Greg Abbott - Radio Cumbria Interview

Last updated : 14 February 2009 By Thetashkentterror

Blues boss Greg Abbott
United manager Greg Abbott spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria's Paul Newton on Friday evening about Carlisle's match away to Brighton tomorrow, Abbott also later giving an update on the latest injury situation at Brunton Park :



" The journey down has been fine, the flight is really quick isn't it. We had 50 minutes on the plane and we are just making our way now from the airport at Heathrow to the hotel in Brighton, which is taking us longer which is amazing, but we are nearly there now.

" Looking out of the window now it looks nice and calm and clear, it is dark now, but there is no snow or anything about. I think that the only problem would be with the cold weather tonight but obviously if there is no pitch inspection then everything should be fine.

" We work on scoring and shooting and finishing practice all the time. Obviously it is on the day when the pressure is on that you have got to convert and unfortunately we didn't against Walsall in the first-half. Then we think that we had enough chances to be winning the game comfortably and make life easy for us, but that is the biggest part of the game isn't it, making sure that you convert chances when you make them. We didn't though and we got punished in the second-half.

" I think that we have missed a bit of football haven't we in terms of games being off and then obviously Cumbria has been snowbound and frostbound. We have had nowhere to train in terms of grass so I think that late on in the game, certainly in the last 20 minutes of the match it caught up on us. The game will do us the world of good now so it gives us an ideal preparation. We are back on grass today and yesterday so we are in better heart for tomorrow's game.

" I was speaking to Chris Hutchings (Walsall boss) at the League Managers' meeting and he said that if we had won the game on Tuesday then we would have been a point behind them and all they are talking about is the play-offs. So we have to be thinking about them as an optimism and as a debt to our fans to say that we are far from giving up on anything this season. If we are winning games in the next four to five weeks, and there are plenty of them, then that pushes us right into the top half of the table and there is always one team that sneaks in through the back-door. "



" Joe (Anyinsah) is one of those players who plays in fits and starts. His out and out pace, he is one of them that is going to come alive in certain situations. You are hopeful that when he does and when he is on the pitch and when he is there that he is going to cause the other team a lot of problems, so we hope that continues.

" He is a different type (to Scott Dobie and Gary Madine), he has got genuine pace. He is a different type to the other two but he is one that we are trying at the minute, he came on in his debut and came on upfront and looked really lively. We thought that he caused Walsall loads of problems in the first-half the other night so he is doing well there.

" Michael Bridges not being able to train on a hard surface is not a concern anymore because we are back on grass. Obviously he needed some grass and a training facility after all the injury problems he has had. He is over that now though, we are back on grass and hopefully in short and very, very quickly we will get him back to top form and fitness and he can make a big impression like he was before he got injured.

" I think that what I meant to say about diving is that I don't mind our players being clever like their player (Sofiene Zaaboub) was. He has actually pushed the ball past Paul Thirlwell, run into him and gone down, and sometimes that is a clever way to win penalties. What I don't advocate is players cheating and not being touched at all, but when there is contact, we think that he has earned his team a penalty rather than we have given one away.

" That is clever play sometimes but what we are saying is that I don't advocate people just having no contact and falling down, obviously that is absolutely wrong. You have got to be clever when you get in and around the box though and I think that their left-winger was clever in the way that he earned the penalty. "



" The news on the three injuries (Marc Bridge-Wilkinson, Danny Livesey and Jeff Smith) is not good. They have been big players for most of the season and they are going to be out for certainly the next three to four weeks and then we have to look at the progress that they are making. They are all due to go to back to the surgeons to get their levels of recovery back up.

" With Danny's he has got some arthritic disease around the knees, that's what the tendonitis is. So he is going to see where he is in two to three weeks and hopefully he gets the go ahead to kick on and he is OK. Jeff is exactly the same and Bridgey is waiting to see the toe specialist to see what happens with that. So in the immediate future we are going to be without them.

" We have just brought a loan player in in Tony Kane and in the rest of the squad we have got decent strength in depth so we are fine with them I think. At the time of the transfer window we had Danny Livesey and we had David Raven there and we had plenty of cover in the defence. We have got Michael Liddle and Evan Horwood as well as Richard Keogh and Peter Murphy so we were fine at the time.

" So we didn't need to think that we needed that position covering but the injury to Danny forced our hand and we went out and acted on that very, very quickly. We have brought Tony in with a view to a permanent move and talks have already taken place with his people and we think that will be done at the end of his loan period.

" What they are doing at Newcastle with Tim (Krul) and Fraser (Forster) is that they are rotating them on the bench, one is on the bench one week and on is on the bench the other. So it looks like that situation is closed for the timebeing. "



" It is a game tomorrow where both sides will want to win, it is not the end of the world either way. I don't take this thing that you go to win any game more than any other, we are going out to win the game tomorrow because it is our next game. We will be trying our utmost to go down here and get a positive result.

" We will have a look at Graham Kavanagh coming back, I have not named the team yet which is something that I don't normally do. We will have a look at that tonight, I have got an idea in my mind of what I am going to do and I will let the players know just after the pre-match meal tomorrow.

" We know a fair bit about Brighton anyway, but Joe has given us a couple of indicators of what they are like. What he has said is that they have not had terrific performances at home and that the crowd do get onto them and on their backs if they don't start well.

" So what we want to try to do is get off to a really good start in the game and put them on the back-foot. Then hopefully the crowd will give them a little bit of stick and put them under a bit of extra pressure. So we will be looking to start the game very well tomorrow.

" I will be disappointed though if any men sacrifice football for something as pathetic as Valentine's Day. It is absolute nonsense isn't it, if they have to turn out for their women on Valentine's Day then I don't know. I have just upset every single female supporter we have got but for me football comes far more important than that. They can do it on Sunday anyway, just delay it a day, I have got no problem with that but there is not a romantic bone in my body. "