United boss Greg Abbott (GA) spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria's James Phillips (JP) following Carlisle's 5-1 League One season opening day defeat at home to Leyton Orient, Abbott saying he is still optimistic:
JP
I’m sure not the start you were hoping for when you went into this season with all the optimism that we have come into it with?
GA
Well, we are still optimistic but we have got to play a game with a full complement of players. When things go against us and decisions go against us and goals go against us then we have got to react in a better frame of mind. Up to the last 20 minutes a lot of it was sort of OK, and then we concede too easy and we are too frail and we are too weak.
We are looking at people taking responsibility, with all the young players on the pitch they are looking for guidance and leadership from me and then from the senior players on the pitch. We didn’t do that and that is the most disappointing thing about today, we are always going to be up against it down to ten men against a decent side, and they are a decent side and they have got some powerful experienced players that are probably the right blend for League One.
We have gone a different route with the younger players and that, but we have to stand up and find ways. But, we need things to go our way, I knew there would be problems without Sean O’Hanlon and Matty Robson to start with, but losing Lee Miller like that is going to make life doubly difficult. Then you are looking at leadership and responsibility, and we haven’t done that, we haven’t found that today and we are off the back of a bad result now.
All the optimism, it gets a little bit less and it is a difficult job now picking that group up. But, we will and we go again on Wednesday and we have to find our better players, or our senior players, not better players, our senior players back and see who wants to stand up and take responsibility. I certainly do take my share of that and other people have to take their share of it.
JP
We have only really had Chinese whispers on what the sending off was actually for, can you shed any light on that? Have you got to the bottom of that now?
GA
There is absolutely no point because you go in to speak to the referee and he will have a story and they will have got together at half-time, whatever I say will just make me angry and frustrated. But, that is what it is, if he (Nathan Clarke) doesn’t get hurt, he gets up, and nobody wants to see the lad hurt, nobody wants to see him sent off, don’t get me wrong. But, if he gets up, bounces back up then Lee probably gets a yellow card for it, but they have the time with him down on the ground to make a decision that it is serious foul play.
Well, I haven’t seen it on the video so I can’t really say, you probably had a better view than me. But, I don’t see a red card in it from where I am, but that is where it is. It is not just a red card for us, it is our captain, it is our talisman and it is our leader of the front line, and from then on life is going to be very, very difficult.
JP
Is there anything he could have done differently in a sort of meaningless area or was it just sort of exuberance trying to win the ball for Carlisle? What is your sort of view on the challenge and whether he should even have attempted it?
GA
Well, the first challenge on David Amoo, the linesman has said it was excitement at the start of the season. Well I am saying what is the difference with Lee’s challenge, is that not just excitement? But, I haven’t seen it so I don’t know if he has thrown him to the ground or punched him or I don’t know what it is, whether it is two wrestling and he has come off worse. So, I can’t really tell you now, but it looks as similar as the fact that David Amoo’s he said he was just excitement.
Foul, and a booking whether he is excited or not, but Lee didn’t get away with that because he has been sent off. But, listen, at the end of it I am not going to use that as an excuse. At 2-1 we are pretty much back in the game, we have worked a way of finding a way to get back in a game and if we do things properly and not let other things…….. I mean all across the pitch the thing is the same except for Lewis Guy has got two centre-halves against one, that is all, so everybody else should be doing their jobs.
We were letting midfield players run off us and that drags defenders out of their area and people are running unchallenged, we get loose, we get ragged and we have got to show more discipline. Midfield players have got to show it, people will look at the back four but the midfield players have got to show more discipline and track runners and avoid people being pulled out of position.
You have to run without the ball backwards to stop their midfield players getting into dangerous areas, and we don’t do it enough, we don’t do it often enough, and that is why we were reluctant to go with the two in there and expose ourselves to that. But, it is something we have to look at now, but ultimately in back fours certainly your two central defenders have to be much tougher and win more battles, certainly the physical side of it, better than we have done.
JP
In terms of the manner, well not so much the manner, but just the fact that it was a bit of a collapse after it went 3-1, some games do you lose, every team will lose games, but not collapsing and conceding those goals is going to be paramount this season to stop having the goal difference problems that we have had last year?
GA
Yeah, I mean, listen, goal difference won’t be the major problem, it is the amount of hurt and the amount of damage that that does and it shows up. But, listen, we have said we are a little bit lighter than we were last year, we said things have to go our way, and today things haven’t gone our way. When they don’t go our way we think as a club we are going to find life very, very difficult. So, we have got to firstly keep eleven men on the pitch and then we have got to be better prepared to dig deep together as a unit to stop situations like that happening.
That means people doing all the other side of the game, they had two centre-halves who were a bit uncompromising, even the full-back before he went to centre-half, they head it, they kick it, they get it forward and then they let Kevin Lisbie and Shaun Batt expose any weakness that they might find against them. Then they have got a little bit of pace down each side of the pitch, which we have, but they have done it better than us today.
JP
There was a little bit of a savvy nastiness at times from Leyton Orient today, although they didn’t get the man sent off of course, do you think Carlisle could do with a bit more of that within the squad?
GA
Savvy nastiness comes with experience and that is what they have got, and we are probably going with young and nice and high energy and people making their way in the game. It is a brutal, brutal league and this is areas where the players will find out that you have got to be a bit tougher.
Brad Potts who I thought has got through the game terrifically well has found life really difficult, he is up against a really experienced player. On the other hand Reece James is playing his first game against a young player that is on the top of his game and we knew all about him. We talked all about both of them on Thursday and Friday, but savvy nastiness is experience.
JP
In terms of that, I mean one of the exciting points about your team this season, one of the things we are all looking forward to seeing is that youth coming through, is this sort of day, as bad as it is, is it a good learning experience and hopefully something that they can build on and move on from?
GA
I don’t think it is ever good, they will learn from it, I don’t think it is ever good. It is not good for me or my staff or the fans and the players, it is not good, it is absolutely not good. It hurts and it damages, but what we have to do is look at people now who can stand up and take responsibility, starting with myself on Monday, and putting it right and getting a game and getting a performance. Because, people probably expect us to come off second best against Blackburn who are a Championship side with some tremendous players.
But, we have got to go into that game and put this behind us very, very quickly and take a good performance into Saturday. Because, Bradford City away from home in their first home game is going to be a really, really tough ask. So, there are no choices but as a group we have to stand together and take responsibility. Like, I said, I am at the top of that, I want some help, I do want some help.
JP
You teased in the pre-match press conference about the fact that you were hoping to do something in terms of cover for Sean O’Hanlon and you might have some news on Saturday night, is there any news?
GA
We have asked, we have talked to John Nixon about one or two things and nothing has come off at the minute. You are waiting for that game, you give people opportunities and pitch time and you have to make decisions then based on what has happened. Looking at what has happened we have to have a good think about what we are doing and if we can do something in certain areas. But, that is something where I will talk with John and Andrew Jenkins with over the weekend and see what we can come up with.
JP
Do you think it is crucial to get that extra body in though given that if either Danny Livesey or Mike Edwards picked up an injury, forgetting about the way the game has gone today, then you would look very short there even now?
GA
Yeah, I mean we do think we are thin. You look at Chris Chantler, Danny Cadamarteri, Sean O’Hanlon and Matty Robson out of your squad, and people know it is a tight squad as it is. It is massive to us and they are four senior players really, even Chants is now a 100-game man now isn’t he, he is a senior player in terms of pitch time.
So, we are going to find life difficult without bodies, and I think it is unfair to throw too many young players in, and people are screaming to put substitutions on and look at my bench, I have only got one that has played any certain amount of regular first team football in Paul Thirlwell. So, it is very, very difficult.
JP
What about with Lee Miller now, if it looks like it is going to be violent conduct, three matches without him, is your squad at least more prepared to cope without him than it maybe has been in the past with the players and the changes you have brought in in the summer?
GA
Well, it looked it today because I thought Mark Beck, certainly his aerial stuff, he won every header. So, I would have liked to have had Lewis Guy a little bit closer to him on the pitch at the same time. But, listen, Becky scores goals and he is developing and he is certainly a similar type, without Lee’s experience.
But, I think at the minute it is getting off to that good start with your experienced players is probably very, very important, but we are not blessed at the minute with all our complement of senior players, and it is very, very difficult. Like I said, I am not going to start antagonising anybody by saying they are excuses, they are not excuses but we do need all our seasoned professionals, or experienced players, fit and ready and hungry and determined. We missed out on four today, and then we have one sent off.
JP
I don’t think you would ever expect a team to lose 5-1 and there not be a few boos at the end, but looking for a positive were you impressed with the fact that the fans stuck with you today, stuck with the team, didn’t give the team a hard time until maybe just at the full-time whistle there?
GA
Yeah, I mean that is what we said to the players there, if you had gone in at 2-1 and lost the game 2-1 fighting to nick an equaliser and defending properly and playing properly then I think the fans would have probably given a standing ovation. But, to see them on their own grass again in their own city get rolled over by five I don’t think is acceptable.
Not from me, and the fans vented their feelings at me and whoever else, I don’t know who it was vented at, but you don’t expect a pleasant reaction. But, I think they were terrific all the way through, I think they had seen a team that was maybe hard done to, they had seen a team that had shown a bit of spirit and fight, but then they had seen some of the destructiveness into the performance and then they have a reason to moan. I can’t blame them for that to be honest.
JP
What do you want to see now from your team for this next game against Blackburn, what do they need to do for the fans and for you as a manager after all the hard work over the summer and it has led to this?
GA
I just think we are talking about rolling sleeves up aren’t we and getting a performance that carries us into the weekend. Fortunately we can’t dwell on this, the fans will think about this until next week because that is what they have got, well until the next game on Wednesday. But, the players, David has just walked in and they have got a responsibility to go out there and perform better and get better performances which lead to better results and leads to a better feeling around the place.
We all take that, we all take that on board and you will probably find he says similar stuff to me, but we will have to do it together because there is nobody that can stand on their own. At times we went running after things as individuals today and we leave ourselves wide open, and that can’t happen. Whatever we do we have to do as a group and we have been pretty good at that.
JP
Any chance Matt Robson will be back for the game on Wednesday or is he sort of out of that one?
GA
I think at the minute it would be wrong for me to say he is going to be fit, but we are not dismissing him yet and looking at that we need all our experience. So, if he has a chance, which he has at the minute, he is included, until I find out different.
JP
And I suppose I ought to ask, are you hoping to get a bit of extra cover in by Wednesday or might that be a bit early?
GA
We will have to have a look, we will have to have a talk with John and the chairman and see what they say. We know it is common knowledge that things are tight, but if I have gone to them with a real powerful argument that we need somebody then they try to help. There is two things, it is trying to find the right player and then seeing if he is available and then seeing if we can afford him, so actually there are three things. But, we will have to talk about certain things over the weekend for sure, because we need to make sure things are put right quickly.