|
" It was a Jekyll and Hyde performance from my team, we played pretty well in the first-half without capitalising on the possession that we had. Then in the second period we looked in disarray, and stopped doing the things that we were doing, and trying to improve upon them. Obviously then Hereford came onto the game themselves, they were the better team in the second-half and got the goal when they were on top, which we couldn't find when we were on top in the first period.
" We've made some pretty strange decisions in the second-half which we weren't doing in the first period. I find it really hard to explain or say why that has happened because it is the same group of players over one evening, in one 90 minutes, that have been so different.
" Everything was agreed in the dressing-room at half-time that we needed an extra 5-10% bit more of each player, if we could find that amount, to make things a bit better. We agreed that we had had enough of the ball to cause some more problems and find a goal, we did everything but that. It was agreed by everybody because we used the phrase 'are we all agreed on this?'.
" They were saying it themselves the players, I was saying it to them, Greg Abbott was saying it to them and we have come out and we don't see it. So I have to come and explain all of that and I find it really difficult to explain that because there are talkers and doers, I am a talker because I can't do it, and some of my players couldn't do it for 90 minutes tonight either.
" I do the radio work, I represent that team, I am responsible for that and tonight I feel very upset that I am responsible for what I have seen, and very disappointed. I have no problem with you chatting to my players, that it is up to you but I will come and talk to you. As I say though, I can't defend that second period and that second-half football, and I can't put my finger on why it was so different.
" I can't defend Richard Keogh either, at half-time we were talking about decision making and keep your clear mind, and be patient with your football but be bright with it. We have done none of those things in the second period, not none of them, but we have done very few of them. Richard's situation just amplifies it really, it's a silly push, the guy (Steve Guinan) has gone down, he has got to go off, it's a red card. "
" I lose him for the rest of this game which throws away any opportunity we may have had of trying to win or get back into the game and I don't have him for three more games. I have come here tonight literally with 17 players, so it doesn't help the situation, and I can't defend that in the same way that I can't defend the second-half at all.
" The players were feeling sorry for themselves at the end, as I thought some of them showed on the pitch. That is something that we can't tolerate and can't have, there is no reason for them to do that. Saturday was a big push, and a big up, and a big confidence boost in what we had done, we had got close to winning the game.
" We are turning everything around and then the first-half was the same tonight, good, well done, there was some assured play. There was some confident play, which we were talking about having the confidence of the team. Then for whatever reason the second-half doesn't materialise in the same way, and it was even before the goal.
" It wasn't the goal that knocked us back, but we stopped making those correct decisions and got edgy and agitated with the football I felt. People on the ball are saying that they haven't got players to pass it to, people who are there to be passed to are telling them that they don't get passed to. It is that situation that causes the frustration and annoyance and good decision making just disappears.
" I have to sit and think about it, I tell you where I go tomorrow, I go to a funeral of a very good friend of mine. I deal with that and then I come back on Thursday and I try to put this football club right and this football team. You can bet your life that along the way tomorrow I will be thinking about Thursday morning and training and what I am going to do. I may not have many more people available for selection so this group of people are really going to have stand up and be counted when they put the Carlisle United shirt on because they haven't done enough of that tonight.
" I will deal with it in my own way, I will take full responsibility for it because I am the manager of this team and I send it out. When I see the way that it plays tonight I find it hard to defend it, but I have got to do something about the next one. Because that is where we go, we go to Colchester on Saturday and that is no easy place to go and play either. "
" He (Gary Madine) had had stitches in his knee on Saturday and the knee was very sore. It was a different position to Danny (Graham), Danny has played with four tonight, four stitches, so he has had a go at it. Gary couldn't get that knee loosened up enough though, we have brought him with us and we had work on him today but we couldn't get him going. Jeff Smith was ill, he has fallen ill today and not well at all.
" So I am down to where I was, I think that there was just Evan (Horwood), and we had already decided that Evan was going to have to just step out because he was feeling the heat a little bit. To be fair (Darren) Campion has done alright tonight, he is the one bright spark, the kid that had had the least experience out there has probably been my bright player.
" He has actually come and played without fear though hasn't he because he just wants to play, Evan will come back but that is where we were with 17 players. I am not looking for any sympathy on that though because the team that I put out tonight has got enough in it. When you name the names that are in there then they have got enough to have done better than they did.
" We talk about the players looking at themselves all the time. I take full responsibility because I am the manager but they shouldn't hide behind me. In the same way that I said that if Ben Williams makes a mistake then we shouldn't hind behind that. Because we have all got to stand up and say what part have we got to play now, what part should we be playing, what part should we have been playing three or four weeks ago.
" Because it is not just now is it, it has been going on too long this, I'm getting annoyed, well I am annoyed as you can guess. I am obviously not less annoyed though than these supporters that have travelled down here, and the people back at home who are listening to what I am trying to say now.
" I'm the one that can try to do something about it along with these players, and I can promise you that we will, and I promise you that we have been, but it just hasn't materialised. I am sorry for that but we have got to keep working hard until somebody tells me that I don't do it any more, but I will keep working at it I promise you. Saturday is the next time to turn it around and that is what it has got to be. "