Greg Abbott - Radio Cumbria Interview

Last updated : 11 February 2010 By Thetashkentterror

Blues boss Greg Abbott
United boss Greg Abbott (GA) spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria's James Phillips (JP) at Friday morning's press conference for the local media, Abbott first talking a tough game for Carlisle at the Galpharm Stadium against Huddersfield tomorrow :


" February has started off tough and it is going to get tougher and it will test our quality and our strength of depth of squad. Hopefully we come out of the other end in a decent position but they are certainly some big games coming up.

" Huddersfield have got ten wins, four draws and no losses and have only conceded nine goals at home so it is the type of game we always seem to do alright in. So we look forward again with a positive manner, hoping we can go there, cause them problems and upset the applecart if you like.

" I am going to pick a team tomorrow that I think will cause them problems, that is what I will do. I don't get hyped up about systems and tactics and stuff like that. We play the way that we feel as a group that we have got available, what we have got available, and then we take that into the team we are playing. So we look at their strengths and weaknesses and we formulate what we think is the best system for that particular game, so tomorrow we will do exactly the same.

" I expect from Darryl Duffy and Ben Marshall the same kind of performance that they produced the other night. I thought Darryl up there on his own acting as a focal point for us was terrific. His work-rate is excellent, and what they are again, they are both good players by the way.

" They have both proved that in the short time Ben was on he proved that he could add us something. We have two wingers that have been playing game in and game out and we don't have a lot of strength in that position. They are good characters as well, they are good people, low maintenance, they just get on with it. "



" Which as a manager when you have got people like that, and we are getting more and more of that type in our dressing room, the job becomes so much easier. When we ask them to do something they do it, and we look after them and hopefully they look after us, and that is always going to give you a fighting chance.

" Gary (Madine) is going to be a little bit weak because he has not eaten for a couple of days and he has had a nice dose of sickness and the other thing. Joe (Anyinsah) is going to come in today, he has had an injection in his groin, the surgeons think it may work so he will be thrown back into the training today.

" We probably think tomorrow will come too early for him because it takes time to settle down. But if it works it might get us through to the end of the year, if he gets any recurrence of the situation he will have to probably go under the surgeon's knife, which probably rules him out for the majority of what is left of the season. So we are a bit fingers crossed because we thought we had got Joe into a situation where he was looking very, very good.

" I am talking about the group of players we have got at the minute. We have got 20-odd players, so we have got a strong enough squad, we have got numbers, we talk about them. I am talking about the players I have got here and they are the group that I have got training today.

" We have got a decent squad now and I am not joking when I say we have got 23 players that are available to train today. That is a healthy number, Scott Dobie is back in the mix, Gary Madine is back in the mix, Joe Anyinsah is back in the mix on Tuesday. So all of a sudden you are three strikers better off than you were four days ago. "