Greg Abbott - Radio Cumbria Interview

Last updated : 26 August 2009 By Thetashkentterror

Blues boss Greg Abbott
United boss Greg Abbott spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria's James Phillips at Monday morning's open press conference for the local media, Abbott saying that he will be working with his strikers today after the Cumbrians missed a host of chances while losing 1-0 at home to Exeter on Saturday :


" When you take stock, an old mate of mine is in doing a little bit of work with the boys this morning, John Hawley who I played with at Bradford City, he was a good player at Leeds and Sunderland and Arsenal. He just said that the game is all about scoring goals isn't it, as well you play you get judged on results.

" Obviously goals are massively important and we didn't do that on Saturday so as well as we played, I actually have a feeling in my head that I wish we had been second best. That they had been better than us and created lots of chances and we could have sort of accepted a defeat. It feels like three points just wasted or chucked away, whichever way you want to call it. So that is a disappointment but we have to get over that and get on with the job.

" Marcus (Stewart) is coming to the back end of his career but he is a goalscorer. He has been clever the way that he has earned his penalty and I have no complaints about that. He has picked himself up, gets the goal and that is his niche, he has been a very good player through his career and I wish that he had retired at the end of last season now.

" The lads are in there doing some little skills at the moment, but we are bringing them out and we are just going to work with the strikers. The defenders and midfield players are going to do some passing and I am going to work around the goals with the wide players and the centre-forwards.

" Hopefully just work on one or two things that might give them the confidence of hitting the back of the net on a regular basis, and when they come to do it in matches it becomes second nature. There is work going on every day with them though and we will continue to encourage them and we will work together to try to rectify the situation. "



" Bringing Joe Anyinsah off is a decision that you have to make, sometimes they work and sometimes they don't. Did it work or not? Well we brought Joe off and Gary (Madine) went on and didn't score, but the fact of Saturday is that we were getting loads of balls into the box. We like Joe a lot, we like him a hell of a lot and I thought that his all-round performance again was good, it is improving and he got his goal on Tuesday night.

" The balls were going into the box though aerially through set-pieces, from wide areas a massive supply. We felt that the best two headers of the ball that we have got at the minute are Gary and Dobes (Scott Dobie), so we threw him on to try to get on the end of one of the crosses, it was as simple as that.

" You talk to Joe afterwards and he understands completely what we are trying to do, he is working with us, he is a fantastic lad. You just try to change things up, we had gone 75 minutes without getting a goal so you just wanted to see what else you were doing. Saturday we were getting balls into the box, that wasn't a problem, it has been the case in the past of us not getting balls in that danger area.

" So with the amount going into the box we just felt that Gary and Dobes were the best ones to get on the end of it in that particular game. Would it happen again in the next game? We would have a look at how we were playing and how the game is panning out again, but that is not what has cost us the game. It is an inability over 90 minutes to get on the end of something to give us that goal which our play thoroughly deserved. "



" If I listened to everything that was thrown at me, Why didn't he play? Why did you release him?, Why did you sign him?, Why don't you play that team?, then I would be tearing my hair out wouldn't I. You have decisions to make and my decisions are the ones that count and they will always be scrutinised.

" I don't think that it was a decision that cost us the game, but supporters' decisions are never wrong are they because sometimes they never happen. I have to make those decisions and stick by them, but the reaction of the fans, is the frustration is the same as mine. If Gary had gone on and scored a goal then it would have been a great substitution wouldn't it, it didn't happen but not to worry too much about that.

" Peter (Murphy) is fine, to be fair there weren't really that many problems at that end of the field. We have defended OK, we have restricted Exeter maybe to one shot on goal all the game, which was the penalty. Maybe there was little bits and pieces of other stuff that you might put on your statistics but nothing that really seriously threatened Lenny Pidgeley's goal.

" That is the worrying thing, the basics of the side is right, the defensive side of it which we have worked on a lot is right. The way that we played football is right, we have got in some good areas, which is right, we have got the ball in the box, which is right. I don't want to be talking about the lack of goals too often otherwise we are going to be in trouble, because goals are what makes and breaks and results are what everyone is judged on.

" On Saturday we sort of felt slightly sorry for ourselves, but we dust ourselves down and get on with it. If we can play like we have done on Saturday then we are going to win more games than we lose, that is for sure. You have to talk to the players in a positive mode after the game, you have had games here last season and other times and away from home and you thought that we never even looked winning the game. Yet there was only one winner on Saturday and that was us but until you get the ball into the net then that is always going to be an issue. "