United boss Greg Abbott (GA) spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria's James Phillips (JP) following Carlisle's 1-1 League One draw away to Crawley, Abbott saying it was a tremendous point for the Blues:
JP
Your feelings after that game tonight?
GA
Terrific, it was a tremendous point, a lot of travel, a big reaction after a tough game on Saturday as well on another heavy pitch. It is a long journey down here, we don’t to talk about it before because we don’t want to put it in the players’s mindsets. But, they have really put in a shift, they have really shown everybody that they don’t want to lose and they don’t want to concede goals. It was a terrific defensive display at times and we are a little bit…………
Couldn’t get hold of it sometimes at times second-half upfront to give us that attacking play that we had first-half. But, we have come here and we have got what you need to do, we played probably and didn’t quite create as much as we did on Saturday and we have got a point tonight. That is what I said to you after the debacle at the weekend that results are important at the minute and we have got one, and absolutely deserved it.
JP
Two tremendous goals, one each way really, with goals like that both teams would have felt aggrieved if they had lost all the points?
GA
You are always aggrieved when you lose, but, listen, we have got a point, it is another one ticked off. We can now regroup, it is going to be a tough two days because we won’t get back until 6 or 7 maybe tonight. Take care of the lads Wednesday and Thursday because Thursday is the day it will catch up on them, and then we have got to prepare again and get them ready for a really tough game against Brentford.
JP
You were happier with the performance against Notts County, you must be much happier again with the performance tonight. Definitely starting to ease back to where you were a few weeks ago?
GA
I was more happy with the performance on Saturday, it was a better performance on Saturday, this was just a better result. We created much more, we dominated the game on Saturday, we didn’t today, we had to defend properly and we had to deny Crawley space, we had to defend for our lives at times and we had to put bodies on the line.
The performance wasn’t as good as Saturday, but the fantastic result, and like you said, results matter. So, I will look about the result and say I am not really bothered, at this stage of the season performances come second to results. But, generally if you get performances then you get results.
JP
You talk about the performance, the first-half rally, because Crawley started very well for the first 15, you must have been happy with the way your team rallied and got back on top in that half and went in ahead?
GA
Yeah, it looked like we might have needed to make one or two tactical changes in the first-half, because we came out against Crawley and they really started the game well. But, I thought we dominated the second half an hour and possibly could have got another goal, Rory (Loy) had a miss and Sean O’Hanlon had a couple of efforts with the set-pieces.
So, overall, listen, delighted, absolutely delighted, we are delighted with the spirit within the camp, and you have seen a fantastic spirited performance there. Sometimes lacking in quality granted, but we are talking about gaining points here. I thought we were better Saturday in terms of our overall play and our overall dominance, but tonight we have got more than we did on Saturday and that is the key at the minute.
JP
I am conscious that you do need to shoot, in terms of the match at the weekend now, with these two matches, the performances, the raised levels, and the point tonight importantly, points win prizes and all that, then you will be in a much better frame of mind than you were maybe a week ago?
GA
Well, that is what results and performances do, they give your mindset a better theme to it. So, listen, after Walsall you are wondering where you go from there, we know as a backroom staff what to do and how to deal with it. A lot of people get carried away with doom and gloom when you are losing and when you are winning, it works both ways. But, after that we knew there was work that needed to be done, we have had two reactions, we didn’t get anything on Saturday and I thought we should have done, we got something tonight and I definitely thought we should have done.
JP
I must finally ask you, Matt Robson, any chance of him for the weekend or is he starting to look longer-term now?
GA
I have not seen him for a week, so as soon as I get back…………. No, he is not looking longer-term, we are very, very hopeful by him missing tonight and Saturday that he will be with us at the weekend, so we will look forward to that.