United boss Greg Abbott (GA) spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria's Paul Newton (PN) and James Phillips (JP) on Friday evening ahead of Carlisle's League One match at home to Charlton tomorrow, Abbott first reacting to the news of the resignation of chief executive David Allen on Thursday :
PNFirstly, I know you don't want to talk too much about the events this week off the field, but there is obviously a concern that all of this might have an affect on the players.
GA
Football players have got one job and one job only, that is to perform on the pitch. In no way shape or form will what happened off the pitch affect their performance. So rest assured that we are not going to be making any excuses that that has affected the players' performance, that is too easy for the players. We have got a job to do and that is to win a football game tomorrow and be at our very, very best against a very good side, so I can assure you of that.
PN
What about you as manager? Because obviously you are under your own kind of pressure at the moment, this isn't helping you.
GA
In a way I am the same as the players, my only priority is to win a game of football. What happens in the boardroom is really out of my hands, out of respect to the guys at our club, I leave the boardroom to them and they leave the dressing-room to me.
So what goes on there is very much news to me as it is to everybody else, so I don't really know much of what goes on behind that door. Because they do that bit and I do the football bit and that is the way it is. So I will just be concentrating on the football thing, which is a tough enough job in its own right at the moment.
PN
OK, well onto football matters, how are you looking injury wise ahead of tomorrow?
GA
We are OK, we are not going to have David Raven back and we are not going to have Paul Thirlwell back so we are as much as we were last week. But the couple of lads that had the problems during the week haven't had that this week, so we are in probably better shape than we were last week although we still don't have David and Paul to call upon.
PN
And is Richard Offiong back in contention?
GA
Yeah, Richard has trained this week, he looks back to where his fitness levels are fine, his injury looks to have cleared up so he is going to be in the squad tomorrow.
PN
You made a comparison in the week to Richard Offiong's situation at the moment to what happened to Jermaine Beckford when he came to Carlisle on loan. How confident are you that Richard is finally going to turn things around sooner rather than later?
GA
Well I am hopeful, Jermaine started off, he had had a rough time at Leeds as Richard probably did in his last days at Hamilton. But he (Beckford) came to us and he tried to resurrect his career and get it kick-started, it didn't happen for us and he had to wait quite a while until it happened for him at Scunthorpe. So listen, I can't put a time on that but we are just hopeful that there is a similarity there and that he ends up the product that Jermaine is, because obviously Jermaine is a top drawer player, but obviously the quicker the better.
PN
A lot of the talk ahead of tomorrow's game has been about the return of Nicky Bailey, can you understand why supporters still hold a grudge against him given what happened when he was playing for Southend a couple of years ago?
GA
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely, and if I was a player I would have my own mentality of what I would be thinking come tomorrow's game. But what we don't need to do is harp on about one or two issues, either the issues off the field or Nicky Bailey on the field. What we have got to do is beat a very, very good Charlton side and we have to be at our best. If that means an extra little bit of tackles around Nicky Bailey then so be it.
If the crowd get some support going out of that then fantastic, they will have their own issues with him and other things. But what we want is everybody behind the eleven players we have got, urging them on to do what we did last week which was find that victory which at the moment is so important to us.
JP
You also talked this week about the way some of the criticism of the team and of yourself in recent weeks has affected some of the players. How much of a concern is that at this stage of the season?
GA
I don't think it affects people, I think nobody likes criticism do they and players play better without criticism and without pressure. What I was saying is that if I can load myself with all that and deal with that, then it frees the players up to go and play with as much confidence and as much freedom and less fear as possible on the pitch on the Saturday. Which is what they need to do to get a result tomorrow. This is a good side they are playing and one that is rightly at the top end of the division.
So all I am trying to do is trying to get people to understand that players that feel that they are under a bit of pressure won't perform as good as they would do without that. Our situation is going to bring in some of that criticism and the players have to deal with it to an extent, but I would rather do it myself. Take all that on board myself and free the players up to play with as much freedom as possible.
JP
And on that subject of criticism, it has been a criticism of the club in recent years, not just under you, that they raise themselves for the big games and not some of the smaller games. But hopefully that can play into your hands tomorrow.
GA
We need to get that rid of don't we because for me you only got three points whether you are playing Exeter at home or Leeds United at home, or whatever. We have got to make sure that we cut that thing out and perform well in every game we possibly can.
There would be a big worry if you were seen to have players that were only capable of raising their game for big games, they wouldn't be the type of players you would want long-term. So we have got to get rid of that tag and make sure we perform in all the games and pick up points everywhere we think we should be.
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