United boss Greg Abbott (GA) spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria's James Phillips (JP) following Carlisle's 3-0 League One defeat at home to Walsall, Abbott first saying it was a performance that put the Blues under scrutiny:
JP
What do you have to say after a match like that tonight?
GA
Well, I have said quite a bit to the group, which will stay in the dressing room, but it is a type of performance that puts everybody under scrutiny. It is not a good performance and everybody that is looking to progress in this game gets hamstrung by those types of performances and open themselves up to criticisms and grumbles, which are going about at the minute because the season hasn’t panned out how we would like it to have done.
But, that gives an argument to all the doubters and all the people that have lost a little bit of belief in what we are doing to come and criticise what you are doing. So, as a group from top to bottom you have to take that and deal with it and move on. But, it wasn’t an easy performance to explain to them, I needed some answers from them because in the last 10 or 12 games we have not shown that, and tonight it has took me a bit by surprise.
JP
Walsall clearly had a lot of quality, but why were you not able to show the qualities that Carlisle had?
GA
Very difficult to answer that, you have to say it is one that is out of the blue, there looked to be apprehension, there looked to be fear in their play, there looked to be edginess in everything they did and we didn’t work as hard as what Carlisle United do. A lot of people say how well we close people down and how hard we work and tonight it didn’t look like it was there, for whatever reason.
I can’t give you an answer as to why we were as poor as that because if it was as easy as that I would have said it before the game and it wouldn’t have been. It happens, you have to deal with that, take it on the chin, take all the criticism that is coming and move on. Hopefully the next game and the game after that there is a reaction to it, which we generally have had.
But, it knocks you backwards, it is just disappointing and it is horrible as a manager to stand at the side and not have an understanding of why. I mean I have never, ever seen Mark Gillespie kick a ball like that, somebody in the crowd had a go at me and I am thinking; well he has kicked a ball 10,000 times and never kicked a ball like that.
I am powerless and it is frustrating and I take all the blame, it is not just an isolated incident that we are talking about but I take all the blame for the performance. Because, they are my players, it is my team, it is my performance, but I can’t do much about those types of situations. It was just a really disappointing night.
JP
You chose to do something that I think was very popular at the start of the game with the fans in picking Dave Symington, is that maybe evidence of why he needs to be carefully brought into the game?
GA
You know it was, you know it is and there are a few playing that way with the midfield players, David playing from the start at the moment, and the slightest little thing goes wrong for him. People have said, well stick him on the right, David plays just as well on the left, he has played a lot of his football on the left and he is very, very comfortable doing it.
He is just probably a little bit short of playing regularly, but we have to find this out don’t we, I thought he deserved it with his performances, he has been terrific coming off the bench and the impact has been fantastic. He found it really tough tonight and even when he went on the right he found it tough. I wish the supporters would trust your selections and trust your formations and the reasons for why we do it.
We try to explain everything and I think there was a lot of ammunition for why we have done certain things over the few weeks. We have let it go tonight because we think it was a good opportunity to play with freedom, play without any fear, play with wide players, and I don’t think we got a cross in the box in the first-half of any sort of meaning.
Then defensively from those areas we left ourselves exposed and maybe a patience in team selection is probably the key. We have to have a look at that, but I want the kids to keep developing, the young players to keep developing, but at the same time we need to get results along the way and we need to get good performances along the way. So, as a manager you are a devil if you do and you are a devil if you don’t.
JP
What next then after these last two games at home, I know that you got the point out of MK Dons, but perhaps the level of performance, what next ahead of a very tough trip (to Notts County) at the weekend?
GA
Response, simple, one word, response, simple.
JP
How do you go about getting that though?
GA
Well, we have done it before haven’t we, you are looking, you are digging for something there, we have done it before. We just work hard on the training ground, there is no magic formula, I can’t just give you a magic formula here. We go on the training ground and we work particularly hard again to resurrect the damage that we have done. Saturday, listen, Saturday was against a really, really good side, Walsall are a hardworking side who are on a great run of momentum.
In the second-half on Saturday when we organised, we were dishevelled for the first-half with the injury, not too many complaints about that. Tonight, plenty of complaints from us, plenty of grumbles from the fans, but there is no magic, I am not a magician. I have to go on the training ground on Thursday and work exceptionally hard to rally the players, to get rid of that apprehension and that fear.
We see them training every day and I must sound like an idiot when I say that they are very, very good. They are a very decent group of people and tonight you would be contradicting all of that, but that is the way it is. We will have to come back and work between Thursday, Friday and Saturday and get it right. Simple.
JP
The fans are very upset tonight, quite a lot of people have got in touch through the various mediums and questioned whether you still have what it takes to get Carlisle out of this, how confident are you that you do have that and you will get the reaction that you need ahead of the weekend and beyond?
GA
We looked like tonight that we hadn’t got that didn’t it, but the last ten games it looked like we had because up to tonight we have sort of had a really good haul of points. I think if we had won tonight we had got the best home record in the league in the last seven games, so if I haven’t got what it takes and I am going to be the best home team in the league in the last seven games then that is up to people to form their own opinions.
But, tonight it didn’t look like we had it, I am absolutely fine with that, tonight it looked like we were a dishevelled outfit and a really poor performance. But, if we had won tonight we would have had the strongest home record in the past seven games in the whole of the league, and it’s crazy, but tonight we didn’t look a good side.
JP
Another criticism has been the standard of entertainment on offer essentially at Brunton Park with the football, I guess the last two games have really brought that to the fore. Fans are just saying why should they come and pay money that they can’t afford to watch the level of performance in the last couple of games?
GA
It has not been great and what do you want…………. The results are the most thing at the minute, it is getting the results and the entertainment comes on top of that. But, we played a system tonight with two wingers, with two centre-forwards to entertain, to get chances, to get crosses in, and it didn’t quite happen.
That’s what the fans wanted and I did want the fans wanted and it didn’t happen, and maybe the systems that we do play at times maybe are better because I don’t want to get beat 3-0 and nothing is entertaining when you get beat like that. So, maybe we can now go about doing the job in the best way possible to get results and provide entertainment, because we have played three in midfield, we have played a diamond in midfield and we have looked miles better than that.
But, every system, every game, it will tell us a different story and we can make knee-jerk reactions straight away. But, I can accept the crowd’s frustration tonight, I am not going to argue because tonight I haven’t got a leg to stand on in terms of an argument. I have to take all the criticism and respond and to be fair that is one thing that we have done, we have responded to stuff in the past.
JP
And I am aware you are being very honest when it can’t be easy after that tonight. It is as much about the fans that weren’t there tonight though than the fans who were there, trying to get them back when they are listening to a game like that and they will get the word of mouth from people who were here. It is going to be crucial to start getting some of that excitement back into it if we are going to get those crowds back, which clubs survive on?
GA
Yeah, I mean it is a tough time to be the manager of this club at the moment because we have got to get……….. We have got to resurrect those performances and we have got to resurrect the crowd base. That is an obvious statement and I can do my utmost best to put it right on Saturday, get a result on Saturday and have a powerful end. Again, I can’t give you a magic formula, I can’t just say to you now we are going to be fantastic on Saturday, we are going to play attacking football and win 5-0 because it is not as simple as that.
JP
For the first time in his career at Carlisle United there was a fair bit of criticism for Lee Miller tonight. What is it with him at the moment? Why are we not quite getting the performances, because he has got the experience, you wouldn’t imagine like a younger player that he would lose as much form as he perhaps has at the moment.
GA
Listen, we said when Lee got fit, it was great to have him back in the team, it was great to have him round the place, but he has missed over half a season. You catch it up in fits and starts and he looked lethargic, he looked a little bit short with his touch and that and it happens, it happens. But, he is trying, he is here at this club and I don’t want people labelling him that he is out of contract so he is going to move on and he won’t try.
Lee is not that type of lad and it is a bit of a lack of respect for Lee as a person. He is going to give his all between now and the end of the season and he will have good and bad games. I don’t think we can just assume that because he has had a poor game that it is because he is going to move on. He may well move on, I don’t know, he might well stay here, but the type of person he is and the type of individual he is, he has had a bad game, we don’t need to read behind that and second guess it.
Because, he is playing poorly and the poorer he plays the less his options will be at the end of the season anyway. So, it is not in anybody’s interests to play poorly and deliberately poorly, so I think we have got to…………….. He has had an off night, it has not happened for him but I think we have got to be careful that we don’t label too much there that he is a second guess situation when I know the lad really, really well.
Like I said, he will have his options at the end of the season and he does what he does, but I think while he is playing it is in his interests to play the best he possibly can. Tonight he will probably admit to himself that he has not been at his best.
JP
A suggestion from some fans as well has been that the captaincy has maybe been an extra burden for him at a time when he is struggling a little bit. Is that something that you would entertain as a theory?
GA
It might be but I took it off Danny (Livesey) because his game was struggling and since we have took it off him he has played better. So, if I give it him back then he is poor and Lee might improve a bit. It is only a piece of bloody band your arm isn’t it.
JP
There is an extra responsibility with it though, a status with it as well. Do you not think it is affecting him then?
GA
It is in cricket, is it is really important in cricket, it is not as important in football. It is a bit of tape round your arm, people can play, don’t tell me that it is going to affect performance because you have got that thing round your arm. It is probably an excuse they are looking for, it shouldn’t be thrown at him. But, it was to take a little bit away from Danny to concentrate on the defending, but to say that is Lee’s issue, who I am to say it wasn’t. Tonight you can blame anything you want at it and I have not got much of an argument, but I wouldn’t put too much emphasis on that.
JP
It is now double figures, the amount of games this season that you have conceded three goals or more in a match, how much of a concern is that though when you are desperate to get fans back through the gate that you need to tighten up. Even if you are going to concede the odd goal, to try to keep it at just that?
GA
Do you not think you have battered me enough tonight?
JP
I am just asking the questions that the fans were peppering us with at the end. They really weren’t happy tonight?
GA
Yeah, I know, I appreciate that, I have answered all your questions, and every way you dress it up it was a poor performance. Let’s leave it at that shall we.
JP
Do you feel under pressure with this if the players don’t get that reaction for you now? Has tonight put you under a bit of pressure that you feel?
GA
You will have to talk to the chairman about that.