Greg Abbott - Radio Cumbria Interview

Last updated : 20 November 2009 By Thetashkentterror

Blues boss Greg Abbott
United boss Greg Abbott (GA) spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria's Paul Newton (PN) and James Phillips (JP) on Friday evening before Carlisle's League One game at home to Swindon tomorrow, Abbott first talking about the latest situation regarding the Brunton Park pitch given the recent dreadful weather :



PN

How is the pitch looking tonight?

GA

It is not bad, it is better than it was at about 12 o'clock midday. I think they have cleared most of the water off it, so what looked to be in a bit of doubt is OK now. There is a pump there that has pumped all the water back into the river, and the fish are now swimming where they should be and we can play football where we should be playing I think.

PN

Let's hope so, so, tonight as it stands the club are fairly confident this game will go ahead?

GA

Yeah I believe so, we have only just left the ground five minutes ago and it looked fine, so I think we should be A-OK. Hopefully there will be no more heavy, heavy rain and really confident now the game is going to be OK.

PN

Let's hope so, what about any injury concerns tonight?

GA

No, nothing new. We are OK injury-wise, we have got the long-term ones, Paul Thirlwell and little Bridgey (Marc Bridge-Wilkinson) and David Raven out. But apart from that Peter Murphy is fine, he has come through training yesterday and today so we are near enough at full strength, with taking those two out of the equation.

JP

How much of a blow is Andy Cook's injury to the club, but also to him at this stage?

GA

It is more of a blow to him because he is getting his football sorted out, he is getting a good level of football, he is scoring goals at a nice level. We wanted to throw him forward and see how he develops and see where he is coming out at. It has just set him back but he is only a young player, a period of four or five weeks might seem a long time but he has got plenty of time to get over that and get back playing football.





JP

Ahead of this weekend's game, you are still involved in two cup competitions, is there a real concern for you as a manager that that can have an affect on your league form when it is obviously so important to you?

GA

Not really, I think if you start categorising games and we want to do well in that and we are not bothered about doing well in that, you run the risk of shooting yourself in the foot. We just want to win games and if that means progressing in cups, brilliant, I think sometimes the players prefer to play games than they do actually the training.

So, we have got loads of games coming up, we are just enjoying the little runs we have had in the cup. We are trying to pick up our league form and bar the Bristol Rovers thing we have been doing that. So, I don't think it is a problem to me at all and I don't think it is to the players.

If you ask them what they would rather do, they would say they would rather be playing games. When you get yourselves within sight of Wembley and those big cup games in the FA Cup and the possibility of being in the hat for the third round when the big boys come in, I think they would take that all day long.

JP

What do you expect from the match against Swindon then tomorrow if it goes ahead? Which we all hope it will at Brunton Park.

GA

I really do think it is going ahead so we will be looking at definitely having a fixture on our hands. I just think it will be a really tough game against a good side who like to play football, like to pass it around. Danny Wilson has always got his teams playing decent football but he has had good resources to work with at the start of the season. I think he has brought in good players and I think we are expecting a really good tough hard game. But it is one that we think we can get a really positive result out of.

JP

Who are a few of those good players who you think the fans should be looking out for tomorrow?

GA

Well they have got Jonathan Douglas who has Premiership pedigree. They have got Alex Revell upfront who has got good form and back down from Brighton and Southend. Billy Paynter always gets his fair share of goals, they have got a lad on loan (Simon Ferry), and they have got another one from Celtic, (Ben) Hutchinson who is a decent player.

They are good wide players but we have got good players as well, but I just think that the game is set up to be a really decent one. Because I think both teams at the minute are in a decent run of form and we just look at our players performing like they have done against Southend and Charlton and to an extent Bristol Rovers even, and we think we have got a great chance of winning it.





JP

Must just go back to the incident between Tom Taiwo and Danny Livesey on Tuesday. How are the two players with each other after that?

GA

Well they are actually room-mates and whenever we go away from home they are room-mates. They sit together on the coach, they sit together in the dressing-room and nothing has changed since then. I think things sometimes get a little blown up, they are the best of mates and they were before the game and they still were mates during the game.

They were arguing over something that happened in the game which is their job, they have got their job at heart. Straight away at half-time they were the best of mates, then they went out in the second-half and they were back on top form again. So, I really think it is absolutely nothing to, well it isn't anything to worry about.

They just had a difference of opinion on the pitch which happens all day long in football and they are getting on with it now. But we laugh about it because we are saying to Danny Livesey - you are really lucky that Tom didn't completely lose his temper and stick one on you, he is a little fighting bull is Tom Taiwo.

JP

I bet he thought he could have tackled him, he tackles most things.

GA

Yeah he did, no they are fine.

JP

I know that you have been quite surprised to hear that some fans haven't been entirely convinced by Vincent Pericard. In your opinion how important is he to the team?

GA

Well I just think at the minute since he has been in the team we have been winning games and he has been a real handful for the opposition defences. He is a real good foil for the other players. People were saying on the night on Tuesday that he didn't play particularly well but he wasn't on his own on Tuesday night.

I think it is wrong to single anybody out for criticism or praise because there are other players that have done really well that were not at their best in terms of performance the other night. But what Vince does is he does a really unselfish role in terms of holding the ball up and dragging one or two defenders towards him and opening up spaces or gaps for other players.

He is a real handful for defenders and if you speak to the Bristol Rovers chairman (Nick Higgs) and other people about him, they were saying really big things about him. How much he takes and the pressure off other players and how much of a threat he is in terms of defenders having to mark him.

So, he has done a really good job for us and I think, I was very surprised to be honest about the criticism. He still needs to score more goals, that is something I have talked to him about, he has had a couple of good chances. But his general all-round play up to Tuesday night I think has been excellent.