we played the extra man up top today which we felt would push their two back, and we didn’t have that extra man in the middle of the pitch incase we did lose it to give us that insurance.
So, it was just the way the game went, I thought we got into areas that we were going to cause them problems, we had so many chances, probably enough to win three games. But, it wasn’t to be, disappointed, some of the fans were a little bit frustrated which I understand. But, really, really pleased with the performance, just the result in the end wasn’t what we would have wanted, but it is certainly not a crisis by any shape or form.
JP
We talked about whether results become more important and we were chatting about whether them performances………. And we were chatting about is there a way to make one happen without the other, is there anything else you can do, is there anything else you can sacrifice to go hellbent in search of a goal?
GK
Yeah, we can put five at the top end of the pitch and go five at the back and just hope for the best, and then we can just go and have a ding-dong and just see who knocks each other out. That would be foolish at this stage of the season with eleven games to go. We have made it difficult for ourselves with the start we had and we are now obviously paying the price because we are in the position we are in. But, in the same token we are sort of backs to the wall if you like, there is a little bit of pressure on each game that will mount, but I thought the lads handled it particularly well today.
We get another injury to Pascal Chimbonda, which is just incredible, but we keep going. We have got young players playing, it is one of the youngest teams we have ever fielded, you take Lee Miller and you take Pascal out of the team and the average age is probably 19 or 20. So, for what they are giving us, the energy levels, the honesty, the work-rate with such inexperience has been top drawer, so I couldn’t fault them all today.
JP
Have you got enough mental toughness in there with all the youngsters that you have got there lacking the experience for this run-in now, it is going to be a fight right to the wire it seems?
GK
Well, I think we have showed it today, I think we have answered that the lads are prepared to do the work, as long as they are prepared to do the work I am sure they will make mistakes, but they will be honest mistakes. I am very, very pleased with the energy levels and what they have given us, and hopefully if we can get one or two of the senior players back then we will add that little bit more composure in the key areas.
JP
The fans and the media are talking up this month of March with these games, of which there are three left now, you have got a point today, do you see it that way or are you very much looking at the remaining ten games that you have got now rather than clutches of them where you think you might need to get points there or here?
GK
I have said all along, every single game is important and you take it one game at a time. The next game is the most important game of our season now and the one after that will be even more important and so on and so on until we get enough points that it is going to keep us in the league. But, if I was to sit here now and put all the pressure on the next three games and we weren’t to win, are we just going to throw the towel in? No, we are not.
So, we are capable as we have shown across the board this season that against the top teams we can get results. They all have different importance attached to them whether they are top six or the middle of the table or the bottom of the table. We still seek to get three points and we still seek to get points on the board, whether it be three or whether it be one. But, as I say, if they give us what they gave us today and the manner in which they gave it with that little bit of luck and that little bit of quality in front of goal.
I mean, it was a nailed on red card for me [for Darius Charles] and if that is on a different day then you are playing against ten men, they are away from home, the pressure is on them. You would feel then that they would be more camped in, but I have seen our players getting sent off for a hell of a lot less and disappointed with it. But, you have got to get on with it, how many times have we said it this season that we have been unlucky with referees, but we have got to keep going and crack on.
JP
It did look that way didn’t it, and when you compare it to the yellow card Brad Potts got in the second half, it was a body check, it was a good foul I suppose you would say, but compare it to the tackle from Darius Charles if you can call it that, you just can’t see how they can get the same punishment?
GK
Well, I am not sure what the rules are any more to be honest, because I know you are not allowed to show your studs when you go into a tackle and I know you are not allowed to have your foot raised with a straight leg. Because, the intention, whether you go for the ball or not, if you miss the ball and catch the player then you are breaking somebody’s leg. So, it is a nailed on red card and he [referee James Adcock] doesn’t give it and I just find myself scratching my head to be honest.
The fourth official [Paul Kettlewell] is right where we are and he doesn’t see it either for some reason. So, frustrating but I am not blaming the referee, it is just sort of the way things have been for us this season. We have created enough chances to win the game today and we just didn’t kill the game off and we didn’t get that first goal. So, that is the only disappointing aspect but everything else I thought was very, very good.
JP
Pascal Chimbonda tried manfully to battle on, what is the situation, what has he done?
GK
He has got a problem with his calf, until we have a scan on it I am not sure what extent of damage there is.
JP
Thankfully you have not got many injuries, so it is not a tough one for you to deal with?
GK
A few fans just ended up having a go at me just before when I made the substitution with Danny Redmond coming off. Danny is a brilliant kid with tremendous potential, but he has played a run of games that he hasn’t played in a long, long time and it is catching up with him a little bit. That is fine, I understand that, so I decided to put David Amoo to the left and put David Symington onto the right.
I thought it would work but it didn’t, so there is a little bit of frustration around the stadium and I absolutely understand that because they pay good money and they want us to win, and absolutely fair play to them. So, if they keep coming and they keep giving us stick but they keep supporting us then I will take that all day long.
There were two kids at half-time actually, I said I would mention them, Joel and Lewis who gave me a nice little pep talk at half-time in saying how well we were playing and we should be battering them and that we were too good not to stay up, and I had to remind them that nobody is too good not to stay up, you have to do the work. But, they are two nice kids so it was nice to have a chat with them to be fair.
JP
Nice to hear that they cheered you up, defensively a clean sheet today, just beaten by a stray goal in the two games before that as well, but just one goal in four games scored now, and you can’t have had many more people upfront so what needs to happen, is it just a bit of luck, is it one in off the backside to get you going?
GK
Well, we just need to keep creating those chances and I am sure that it will turn for us. Jordan Pickford has had one save to make in the whole game and their keeper [Chris Day] has had quite a few. James Berrett has had a tremendous shot, the keeper has tipped it over, Sam got through one on one and the lad gets back and makes a clearance.
I just felt we were totally in the ascendency, we were totally on the front foot and we were always the team that looked like we were going to penetrate their goal. At the very end when we get the header and it hits the ground and Lee comes across the keeper and looks like he is going to head it in, and he just managed to get too much on it and it goes over the bar. It is little small details, but it is what it is, we worked yesterday on set-pieces and we asked Sam to pull off to the back stick if our players were attacking the ball and won the header.
Lee wins it first-half and Sam would generally have a tap-in, and I said to him that is where the top strikers get their ten or eleven or twelve goals a season just in that area alone and they are bread and butter for a striker. So, we have got kids doing men’s jobs with little experience but giving their absolute maximum, and I don’t think you can ever criticise anybody for that.
JP
And how key will a good week now, not off because obviously you will be training, but how key will a good week without a game be to try to patch up some of those damaged bodies?
GK
Well, I am hoping to have one or two of the senior ones back, I am not sure whether they will be or not but that week will certainly give them a good recovery time if we can get some work done with them. Maybe then they will sort of come into consideration for next weekend, that would really please me and it would also gee up the rest of the group I am sure. Because, again we would have competition for places with experienced players who understand the role and understand what it takes to get out of this situation. So, hopefully that is the case.