United manager Graham Kavanagh (GK) spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria's James Phillips (JP) following Carlisle's 3-2 FA Cup second round win at home to Brentford, Kavanagh first talking about the performance of Blues debutant Courtney Meppen-Walter:
JP
One tweet says get Courtney Meppen-Walter signed up long-term, so no pressure for you now?
GK
No, I mean he was one of many today who did particularly well. Courtney has had as we all know, a very difficult time and he has gone under the radar in the sense that I didn’t want him speaking to the press, I just wanted him to focus on his football if he could. You see what his ability levels were like and see what his fitness levels are, we have worked him extremely hard and it showed today with a really good performance.
JP
I want to talk about the whole team, but that was a professional debut for a player who has had a lot of things happen in his past that are well documented, I mean how impressive was that?
GK
Yeah, it was very impressive, I think considering all the things that have happened to him over the last couple of years, how awful that must have been for obviously the families involved and for Courtney himself. I think it was probably pleasing for him to just actually be able to play football. A lot of excitement around the game for him today, he knew yesterday he was playing, we tried to keep it quiet, and I just wanted to see how mature he could be, see if he could handle the occasion.
It was definitely a risk and a gamble but I thought from what I have seen in training it was a worthwhile one, and for us today it paid off. But, I don’t particularly single Courtney out, because although he played well I think there were 12 or 13, I’m not sure how many subs I made to be fair, but I thought they were all magnificent against a very, very good Brentford team.
JP
We can talk about the whole team and of course getting through but James Berrett, just one person I would like to pick out, we thought it was as good as his first season with the club when he was almost running things?
GK
Can the real James Berrett please stand up, and he did he stand up today, most definitely. He was outstanding, goal aside, which was top drawer, Bez has got that in his locker all day long, As a midfield player myself I have been encouraging him to get on the half-turn and look more forward with less touches.
When the game is in front of him and he has got options he is a good passer of the ball, he generally picks the right pass, I think he has been doing it a lot slower than I would have liked in recent weeks. I think the fact that we took him out of the team and give him an opportunity to have a look at it and assess himself where he could improve.
He has definitely improved in training and I have seen a huge improvement about his willingness to buy into what we are asking him to do. Play off the front foot, try to play off the striker, try to get behind your midfield player, take less touches, get more shots in around the edge of the box and do your defensive job. Bez has a tremendous energy and I think he showed all those qualities today.
JP
And whenever a player comes out of the team, I mean I guess the headline is dropped, but as you have seen with David Amoo, he has gone out and come back in and another good game today and I guess you will be hoping it is similar now with Liam Noble who has taken a game out of the team?
GK
Yeah, I mean this is the thing I would like to sort of address a little bit really, I am not going to come in every week and speak about players who are in and out of the team. It is very much a squad system that I want to try to implement, it is difficult for players to understand that if they have never experienced it before.
But, it is a long hard season, it is an ardous affair if you are playing all the games and you can sustain or maintain the levels that are required in this league. It is a first and second ball league, it is a league where you need to be aggressive and energetic and get in people’s faces. If you are continually playing, particularly certain areas of the pitch, centre-half is probably a little bit different and obviously the keeper is certainly a little bit different.
But, the midfield areas and the wide areas and the top areas you need variety, and we don’t want to be a predictable side and I think with the signings we have made we have sort of improved in that area. But, it obviously causes me a few problems in and around the dressing room, there are one or two players who aren’t happy, but that is the nature of what I am hoping to achieve at the football club.
JP
Performance-wise I think the best compliment we paid you in commentary was that Brentford were excellent and you have won, that must make you really proud?
GK
It does, well I mean you have got to take every advantage going and I said to the boys today to try to make it an FA Cup tie. I know it was an FA Cup tie, but really try to make it a proper FA Cup tie where we battle and scrap for every single ball. We are intelligent when we have to defend, we try to play in their half when we can for as long periods as possible and when we can have we got the bravery to look forward and then show our quality.
All those aspects of our game today we did, and the one thing we kept falling back on was that Uwe Rosler had left, did it please me, yes it did, because I think he is an excellent and very good manager. I think he is going to turn out to be an excellent manager with a very bright future in the game and he is a really bright person with some really good football ideas.
So, I wish him all the best in his future job at Wigan but from our point of view we were wondering what type of attitude and what type of response would come from their players. I told our players that they would be disappointed, they would be upset, well all of those things they probably weren’t, they didn’t show any of them, which just shows we played as well as we did and I am really pleased.
JP
You had a sort of a spine to the team, you said everyone played well today but we have already talked about the quality of Meppen-Walter and Berrett and Lee Miller who is back to as good as we have seen for a long time, I mean it gives you something all the way up and down the pitch to work with doesn’t it?
GK
Very much, and don’t forget Greg Fleming in that as well, Greg has had a difficult time, I mean because he hasn’t played, and we have brought Ben Amos in who has also done well particularly well when he has played. But, to be as concentrated and alert and, what is the word I am looking for, just as honest as he was, because he could have been upset, he could have been frustrated with the fact that he hasn’t played recently. But, he came in and he showed what a great character he is and really good around the dressing room, great performance from him.
Lee Miller has obviously been suspended, had one or two issues this season that Lee wouldn’t have been happy about, got him in the office, told him in sort of no uncertain terms and to be fair to Lee he took it on the chin. He apologised to the staff, he apologised to the group and I think he really feels within himself he has some redeeming to do. I think his performances are actually showing it and fair play to him, it shows the sign of a very good character and a very good professional and his performance was top drawer today.
JP
For a club like Carlisle to be in the third round of the FA Cup, absolutely huge, I think it was the way you described it actually going into the game, you are there?
GK
We are yeah, and looking forward now to tomorrow I think with the draw. We ideally want one of the so called smaller clubs at home which gives us a real possibility of going through or we would love one of the bigger boys away. But, it is just lovely to be in the hat, I thought at 3-1 that was us there, I thought the referee [Andy Woolmer] gave a very dubious decision about the ball down the side, it was a definite handball, he didn’t see it, fair enough.
I wasn’t as calm as I am now when they got that free-kick because I did think that they had the quality and the danger to hurt us and I think it was still two or three minutes on the clock with added time coming. So, we knew we were going to be under pressure, but really, really pleased and we march on now and it should give us great confidence going onto next weekend’s game.
JP
Even though I am sure you had concerns about the way that goal went in, 3-1 is not the Carlisle way to do is it, you have got to have a bit of tense nervousness at the end?
GK
Yeah, that is probably right, I have obviously gone grey from an early age, I don’t want to start going bald as well. So, I would rather have had the 3-1 but all things being equal the final whistle blows and we win 3-2 and it is an absolutely terrific performance with so many good performances from within that, and players who really look like they are coming back into form with great appetite and energy. We now have a week to prepare for Tranmere and confidence will be high for that and all the excitement that comes tomorrow, hopefully whoever we get it will spur us on to bigger and better things.
JP
Another thing that you were very clear on was that you knew you had been asking a lot and so far Carlisle hadn’t been able to give as much back in terms of the money that you and before Greg Abbott had had, you said you wanted to get through for the board, the men who had backed you here at Carlisle United and you have done that?
GK
Yeah, well I mean I have got a board in my office with all the names on and to be honest I am running out of space because obviously I have brought in quite a few. John [Nixon] and the chairman [Andrew Jenkins] and Steve [Pattison] and the directors have been so good, and they have taken a gamble I think on me.
First of all they have given me the job, but they have also taken a gamble for this month thinking how are we going to manage with the sort of money we are paying out. So, it is a huge thank you to them, I hope we can continue to repay them, I hope we can continue to try to improve in terms of bodies, in terms of quality. So, who knows because this gives us a good opportunity for me to ask the question.
JP
A couple of fans to their credit who didn’t come today were actually texting and tweeting us saying they shouldn’t have missed this one and were regretting it. Hopefully now they will have heard how things went and they will be back for the game against Tranmere in a week’s time?
GK
Well, I can’t remember what the crowd was, I think it was about 2,500 or 2,700 I think I heard over the tannoy. But, as soon as the number got read out quite a lot of our fans booed, and I think that was their frustration. Which quite clearly they have come and they are saying they want other people getting behind the team. I definitely think with performances like that they will do hopefully.
JP
How are some of the players coping with being out of the team?
GK
Well, they get an opportunity every day in training, I have told them there are no free days off, when you get your days off make sure you look after your bodies. Make sure you come in fresh and ready to go for the forthcoming game, and I will pick the team this week based on how performs in training as well.
JP
Just a couple of quick final ones, Pascal Chimbonda now with Leon McSweeney leaving, does that mean that you need to sort out his longer term future with Carlisle?
GK
It is something that I am obviously going to look at. Pascal has got an injury today with a dead calf, Brad Potts is coming into form. I mean I have asked all along for the younger lads to man up and step up, and to be fair them Pottsy and Dave Symington have shown real signs of improving. Mark Beck came and saw me last week and was asking why he wasn’t involved and I told him, and to be fair to him he trained like an absolute demon the following two days and looked outstanding in training.
So, that is the type of response I am looking for, I obviously want to try to get that, it doesn’t always work but that is what we are asking. There will be one or two futures decided but as long as they give me a question every day that they ask me the question if you like, I am ready for selection so are you going to pick me, that is the minimum I can ask.
JP
Did you feel that you just had enough in that area regarding Leon McSweeney then?
GK
Yeah, well as I say, the numbers were getting sort of big. I spoke to John, obviously finances were getting a little bit tight, not troublesome tight but tight in the sense that if I was going to do anything in the January transfer window I had to assemble my squad and start making tough decisions.
So, it is a decision I have made, I think Pascal has done particularly well when he has played, he has given us that composure in that forward thinking full-back role which I am hoping to continue to improve. Pottsy is buying into it, Pottsy is improving all the time, his body language and his mindset is becoming stronger so I just felt I had cover there.
JP
And I know we have touched on it, Courtney Meppen-Walter, do you need to get him tied down now because there will be clubs who will take note of that performance today?
GK
I have got him handcuffed in the dressing room, he is going nowhere. Look, we will discuss that, it is one good game, one swallow doesn’t make a spring and he understands that we have given him the opportunity. I don’t think he would have probably had this opportunity at other clubs as quickly as he has had it here.
I hope he respects that, which I am sure he does, saying that, we gave him the opportunity, he had to take it and he did today. So, it is most definitely something that we are going to have to look at and would love to do because I think his potential is big. He is a great lad and he has been good around the dressing room with the group, so it is a no brainer for me. But, as I have said to you before, getting deals done is sometimes harder than what you think.
JP
And I will end by asking finally, if you could hand-pick that draw tomorrow then, who would you have?
GK
Who would I have? I am a Liverpool fan so I would probably go Anfield or one of the big boys obviously, somebody away from home that is going to give us a big cash windfall that we could really potentially do something with in terms of finances. I think the chairman and the directors deserve that as well but whoever it is we are just pleased to be there. So, I am not going to be making any wishes, other than to hopefully be able to continue to perform as we did today.