United boss Greg Abbott (GA) spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria's James Phillips (JP) following Carlisle's 2-0 victory at Gigg Lane against Bury, Abbott saying that the Blues started the game fantastically well :
JP
You must be very happy with that performance and result today?
GA
Yeah, we are happy with the way the week has ended, I thought we worked tremendously hard midweek, Tuesday, sometimes get a reaction from that in terms of energy but I thought we started the game fantastically well and then we have ended the game really, really well. Albeit until you get a second goal it is still in the melting pot, but I thought we deserved to win the game overall, over the 90 minutes of play, and the pleasing thing now is that we have got our first win out of the way and people can just relax a little bit, calm down and let us try to drive on and try to get some more points.
JP
What do you think was so different about this performance? You created so many chances throughout the game today?
GA
Yeah, if you take the football aside of it I thought we challenged for every single ball, we never let Bury have a run at it. Last week we never got close enough to Notts County, they made every tackle and every header and every challenge, today we competed, we competed really, really well and that is the pleasing thing about the performance, that the reaction was from Oldham and today that we are not going to lie down and just accept second best. I thought we were determined to be first best today and I thought we were.
JP
It must have been very pleasing for you, I know you have just touched on this, but you said in the build-up to this game, you wanted the team to be more confrontational, more in the faces, and you really got that from your players?
GA
Yeah, well I have been confrontational since Saturday really to be honest, and that is my job to be Mr Nice Guy when I need to be and to be Mr Angry when I want to be, and I can do both quite easy. It is not pleasant when you get off to a start like we did but it is a little bit more pleasant now than it was. There is a long, long way to go in this season, there are going to be loads more ups and downs and sob stories, but as long as I get effort like that and belief and backing form everybody then there will be no qualms from our football club.
We know we are not the best side in the league maybe, but we think when everybody is flying and everybody is right we are match for anybody and we can compete with everybody and today, and to be fair let's take nothing away from the result today, Bury have been flying, they are full of confidence, they have got the bounce from last season, they have started the season brilliant, great result at Huddersfield last week and then they beat Coventry in the midweek. So, they are flying and we have come and I think we have made them look second best for a lot of the game today and I hope I am alright in saying that I think we deserved to win the game.
JP
What about your debutant at right-back (James Tavernier)? A very competent display from a young man looking to make strides in the Football League?
GA
Yeah, I have just told him that another 596 games like that and he can declare himself as a decent player. But, he was alright, he was very, very good, he was composed, made one mistake and that was in the last minute of the game when he tried to take everybody on and lost the ball and we are up against it. But, we competed well enough to get it back and he will learn from it, he looked composed and looked like he had been playing there all his life.
JP
A bit of a decision for you to make as to whether to bring Lubo Michalik back in, he looked like he was still playing international football in there today?
GA
For who?
JP
For anyone.
GA
He looked like an international footballer did he? Yeah, at times he did and at times he looked like a 5-a-side park player as well, don't give him too much credit. Listen, the big man has done great, he has been away, he has had his taste of international football, I need him to be a brute, a leader and a colussus for us.
Today he touched on that at times, I still think there is more to come, I want him to be the dominant force in that back four where people think how are we going to get round that? Today at times he did it, I still think he should have thrown himself and his body for the header to get the goal, and somebody his size shouldn't be getting done there, but we will give a seven or an eight out of ten if you want.
JP
Yeah, I had forgotten that header at that end, also a product of I guess Lubo coming back in meant Danny Livesey had to miss out, do you have to manage a bit of disappointment there?
GA
Yeah, manage. I am always going to have to manage disappointment, Stephen O'Halloran is disappointed, Liam Noble is disappointed, Andy Welsh is disappointed but they are all happy now because the team has won. As a manager I was disappointed last week, but I didn't want to show any fear or any panic or any changing of things, radical changes in one week, seven days of a season. I can't do that, my staff said to not do that, and I said I didn't want to do it. we believe in the group, we believe in the whole 20 players and today every 20 in there is rejoicing their first win and they have worked hard for it.
JP
It is a bit of vindication as well for keeping calm isn't it? A lot of fans thought that you would change to 4-4-2, thought Welsh would be in there, you have stuck to your guns and it has paid off?
GA
We changed the system three times in the game today and that is the key to the squad we are trying to assemble. It was working first-half because we could have been three or four-nil up in the first half an hour, and that was playing with our favoured shape. Then we changed it to 4-4-2 and we changed it to 4-3-3 at the end, so let's just say that we haven't got a preferred system, we have got systems we hope we can use to win games, today we won it and we won it and looked the better side I think, I hope I am right in saying that, I hope Bury don't mind me saying that, but that is the way I feel.
JP
And how do you sort of gather that up now and make sure you keep that sort of level of performance for the game on Tuesday?
GA
Probably more of what we have been doing for the last 18 months to two years, and that is convince the players they are a good group when they do all the things that we ask them to do and they show the commitment and the drive that they have shown Tuesday and today.
JP
I must ask you as well about the fans, a quarter of the attendance here today Cumbrian, what a fine effort it was from them?
GA
Well, you know we don't like letting them down do you on their travels and when they pay their money and they come a long way, we don't like letting them down. Today they have had a nice day out in the sun and they have seen us play particularly well and they have seen us create a lot of chances. The one at the end if Craig (Curran's) goes in, 3--0, reverses last week and everybody is happy days, but I think they will probably give us the benefit of the doubt with the last goal and everybody will be OK.