|
"In the end our deficiencies in putting the ball in the back of the net nearly cost us the game. We really should have scored three or four and then, of course, we fell foul of the ultimate sucker punch. I thought we were comfortable and not under any threat, but we didn't defend the most important bit, the set piece, and the set piece is where Carlisle have scored.
"Fortunately Nobby (Solano) popped up with a great goal at the end to make it 1-1! I don't actually get too much out of winning or losing at this stage of the season...but I know a lot of people do. There was a 12,000 crowd, which made for a really good atmosphere, and the Carlisle lads certainly played very, very well and gave us a really, really big test.
"We were missing a couple of lads through injuries as well. I was a little disappointed that Shola (Ameobi), Michael (Owen) and James (Milner) didn't get to play in some part of the game. I would have liked for that to happen, but in the end the most important thing is that they are fit for the start of the new season.
"Instead we've come with a group of players that probably played a little longer than I wanted them too, and that was mainly because we only had the young lads to back them up. But the exercise was great, I thought the competitive nature of the game was excellent, seeing as how it was only our second pre-season match and it was a really, really good workout.
"Danny Livesey was with me at Bolton and it was a good header from him. He's certainly grown up now from when he was at Wanderers - from a boy to a man - in fact Macca (Neil McDonald) was with me at Bolton as well. I thought he did great last year and I hope he does even better this year because it looks like he's got himself a decent side."