United midfielder Paul Thirlwell (PT) spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria's James Phillips (JP) following Carlisle's 1-1 League One draw at home to Walsall, Thirlwell saying there is a mixed reaction from the players:
JP
How is the dressing room after that?
PT
Yeah, a bit mixed, obviously we are down with conceding a goal so late, whatever it was, 80, 82 minutes. I thought we were going to hold on for a massive three points but a bit down with only getting the one.
JP
I think Graham Kavanagh gave everyone a different perspective because he said he was delighted with the players from where they were on Saturday to where they were today even if they didn’t hang on for the win. Do the players feel that as well?
PT
Yeah, very much so, I mean we wanted to come out in a positive manner and I felt we started the game well, We found ourselves in a bit of a counter-attacking situation if you like where they had a lot of the ball, and that is Walsall these days. They play attractive football and knock it about and we knew they were going to have spells in the game where they had possession.
But, we felt comfortable, I think we restricted them to limited chances, there was that situation in the second-half where they have hit the bar and had a couple of shots and hit the post and whatever it was. But, we felt relatively comfortable and when you get a goal to cling on to it always gives you that extra incentive to not hang on, but I felt we were OK in the game.
JP
In terms of the lateness of the equaliser, how much of a sickener was it and how did you see the way it went in?
PT
Yeah, well it is, it is always a blow isn’t it. I mean they had a few set-pieces during the course of the game and we dealt with them relatively well. Briefly what I remember there is a corner that has come over to the back stick and they have put the big lad [Michael Ngoo] on for obvious reasons, and he has got his head on it but it was more a header back across goal then heading for goal. You have kind of just watched it and it has slowly edged its way towards the goal and hit the post and gone in at the back stick.
JP
Should there have been a man on the back post dealing with that, just a technical question?
PT
Well, you are always going to fire a question like that at us when we concede a goal at the back stick. But, no, we have a man on the back post but not the front post which is obviously where it has gone in. But, James Berrett in fairness is on the six-yard box and when it has gone over his head he has retreated to the post but just couldn’t manage to get anything on it. I suppose that is a little bit of Lady Luck you don’t get when you are down there.
JP
Do the players feel that there is enough in the games left, I mean the games are running out, four games and there are some real toughies in there to be honest, especially all the three away ones you have got, there are no easy points in there are there?
PT
No, there are not, but there is not for anybody else either and we have still got that game at Crawley that we have got that everyone else hasn’t got. But, yeah, at the end of the day we are not stupid, it is going to go down to the wire isn’t it looking at it with only four games left. But, everyone else has tough games as well, they are not tough games on paper but they are tough games because of the situation we are in and the teams around us are in.
But, if we can show the spirit that we have shown today and to be fair we have had probably the best chances in the game. We have hit the bar ourselves and had various situations we have created throughout the course of the game, and we felt comfortable but unfortunately we couldn’t hold on for the 90 minutes.
JP
There is clearly a belief because you have managed to rally from last week’s mess at Preston, there was a deflation at the end of the game today, how much of a blow is it to concede in the way you did and will that belief be able to carry you over the line?
PT
Yeah, I think so, I think I did an interview in the week about the Preston game and it certainly wasn’t in my head when I walked out on the pitch today, and we drilled that into the lads for that to be the case and everybody else. Now we are disappointed but is it another point on the board and this game has gone now and we roll on to Monday. We have got two days to sort of look at where we are at in terms of injuries and who we are going to put out there, and I am sure that Kav and his staff will put a team out there to win the Peterborough game. That is it, it is what it is.
JP
You and Graham Kavanagh scored the winning goals the last time Carlisle had one of these great escapes, that Millwall game right at the start of Greg Abbott’s reign. On the one hand it must be annoying that it has come down to this, but you have got the experience haven’t you within that squad, the players in the key positions like yourself as captain, to try to help the younger players through and try to get what you need now just to keep this club in League One?
PT
Well, it is starting to feel a lot like that season, similar really isn’t it with Greg taking over and obviously in a tough situation. We managed to get over the line then so Kav has done similar this time round so let’s hope we can recreate that. But, yeah, it is never a nice place to be, yeah I have experienced it and it wasn’t nice then until obviously the end of the Millwall game and it isn’t nice now. But, I still think we have got enough out there to get us out of the situation we are in. I think we have showed that again today but unfortunately we couldn’t just get the three points.
JP
There has been such a high turnover of players in the last couple of years and with loans etc. Do the players who are in there, especially the new ones, do they understand how important staying up in League One would be to Carlisle United?
PT
Well, if they don’t they would be silly and I am sure they do. But, yeah it is important to Carlisle and yeah we have loan players, but it is important to people’s careers because there are young lads out there who, I keep telling them, you don’t want it on your CV. I have been involved in a team that has been relegated before and it is not nice and it is not pretty and you don’t want to be involved in it.
In prospective clubs which these lads might think they are going to aspire to play for and get themselves out of League One then it isn’t going to look too good to people who are watching them that they have been involved in a team that has been relegated. So, whatever gets you out of bed on a morning, whether it be incentives as a player, incentives as a team, incentive for money, whatever it is, there is no benefit in this club going down.