United manager Graham Kavanagh (GK) spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria's James Phillips (JP) following Carlisle's 1-0 League One defeat at home to Oldham, Kavanagh saying the Blues gave their absolute all in the game:
JP
I’ll relate to you what a couple of fans said to me, I suspect you will be thinking it yourself on the way down, one of them actually grabbed hold of me to say: “make sure you tell him down there that that was gutless and we are going down without a fight”. What would you say to those fans?
GK
I totally disagree, don’t think it was gutless at all, don’t think we went down without a fight at all today. I think the lads gave their absolute all, I said last week that we lacked leaders and probably a little bit of quality, which we have probably known all throughout the season. But, there was definitely a fear factor amongst the players and I think you get that with inexperience and youth, so it certainly wasn’t gutless.
JP
Do you think that is it? Do you think you can go and win at Crawley and Wolves and keep Carlisle in League One?
GK
Who knows? It is mathematically possible, this club has been involved in more probably unusual ends to the season, but realistically will it happen? Probably not but Tuesday is the game in hand we need to win and we need to give ourselves an opportunity going into the last game of the season that we can fight for something.
JP
I know you were pushed into it as you will be at this stage of describing it as must-win this game, but it was must-win and yet you haven’t won it, is that acceptable in that situation to not win a game like that against Oldham?
GK
Why wouldn’t it be acceptable? It is a game, and I am not trying to be clever, if it is not acceptable then there has to be consequences, if there are consequences there are consequences. I can make all the excuses in the world and under the sun and people probably wouldn’t listen, it is irrelevant. I think today the lads have given their all, we tried to win.
In hindsight and retrospectively after the event you look at it and think, well why we didn’t perform that way prior to scoring, we got the ball forward. It is certainly not a coaching thing, it is certainly not from our side that we are actually asking them to sit deep, we are not. It is a fear factor and that is what the players have been under for the last few weeks. We didn’t have enough leaders and we didn’t have enough experience in the group to pull us through and that is where we are.
The ones that we did have were sort of consistently injured since February or March. I have been trying to shape a team and organise a team and it has been difficult. But, again, it sounds like an excuse, people will either take it on board or they won’t, if they don’t then that is fine, absolutely fine. I am more disappointed than anybody is and I want to be the one to put it right, so will I get that opportunity or not? Who knows?
JP
In terms of the position with the players, are they just not quite good enough to do it, you are saying that they have given their all out there today, they had to win, they had to beat Oldham, it wasn’t the best Oldham team we have seen even though they had some bright moments in there, are they just not good enough?
GK
I am not saying they are not good enough, I think that is for other people to judge, we will make that assessment at the very end of the season. I have got my own ideas but I am not going to divulge them right at this moment.
JP
I understand that you have got a really tough position, I understand that you need to evolve the squad, I understand you inherited a situation where you didn’t have a great deal of budget. But, there are two parts to your job, there was to do that and there was to keep Carlisle in League One and do you think that you should continue if you don’t manage to keep the Cumbrians in the third tier of English football?
GK
That won’t be my decision, that will be somebody else’s.
JP
Do you think you deserve the chance though to have more of a crack at trying to turn this Carlisle team around? I know that you have got the ideas, I know that you have got the heart and the spirit but do you think you deserve that if you don’t keep them in League One?
GK
I would like to think I do, I took over on six games and two points, the club was going nowhere, the team was going nowhere. Managed to rally it, managed to get it back onside, we have had a horrendous injury crisis since I took over. The one thing I probably lacked as a new manager and everybody would probably now highlight it because I am identifying it myself, is that come January I put my faith and trust in senior players that I thought would remain fit.
None of us could foresee that that was the case, there was no money to spend, every player I brought in was short-term on a very minimal amount of contract. We didn’t pay any full wages, actually I tell a lie we did one, for any player that has come in on loan. We have been scrimping and saving all the way through and I think in the cold light of day when people have reflected and looked back on the season, it needed reshaping probably the squad in January.
I felt that when I first got the job, I thought when we got the FA Cup run we had we would be able to reinvest, but we weren’t because of attendances. So, it has been a snowball effect, if I am the culprit and I am taking the brunt of what is going on, I have said before that I am old enough and ugly enough and big enough to be able to do that.
But, I would like to think that people would be realistic, would see that is the very same squad more or less apart from the loans, with Pascal Chimbonda, Nacho Novo and I can’t even remember who the other one is who I brought in permanently, but on very short contracts, three or four month deals, and that was the market we were working in.
JP
In terms of the players who you started with today, can we assume that Lee Miller and Matt Robson had knocks, I mean the very fact that Matt had to go back off again because I think a lot of people expected that they would be in the starting line-up?
GK
No, no, I don’t think Matty has been the same player since he came back from his injury, that is my opinion, the staff had the same opinion. I have had a conversation with him, I think he has found it a little bit more difficult than he anticipated because of his back. It is funny how everybody now jumps on the Lee Miller bandwagon, he got booed in the warm-up when he came out to warm up, so I am not really sure what people are looking for.
I have got to not really worry about what people are looking for, I have got to see what I see in training, I have got to think and place my judgement in a squad and a system and a style of play that I think will be effective and it wasn’t today. So, as I say, we huffed and puffed, we did a hell of a lot better after we conceded but we didn’t do enough to get that goal.
We did create enough chances certainly in the last 25 minutes of the game to put them in the net, but the players are making silly mistakes putting balls into the box and then charging after the ball and leaving ground behind themselves for other people to expose.
But, that happens when you have youth and inexperience if you like because they are so determined if you like to do well, but also the fear factor of the sense of relegation will do to their careers. So, I understand it, it is not a criticism, but whatever happens now I know for a fact it will stand some of these players in very good stead going forward. But, that is not what anybody wants to hear at this moment in time.
JP
Nobody can deny your heart, your passion, you desire, do you think the players understand what it means to Carlisle United to survive in this league, do you think everyone in that squad is fighting and giving absolutely everything, like the players who got them up into League One?
GK
Well, I have just said to them at the end there I think there were too many games at the start of the season where players wanted to do it on their terms and it is now coming back to bite us on the backside. So, take from that what you will.
JP
Tranmere, Notts County and Shrewsbury though at the start of this run of games, they were crucial points that you needed to get on the board weren’t they if you were going to survive?
GK
Well, I think those games, Tranmere Gary Madine has a chance late on in the game, we had a number of chances that were saved. We had the Shrewsbury game here when we hit the bar four times, Swindon we had a very good performance and we won 1-0 and then we go and play Walsall at home and for whatever reason can’t get over the line.
Again, as I say, you know, each game that went by I think more pressure built on the players. That wasn’t from the staff because we made a conscious effort of never using the word relegation. So, it is difficult, it is difficult coming up with answers and solutions straight after the game when emotions are still running high.
I understand that from the fans today, I took obviously a bit of stick which is fair enough, they pay their money and they are well entitled to have their opinion. But, again, just disappointed with two games to go so we have got to go into Tuesday’s game, give it our all, at least give us a fighting chance going into the last game of the season and see what happens. I did think today with ten minutes to go and the ball went forward and ricocheted off the corner flag, I thought this is the turning point and we are going to get something here and we didn’t.
JP
Has the job proved too big to do from where you took over in terms of the constraints with the budget and everything, has it just proved too much, do you think you could have succeeded if things had gone right, or might it always have been like this?
GK
Well, I think it is a bit of a silly question really, I think if I am being totally honest with you no matter how I answer it then it looks like I am placing blame everywhere else. I am not going to do that, I am the manager of the football club and if we go down I will take full responsibility. Whoever wants to make a decision after that and wants to put blame my way, fine.
JP
You said it would be the board’s decision, can I presume that you would rule out that you wouldn’t walk away from it if the club went down then?
GK
What do you think?
JP
I am more interested in what you think.
GK
Do you think I am sitting here thinking that I am walking away, have I said I am going to resign?
JP
No.
GK
No, so why would you presume that I am going to resign?
JP
Because, the fans are asking me to ask just that, if you take Carlisle down would you walk away, not whether the board would ask you to, but whether you would?
GK
Well, by the way and the manner in which I am answering the questions do you not think that is enough of an answer for you?