United boss Greg Abbott (GA) spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria's James Phillips (JP) following Carlisle's 4-1 League One defeat at home to Leyton Orient, Abbott hoping for a response on Tuesday night against Doncaster:
JP
What on earth do you say after that?
GA
It is difficult to repeat what I’ve said in the dressing room because I haven’t got long enough for one, and people probably don’t want to hear that. The census was that is done now, I have said what I have had to say and the biggest thing now is a reaction and response and come and turn up on Tuesday and put something right again. As a manager you take all the responsibility, no question about that, I won’t hide from that and I won’t be frightened to admit that.
But, I think at times we are looking at situations on the pitch where it is very difficult for me to do anything about the type of goals we have conceded today and the way that we haven’t headed the ball, stopped the cross, headed the ball, jumped on second balls. As a group we have rounded on each other and we have come out with that we just need to be better than we are for Tuesday night and people have to take responsibilities.
To dominate football matches you have to dominate your opponent and I think from one to eleven we probably had two even-steven performances in terms of individual against their individual. Nine lost, nine of our players out of the eleven lost and that is just not good enough. What we have said there is that they are in a situation now where they are playing and everybody is looking at survival, survival.
Not in terms of surviving in the league but surviving their careers and surviving the way you deal with your football mentality. There are players out there and we are far too nice, we haven’t made any really decisive tackles, any decisive blocks, any decisive headers, any decisive second balls. Then when you are nine against nine individual battles down then you are going to lose football matches.
I have listened to all the criticism from behind me right throughout the game, more so the first half than the second half. Do you know what? I have got no problem with that, I have got nothing I could throw back at them, all I have had to do now is work particularly to get them in a frame of mind that they have to reproduce, produce not reproduce, produce a performance on Tuesday night to have people coming through and paying money to watch them play football.
JP
I know that you will want to look ahead and it is right that you do that, but there are plenty of things to talk about in the game, where on earth did that performance come from after two such good performances away from home?
GA
Well, you are asking me, I have just asked them, we are saying both the two away games, two really tough away games that we could have probably had six points, possibly should have had four, and ended up with one. That is football, that is alright, that is football, but this performance wasn’t anywhere near as determined and as tough and as good as those performances.
I have asked them and I wanted to know from them why, and they have been struggling to come up with the answers. But, we have to get eleven players on the pitch on Tuesday night that respond, and you are asking me the question why and I am actually saying to you that I can’t give you that answer.
JP
One fan has been in touch tonight and says that is the worst game of football, that first 45 minutes, he has seen in 38 years?
GA
Yeah, he is right, I have got no argument with that. I just said it is an all-time low for me, not in terms of being a coach or a manager, but even as a player. Because, we could have conceded six in the first half and we got a bit more organised defensively in the second half. But, I am not going to disagree with that, it happens and I have just seen Tottenham get done five and he (Andre Villas-Boas) probably thinks the same, it does happen. It doesn’t make it any easier being a fan or a manager or a player at the moment, but I am not going to disagree and argue against what he said and he is completely entitled to that opinion because I probably share it.
JP
What are you going to do about the conceding goals? It is becoming, especially today, it is an alarming problem now?
GA
Yeah, I mean I could say all sorts here, we have got a game on Tuesday right, we have got to get a response on Tuesday. We have to rectify situations and if it is a style of the way we play, getting the ball away from our goal as quickly as we can and as early as we can and defending high up the field then we have to do that. But, we have to look at a way at the minute of trying to pass our way from the back, it hasn’t worked, we conceded two goals doing that.
We actually had possession of the ball for the third goal and the fourth goal and still concede goals which is desperately disappointing if as a manager when you have got the ball you are supposed to be looking to hurt them, not concede goals. We had the ball, and I think three out of the four goals we had the ball, conceded it, lost it, and then a second later it is in our net. But, that is something we have to address and we have to do it quickly.
JP
Is it a home hoodoo now, I know that you won’t like to admit that but……….
GA
No, it isn’t.
JP
But the difference in performance from Preston and Brentford………..
GA
No it isn’t, no it isn’t. You are making excuses and I understand that because the stats would suggest what you are saying is correct. But, at the minute a lot of teams in our league are finding it difficult to perform at home, but I am not using that as an excuse. Our fans have not given us an over-amount of criticism today, they have stuck with us, second half I thought they were fantastic, they were urging us on to get a goal and to try to produce. But, I think now I am urging them to start with us on Tuesday, give us a fighting chance, get behind us and give the lads some encouragement.
Moaning and criticism doesn’t do any good, but is understandable and it is acceptable, and today I have got no arguments with anything that was said or done. Tuesday we now have to put that one out of the mind-set and we have to come out fighting and scrapping, and it is a time where people have to just stick together, dig deep and find each other out. After the game on Tuesday hopefully we have got a result and we can look forward to the next game, but at the minute it is a tough situation.
JP
Yeah, a third 4-1 defeat now, the third time you have conceded four goals at home, you can see why the crowds are down and they are unlikely to improve unfortunately because of that?
GA
Yeah, I mean, listen, it will take time for us to buy that back. Whatever you are saying at the moment I just have to take it on the chin, I can’t offer too many arguments to the stuff you are coming out with. I am not going to hide from anything, I am not going to run away from anything, the facts are there to be seen and we have to do something about it.
Probably the longest debate we have had after a game today in terms of talking about that and offering them a chance to express their opinions. There weren’t too many, and rightly so because there weren’t too many that were good enough to say that we should be doing something in a different way. Players ultimately have to take some sort of responsibility and me ultimately the wholesale responsibility.
JP
Are the players going to sort this out for Tuesday night? Some fans have suggested, and I have to put it to you and ask your thoughts, that they are not playing for you, on a game like that nothing seemed to work, they weren’t playing for you today? Do you feel you have got them with you?
GA
Well, you have seen the last two games, you know that this……… Listen, you know where the players are, you know exactly where they are, that is one thing that I am not even going to deal with. The players are unbelievably behind what we are doing, they are such a tight group. Today they have put in a really poor performance but you were there on Saturday, you were there last Tuesday at Preston, they were dying for the cause and are really, really down in the dumps at the minute.
They have feel like they have let, not me down, but let themselves down and let the club down ultimately, and let the supporters down. It is one of those things that you have to take on the chin, deal with it and crack on with it.
JP
I mean you always say, it is very honest of you to say that the buck always stops with the manager, you are the man who has to take the final responsibility, there are fans who would say that performance said that they didn’t care about that?
GA
Who doesn’t care? I don’t care?
JP
No, the players.
GA
No, I wouldn’t label that at anybody, at any group of players. I wouldn’t ever say players don’t care, I think that is totally unfair. Appear and actually are two massively different things. They care alright, you have not just been in the dressing room and nor have those fans, I have just been in the dressing room, I know when people care and people don’t care. You went to Brentford, you went to Preston, there are people that do care immensely.
JP
Yeah, and I saw those displays, and fans can’t see all matters of course, they can only a lot them see what see here?
GA
I humbly agree, I humbly agree that they can’t see what is happening away from home. But, the group is just as probably upset as he is, the fans and I am. It is something now that we have to accept, I have to deal with all these questions which I don’t like, I don’t like answering all the criticisms because I would rather be sitting here with a 3-0 victory on my back.
But, I know how difficult at the moment that is going to be to get, the longer it goes like this the harder they do become to get and the job becomes more difficult. But, no I will certainly be trying my absolute utmost to get the players rallied and more determined, and more defence minded to get a result on Tuesday.
JP
You don’t like answering these questions, believe you and me I don’t like asking them. One that I must ask you though, some fans are calling for your head tonight after this today, still confident that you can turn this around?
GA
Well, I have done it for four years, it is not a fly by night situation, we have managed the club in difficult times, at the minute they are difficult times. We have not had the run of the green with player situations, for people that ever criticise the likes of Paul Thirlwell, well I think it is sometimes crazy because you miss that experience and that influence around other people. We need him back and we need Lee (Miller) back and we need our big players back and we need all our senior players performing. Because, to be fair I thought the younger players did alright, it is the senior players I was really upset with today.
JP
That whole bench I presume will be knocking on your door asking to be involved in the team for Tuesday night after that performance?
GA
Me and Kav (Graham Kavanagh) are knocking on the door.
JP
Chris (Lumsdon) is I think.
GA
Well, listen, it is one of those, we talked about men, we need the men now to come to the party. It is going to be tough times and the longer it goes on the harder it is to get out of it, but we have got to deal with it and get on with it.
JP
One fan pointed out that they looked like they felt a bit sorry for themselves today, and perhaps needed to man up I think was the term?
GA
We have said that, we have actually used those words as well. The game doesn’t give you anything, the game if you are below par is brutal and it hurts you. You have got to go out and earn your stripes, you have got to go out and make tackles, make things happen, if things aren’t going your way, you know, that extra tackle, that extra run, chasing up lost causes, putting people under pressure. All the basics of football at the minute are things that we need to be doing, and we need to be doing much better than we are.
JP
Obviously, you know a couple of wins puts you right back up the table, I think it is too early to be being worried about that line, that dotted line in front of you though for the teams in the bottom four. How crucial is it to get a reaction as well as a result, a real reaction on Tuesday?
GA
Well, it is massive, it puts all the fear that people aren’t playing for the shirt and they aren’t interested. That is what I would disagree with, I will agree with most of the stuff you have said and most of the criticism that has come today, but that one I will disagree with. The quicker we get that result now the better, we need it sooner rather than later.
JP
It is not going to be easy though is it because they (Doncaster) are suddenly flying?
GA
Is life ever easy here? It certainly isn’t and unfortunately that is where we are, we have to just dig in and dig deep and we have to drag it out from somewhere.