Greg Abbott On The Yeovil Draw

Last updated : 07 March 2009 By Thetashkentterror

Blues boss Greg Abbott
United manager Greg Abbott spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria's Derek Lacey after Carlisle's 1-1 draw at Yeovil's Huish Park this afternoon, Abbott suggesting that the Blues did more than enough to have won the game :


" I have told the players that we should have been out of sight, they are ecstatic in there because they have got a point with a goal that is late on in the game and they are entitled to be like that. I have just brought them down a peg or two though because I am little bit upset that we haven't got three points out of the game. The way that we started the game was absolutely terrific and we should have been one, two, maybe three goals up in the first 20-25 minutes when we had a terrific spell.

" We take our foot off the gas, we concede a sloppy goal and then we found the last bit of the first-half difficult. Apart from that though we have been in complete control and bombarded their goal all afternoon. I am sitting here as a disappointed manager really even though we should be pleased that we have come and got a point and equalised in the last few minutes. I thought that we were better than them on the day and I thought that it was a game that we should have won.

" I think their goal was their only thing on target in near enough the whole of the game and that is what we are disappointed about. You have get to the ball between those sticks though don't you and you have to put it in, you have to be ruthless, clinical, all those words that we have been talking about and that has been a problem of late of not scoring enough goals. It nearly killed us today, we would have been going away from here without anything, we would have been desperately disappointed and it is too far to go thinking about what could have been.

" We are all pleased that we got a point, I am pleased but what we are saying is that it is a game that we should have won. We were that much better than them in my opinion, we were in control of the game for such long periods and we have got a goal in the last minute to show for our efforts. That is something where we have got to be more ruthless, more clinical, I am pleased, we have got a point and it puts a bit more space between us and the bottom and it keeps Yeovil where they were behind us. "



" We just should have been going away from here with more though I think and whilst the players and we are all pleased we have got to think about the fact that we could have got beat 1-0 today because time was running out for us. Fortunately our character and our determination, we have got great team spirit by the way, and everybody is playing their part. Michael (Bridges) has come on and Scott Dobie has come on and everybody in that dressing-room is playing their part. I have told them that just now and we will go away quite happy that we haven't lost the game in the end.

" We gave them encouragement didn't we, in football goals change the face of the game and from a game that we were really comfortable in we started to look a little bit under pressure and a bit edgy. The last 15 minutes of the first-half was their best spell for me in the whole of the game but we rounded them up and we used choice words again. Again I said that we have made life difficult for ourselves, we do it too often this season, it is the inconsistency that we have been producing.

" They came out in the second-half and fair play to them, they have peppered the goal, they have put the ball round the area, they have got into areas to score and Lady Luck possibly wasn't on our side today. Again though we have missed some relatively easy chances to win the game and I think that Scott is cursing himself how he has missed the one at the far-post where it looked easy to score. He is having a go though, he is there to miss it and you can't blame him for getting in those positions. We are all together, we are all in it and the dressing-room is really united and that will see us fine.

" Joe Anyinsah has got three goals in six games, he has got his goals, his record is there himself. Scott Dobie I could argue has had three fantastic chances in the last three games he has come on and he has not scored them. It is a team effort, I will pick the team, I will make popular decisions and I will make unpopular decisions, that is my job and I will be criticised and I will be praised.

" Joe Anyinsah's record at the moment is three goals in six games, that for me is enough to justify a start. Scott Dobie has got to push him, Scott Dobie has got to prove that he is better than him and be more effective, in games he will be and in other games he won't be. My decision, I have made it, I will stand and fall by it. "



" I told him (referee David Phillips), like their manager (Terry Skiverton) was telling him that he was very poor today for me. He was all about him, he had an attitude, he blew up too much, he didn't let the game go, there wasn't a foul in the game worthy of any note. He stopped it all the time, he was pedantic, I just thought that he was very poor and I told the fourth official (James Cox) that they were all ruining the game.

" It is a terrific game with two teams going toe to toe, their manager came up to me and said exactly the same things that I have said, so I told him that I was glad that we agreed on something. He is a young manager as well and we were both thinking that for both sides the referee was poor. Hopefully he just admits it, he has had a poor game, we had players out there who had a poor game, they had players out there who had a poor game. You have to hold your hands up and admit it. I don't think that he was very good today, he might be brilliant next week but he wasn't today in my book.

" It was a fantastic goal by Michael Bridges, I am not bothered about what happened with it, it went in, it hit the back of the net. All afternoon we have been hitting it around it, to the side of it, above it, below it, round it, it went in. Taking our chances is the key, that is what I am asking, it's not too much is it, just put the ball in the net now and again will you lads, make the job a bit easier for me will you.

" We have got to go into the Leyton Orient game with confidence that we are playing some decent stuff aren't we, we look a decent side. We looked a decent side today and I actually though that the game started, the first half an hour that it was like a team at the top of the table against a team at the bottom of the table.

" Then they got their goal though and that just changed it for 15 minutes and after that it was back to more of the same. We have to put the ball in the back of the net, it will make life so much easier, it breeds so much confidence. You looked at how well we were at Crewe the other night, we need to put the ball in the net and that is the reason that strikers get paid a hell of a lot of money. "



" Peter Murphy I think is nursing a sore groin and that wouldn't be too good at the minute for Tuesday night I wouldn't think. He is the sort of lad that wouldn't come off on a Saturday I wouldn't think and then be ready for a Tuesday but we will have to have a look at that. That is the number of games that we have got and it is injury in a position that we could well do without, but we will have a look at that over the weekend.

" He (Danny Graham) is just not right, his groin, he is still feeling it, when he was in training on Thursday he felt it when he had a shot. We just can't take any chances, the one area that we have got some depth is upfront. We had two strikers brought on and we had still got Gary Madine on the bench, so it would be absolutely plain stupid to push Danny in a situation where we have got cover.

" Centre-half is different, it is patch them and play them really at the minute with the defenders. We have only got five for four places and it looks like four for four places at the minute, so that is an area where we have got a few problems, I would think that Peter Murphy will be a doubt for Tuesday night though. He (Jeff Smith) has recovered, he has had what could have been a serious one. Hopefully touch wood it is not that bad, he is fit, he is ready to play and it has come at a welcome time for us.

" The supporters stayed behind again and clapped us off, I think that they are probably as frustrated as us aren't they. They have seen a good performance and they are thinking that we have only scored in the last minute and we have nicked a point basically. I think that they will have seen that we have played OK today, they are pleased with what is being dished up at the minute and I think that they would like to see the ball in the back of the net just the same as me. "