United boss Greg Abbott (GA) spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria's Matt Newsum (MN) after Carlisle's 1-0 Johnstone's Paint Trophy Final win over Brentford, Abbott first looking back on the 4-1 defeat at Wembley that the Blues suffered against Southampton last year :
MN
I interviewed you 12 months ago and it was probably one of the worst jobs of my life, but a completely different story this time?
GA
It wasn't one of the best jobs of mine to be fair to you, but I have just talked to the lad from Brentford there, one of their people, and last year was a big disappointment because there wasn't a game. We got completely battered, we never got out of the traps, we made mistakes, but listen, that has gone. This year is a nice feeling, to see the fans and the chairman (Andrew Jenkins) and the board and the club move forward and win a bit of silverware is a terrific achievement to be honest.
We are absolutely really proud, we have got a young side out there, at the end we are losing (Francois) Zoko who is one of our best players and (Ben) Marshall who is one of our best players, we were always going to be up against it a bit. But, everybody has put in a fantastic shift and brilliant for (Peter) Murphy, he made a mistake last year, no problem about that, and he has come and got the winner this year. His girlfriend has had a baby this week two days ago, missed a night's sleep, so good professional and I am delighted for him and his family, as I am for everybody connected to the football club.
MN
How did it feel when Murph stuck that goal in?
GA
I felt that I wished it was another 80 minutes on and we were in extra time, it just gave us a good start, gave us something to grab onto and something to defend. To be fair we came under a bit of pressure territorially-wise, possession-wise second-half, but I didn't think our goal was threatened that much apart from the (Jeffrey) Schlupp one where he hit the inside of the post and then we think that it might be our day. We have got away with that and I think we probably deserved it.
MN
Just in terms of your career, where does this stand?
GA
I think right at the top because you are working for a group of people that I admire and respect, and then you are working at the top of a really, really good group of players and coaching staff. All the ideas stop with me, start and finish with me. It is an achievement, we have managed to do everything nearly as good as we wanted to this week and today is the climax and it has been terrific.
MN
Does it reaffirm everything you have been building towards at the club?
GA
Yeah, I know where we are, I know we need some more quality within the group but it is an achievement. We were up against the likes of Sheffield Wednesdays and Southamptons and Huddersfields and all them in this competition and we have won it. So, we have to take that and take a good look at ourselves and say yes you have done smashing lads, and now we have probably got to try to kick on somehow. But, that costs money, we will try to find that, we will try to ask the board for it and see if we can get a squad together that can challenge for the top six next season.
MN
What is the situation with Ben Marshall? How much do you know?
GA
That it is not very good, he has done damage to his ligaments, they are already thinking that might be the end of his season, so it is a blow to us because he has been fantastic. When we lost him you thought well there is a real big attacking threat gone from us but they managed to do it.