United manager Graham Kavanagh (GK) spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria's James Phillips (JP) following Carlisle's 0-0 League One draw away to Tranmere, Kavanagh saying the Blues were playing under difficult circumstances:
JP
What do you make of today then, real fight but not the three points you were looking for?
GK
No, it is obviously difficult circumstances that we are playing under now. There is a little bit of pressure and we are sort of running out of games. A difficult pitch, they started the better team no doubt about it, and we matched them for effort and work-rate but they had the two chances that mattered and they couldn’t take them. So, we felt that that may be the turn of the tide in the sense that we haven’t been getting too much of the rub of the green of late. I thought all credit to the players for sticking in and we could have nicked it at the end with a great chance for Gary Madine.
JP
A fantastic rally from the team, you must have been very worried after 15 minutes with the way it had started?
GK
I was yeah, I mean it was a 3-5-2 that we set out to play today and it became a 5-3-2 at times, which you never want because you can’t get in contention up at the top end of the pitch. That is the way it was the first 15 or 20 minutes and I think once we managed to get the full-backs more engaged higher up the pitch then we started to cause them one or two problems.
I think second-half we looked like the team that was probably going to have that little bit more quality. We didn’t as it happened, but I was really pleased with the efforts of the players and when they give you that work-rate and honesty that is all you can ask.
JP
The big talking point going into the game, the return of Gary Madine, what did you make of his impact today?
GK
Well, I thought he was excellent if I am being honest, I thought a player who is probably only 70% fit, he has obviously had a long period and a long spell out not playing. He has played I think four games, two 45s, one 60 and one 90 and it probably took its toll in the end. He was struggling, especially when he gets his chance, I think a fit Gary Madine puts that away without any doubt, or he certainly at least hits the target.
But, I thought his all-round honesty and effort and work-rate and getting down the line of the ball and winning flick-ons, pinning his man, holding the play up was very, very good. I think he is only going to get better over the coming weeks, we have a full week now to work with him and get some fitness into him and that is what we will look to do obviously.
JP
Was it fatigue towards the end or he looked like he might have done something to his groin, is that just because it was 90 minutes?
GK
No, his back locked through the week, again it is just because he hasn’t been playing and he just got a little bit of tightness, but I am sure he will be fine. I don’t foresee any problems in that area I am hoping.
JP
In terms of working with him, although you are playing against some of the more higher placed teams at the moment, he showed touches of quality that were above League One almost today didn’t he, and I guess you will hope you can get everyone playing with him and get the most out of him in these final seven games?
GK
Yeah, he did, and he has got very good game understanding, he has got good composure. As I said earlier, I think he is the one player in the squad who actually believes when he goes on the pitch and expects he is going to score all the time. That is the best quality you can have as a centre-forward, so we need to give him the opportunities, we probably didn’t create as many as we have done in recent games.
But, in saying that I thought the all-round performance was good, especially on a difficult and lively pitch, the pitches are starting to dry out now and there are a little bit few more bobbles on them, so you have probably got to take that extra care with them.
But, there were opportunities in the second-half where I felt we could have been a little bit better and a little bit more tidy with our passing, which would have resulted in us getting into their back four. But, as I have said already, with the youthfulness of the group and the inexperience, that pressure sometimes tells. But, they will come out of this no doubt stronger for it, I have no doubt about that.
JP
At any point earlier in the season you would say it was a great point here at Tranmere, but at this stage with so much at stake it is another game without a goal, I think it is two goals in seven games. Do you think that with the link-up play that Gary is going to bring to you that you are going to have that bit extra to get the goals flowing when you so desperately need them?
GK
I have got to haven’t I. I have got to. I am looking at the table there and there are a number of teams now on 40 points, so I think we have managed to pull one or two back in. Obviously, teams around us, the likes of Notts County are winning, they are obviously full of confidence at the moment. But, at some stage they have won three on the bounce now, at some stage you would think if they don’t win and they are still in and around us then they are going to start looking over their shoulder again.
There are a lot of ups and downs I am sure from now until the end of the season and as long as we keep giving our absolute maximum . We will get one or two fit I am hoping, Matty Robson saw the surgeon again on Friday and he had another couple of injections, so I am hoping that has improved his situation. I am hoping that David Amoo can possibly be fit and that gives us a real threat, especially on the counter with the pace. So, I am hopefully now going to start looking at having some options that I didn’t have in the previous few weeks.
JP
In terms of further into the game, beyond that first 15 minutes when there were little mistakes creeping in, Paul Thirlwell was really vociferous out there getting and holding some of the players to account. Is that what you get with him, you get that leader that you don’t always have in the team or certainly in that area?
GK
Yeah, most definitely, I man he is an organiser, a communicator, he lends his experience and he fills very good holes. It is no coincidence that balls drop in and around him all the time and he manages to get his foot or his head or his body on them, and he can control areas of the pitch without really having the ball.
So, with Thir a lot of the time it is his position out of possession, but then if we get the likes of Brad Potts and James Berrett and Danny Redmond in areas where we can threaten, I thought we did today in the second-half especially where we could have hit the target a little bit better or could have been a bit more composed about trying to hit the target.
I am stood here now with quite a few positives and certainly a pleasing clean sheet again, which we looked like we have stopped shipping in the goals. I know we weren’t shipping in goals, the 4-1 defeat at Notts County obviously affected us. We just now need to keep working on trying to be tight at the back, be effective in midfield and just be a bit more clinical in front of goal.
JP
You have got that whole week now, you mentioned there might be some good news, or you are hoping for a bit of good news on the injury front, have you picked up another one with Courtney Meppen-Walter?
GK
Yeah, I think it is just a dead leg, I don’t think it is anything too serious. He got a bang on it twice and just because I didn’t think he was going to be able to extend himself and run, I couldn’t take the risk. So, I thought Reece Brown came in and fair play to him, he hit the ground running straight away which is what we knew he needed to do.
JP
And something I have been asked to ask you, I know with the injuries you have certainly had bad luck, but is there anything the club can do differently do you think? I don’t know, the intensity of training or anything like that to try to limit the injuries or is it just bad luck?
GK
No, to be honest I think the injuries have been probably because we had such a small squad in the first part of the season. Thir and Matty Robson always have a calf problem and a back problem and they have done that for the last two or three years, so we knew that was going to be on the horizon. We have never got as many games out of Thir as we have successively this season, I thought maybe he would actually be able to continue, as it happened he didn’t.
Matty Robson obviously with his back problem which always rears its head, he was actually just picking the baby up and his back went, so you can’t legislate for that. Mark Gillespie dived awkwardly, landed on his knee in the Boreham Wood game, he has been out ever since. Pascal Chimbonda hasn’t had a pre-season so I knew he was always going to have niggles in and around his groins and his calves, he is 35 years of age.
Liam Noble gets done with a tackle over the top of the ball against Sheffield United away, which is the boy Harry Maguire. David Amoo gets a hamstring injury and to be fair to David he has played more games this season for our club than he has played consecutively for any other club. So, I don’t think it is the way we are training, we have definitely tailored off in the last few weeks.
We are only doing an hour now and then we are doing our gym work, in comparison to doing an hour and 20 or an hour and a half prior to Christmas to keep the fitness levels up. So, we are trying to manage the whole thing, we don’t have any sports science or analysis and all we do it off is the experience of our eyes. So, we gauge it as and when and I speak to some of the senior players and I get their feedback as to the intensity of the training session, and that is literally as much as we can do to be honest.
JP
These three games were sort of pencilled in by fans for we have got to get lots of points, nine points, seven points, you always talked about the ten games, some very tough games in this final seven, how confident are you there is going to be enough points in there for Carlisle?
GK
Well, what we have we got left now? Seven games, that is 21 points, we have performed against some of the better teams this season and got results where people didn’t expect us to. Will it be a little bit easier next week against Swindon? I doubt it, but it may be in the sense that there is no pressure on us. Nobody will expect us to beat them, we are at home, the fans who today by the way deserve a massive round of applause, they were absolutely top drawer.
I know the weather is a bit warmer by the way but I couldn’t believe that about 40 of them had their tops off and were bouncing around. There were some horrible sights I have to say, I saw one or two that weren’t particularly pretty but fair play to them, they got right behind the team. It just showed in the end, I said this in press conference earlier through the week, Gary Madine makes a run into the bottom corner, both calves go because he is stiff and tight, the fans start singing his name and Gary gets his chance straight after.
I don’t think that is coincidence, I think that is straight away with the input of the fans, with the energy that they give with the way they were bouncing around and singing in the stadium, that is exactly what we need in the home games. We need to excite them and hopefully get them on the edge of their seat and make them believe. But, if the players keep giving them that intensity and that honesty and that work then I have no doubt they will come and support us and get behind us and they will make a difference.