United chief executive David Allen spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria's James Phillips (JP) on Saturday evening about the 3-1 defeat at Yeovil this afternoon that heaps even more pressure on Carlisle manager Greg Abbott :
JPA lot of question marks over the future of the club and the manager at the moment, what is the club's position?
DA
Absolutely, we can understand all those comments and I sympathise with all the fans. No board wants to be in this position, no manager wants to be in this position, we can understand just how the fans are so frustrated. I don't want to comment on Greg during the emotions that we have now after a game like that. But obviously we can say that we just don't want to be in a relegation position and we never expected to be here.
What I would say is though, the club got rid of Neil McDonald and see where that led us, we got rid of John Ward and see where that led us. We have to think long and hard and the board isn't going to be pressured into getting rid of Greg just to keep the fans happy. It was very interesting what Tommy Cassidy said there, he is saying that we have to give Greg a chance and the board has got some very serious decisions to make.
JP
Tommy's view is that no manager should be sacked before Christmas, and that is his standing as a former manager and he sympathises with Greg's position. I think we all do, I think he certainly has had some bad luck this season but the facts remain that the club are in a very tricky position at the moment.
DA
Absolutely, you are 100% right there and that is the difficulty for the board at the moment. I have said publicly that we were impressed with what Greg has done over the summer, he got out the right players and brought in some very, very good sound players. He didn't bow to fans' pressure to keep people like Michael Bridges, and he had the confidence to let Chris Lumsdon go - a very popular player.
So we have to say that we did think that what Greg did was right in the summer, unfortunately the performance on the pitch just isn't backing that up at the moment. We just don't want to rush into anything, we have got to make the right decision.
JP
I must ask you on something you just said there, your terminology, we did think that we he did was right in the summer, does that imply that at the moment you perhaps aren't sure that he is doing is right at the moment. Are you confident? I know that you said that you don't really want to get into it on what is an emotional day, but are you confident that he still has what it takes to get the club out of this trouble?
DA
Well, it is fair to say that he did do what was right in the summer. Unfortunately it just isn't coming off on the pitch now, and we have got some very, very serious discussions to have. We have got to try to do what it is right, I don't want to comment more than that. Obviously I am very, very disappointed at the moment and we have got to just keep looking at the situation.
JP
When you say we have got some serious discussions then, are we talking over the space of the next week? The fans that are listening are frustrated and I appreciate you remaining jovial about this and I know that you know that I have to push you on it. What is the situation short-term with the club and the manager then?
DA
I am seriously not jovial about the performance on the pitch, especially in that first-half, I am absolutely gutted about it. What I am trying to be jovial about is being backed into a corner because I don't want to say anything on the radio when the emotions are running high and we are all really disappointed about today's game. So to be fair I don't want to say more than that.
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