United centre-half Sean O'Hanlon (SO'H) spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria's James Phillips (JP) following Carlisle's 1-1 League One draw at home to MK Dons, O'Hanlon saying that the Blues were unlucky not to win the game late on:
JP
You must be delighted to have put in that sort of performance against your old club there?
SO’H
Yeah, obviously personally wanted to do the best that I could today, and reasonably pleased with how I played and unlucky not to win the thing towards the end.
JP
What was it like out on the field there, it seemed for both teams it was a bit of a struggle today to get everything going that we know that the teams are capable of?
SO’H
Yeah, the pitch was quite dry and it wasn’t really a passing pitch, the wind was kind of swirling around a little bit so the conditions weren’t great. Obviously, when Danny came off with his injury it kind of affected us a little bit, the shape went a little bit, but I think second-half we came out and we have thoroughly deserved the point.
JP
From having only one partner in all your time really in the centre of defence you managed to have three this afternoon with Paul Thirlwell even having a stint in there, a bit unsettling for the back four?
SO’H
It was a little bit but when Murph (Peter Murphy came on for the second-half, he has not played for a while and I think he has slotted in. He has done some great headers and he did really well when he came on and just kept us solid at the back.
JP
You have played obviously for MK Dons for one of the biggest stints of your career, how many of the players that are with them now do you still now because they have quite a long set of continuity in there don’t they?
SO’H
Yeah, there is probably half the team that is still there, so I obviously know them and the backroom staff as well and the physio and the kitman. So, I have not seen them for nearly two years now so it was kind of good to see them all. Maybe it was a fair result at the end of the day.
JP
Some Carlisle fans felt that it took Carlisle a bit of while to get going against an MK Dons side who are maybe a bit short of confidence out there after their un of results, but knowing what you do, do you see it as a good point earned against a side who have the potential to be a lot more harmful to Carlisle than maybe they were today?
SO’H
Yeah, I mean before the game we all knew that MK were struggling a little bit, and I thought we could have got something today. Unfortunately they scored their goal when we went down to ten men, so if Danny is on the pitch we might have gone in 0-0 at half-time and then obviously the second-half you saw how well we played. We could have quite easily won the game today.
JP
What did you make of the man who came in at left-back (Jordan Mustoe) today, on his debut straight into the old cauldron wasn’t he, but what did you make of him?
SO’H
Yeah, he came in on Thursday and trained with the boys and he impressed in training. He is a strong and tenacious left-back and he is going to do well.
JP
What do you think having had a bit of time now with Carlisle, what do you think United are capable of achieving if they do get things going in the right direction? I mean going into this game it was 13 points out of a possible 15 at home, and it looked like that was going to fall away but you managed to rescue something, how good can Carlisle be when everything starts clicking for them?
SO’H
I think if we can get a couple of wins back to back and get a bit of momentum, especially here because no-one likes coming to Carlisle, this is probably one of the toughest away games you can play so we have got to take advantage of that which I think we do. If we can pick a few wins up on the road I think there is no reason why we can’t climb the table.
JP
A couple of really tricky matches coming up next week, Notts County away and then Crawley away, that is a real grind of a trip on a Tuesday night after that one got called off, so this Tuesday’s game against Walsall here at Brunton Park could wind up being quite a key one?
SO’H
It could do yeah, if we win Tuesday it makes Saturday a bit easier, not as much pressure. I have not seen the results today, we still have to kind of look at what is going on below us so if we get a good win on Tuesday it will set us up nicely for Saturday.
JP
And Chris (Lumsdon) alongside me described Karl Robinson as a class act, he has always spoken very well of Carlisle and the way Greg Abbott tries to get them playing, he seemed to hang back and save the biggest high five of the afternoon for you as you were coming off, your old boss there?
SO’H
Yeah, he has done really well at MK and he gets the team playing, I don’t think there is any team in this league that play the way they play. They keep the ball brilliantly and that is all down to the manager and his philosophy on how he wants to play and they are a very difficult team to play against.