United boss Greg Abbott (GA) spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria's James Phillips (JP) at Thursday afternoon's press conference for the local media, Abbott first talking about the season ending injuries to Chris Chantler and Lee Miller :
GA
We have had a bit of a blow but that is out now, it is done. We have just got to get our heads around putting out a team and a formation that we think can cause Charlton problems. We have worked on it for quite an extensive period today, we have to see how people.............. It is sometimes cometh the hour isn't it and that is what we have said to the players, we have got to find a different way of competing and finding a result because we are not letting this go cheaply.
The reactions of the players are what I expected, they are really determined to see it through and give it their best shot, and we have got Lee and Chris's support with that as well, they are just as much part of it now as they were, although in a sort of different way. But, the boys are in decent fettle and it is a big game and we want to give it our best shot and we are going to have a right good go at it.
They are really disappointed but they are not going to let that disappointment detract them from backing the team and the club 100% to try to achieve what they would have done with them in it. So, they will both be here on Saturday, they will both be in the dressing room, they will both be on my shoulder and Kav's (Graham Kavanagh's) shoulder supporting the team as they would be. They are good lads, really, really good lads and they are typical of the types of players we have got in that dressing room, and that is the reason that we have done as well as have.
JP
You have already coped without Rory Loy and without Matt Robson for long periods of time, and Paul Thirlwell at stages of this season, is there already sort of that know-how with the playing squad on how to turn things around in situations like this one?
GA
Well, what we have done is in adversity we have never let the season die have we. We have had problems along the way and I still think that sending-off at Hartlepool was the worst decision I have ever seen in my career when he (Lee Miller) gets sent off, especially with some of the events that have gone on over the last few weeks and with some of the tackles that have gone on.
But, we have found a way of dealing with them and found a way to keep the season alive, and we are sitting here now with five games to go and we are still alive, and until we are dead we are going to keep going. We are actually probably still favourites, although with the upset we have had that might have changed a little bit. But, as the table looks we have still got a really, really good chance, so we are onwards and upwards.
JP
You seem a lot more upbeat now than perhaps you were after the injury itself came to light, have you been able to start to see it now as a challenge to try to do things differently now?
GA
Well, every minute of this job that I have been in the post has been a challenge, let me tell you that now. I wear my heart on my sleeve and if I am down, I am down and if I am up, I am up and if I am inbetween then you can tell I am inbetween. I don't generally hide my feelings when I am doing anything, but If there is one person that has got to be up at this particular time then it has got to be me hasn't it, for the players and for the fans and for the board and for everybody else and for myself.
So, I have been in great form today, I hope it works on Saturday but we have done everything we can, we know what we have got available, so the choices aren't much of a problem because there aren't many choices with the players we have got left. It is just getting it right and getting the formation right and the selection right.
The players don't know what the selection is going to be, they know how we are going to play but they don't know what the selection is going to be. I am going to leave that again another 24 hours and hopefully I am right. But, it is not something I can just click my fingers and it is going to be there and it is going to happen, it is something that is very difficult, but let's just hope that we get it right.
JP
You have always talked about using the players that you have got pound for pound against some of the biggest and the best in the division, you can't match up, you have got to think outside the box, has this reduced your capacity to do that or are you excited about the way that you are thinking around Charlton?
GA
No, I am excited now, I was feeling sorry for myself I think you rightly said earlier on in this that I was a bit downbeat, but I am upbeat now because I have got to be and the players have got to be. It is a great challenge for us and do you know what? Every single Carlisle fan will be behind us massively on Saturday because they know that we have had a bit of a body blow.
Funnily enough when you get a man sent off, when you lose a player through injury, when somebody is suspended, when things go against you, for some reason that is when people are at their best. I don't expect the Carlisle people on Saturday to be any different, I think they will be absolutely behind us 100% and they will be willing us on.
They know how tough the task is, they don't need me to tell them that, and they will be coming to shout their team home. We want to make sure that we give every ounce of energy and effort we possibly have, and if we get done then we get done, but sometimes when you are like this you can find a performance that is above and beyond. I think that is the type of performance we need because Charlton are the best team in the division.
JP
And is that the key point? Could you have had a better team coming to Brunton Park where you have been doing so well this season for a game like this with all that has gone with it?
GA
It could be worse, it could be Barcelona, but it isn't Barcelona, it is Charlton, and they have had a few problems along the way. So, we have got to try to make them problems, they are the best team in the league because that is what the league is telling us, they are in the number one position and they are going to get promotion and they are probably going to win the league. So, they are the best team but we have just got to make life as difficult as we can for them.
JP
And with that and with everything that has gone well over the season in that respect, plenty to look forward to beyond this season now you have just got this end of the season to look at and take as a bonus I guess after the setbacks you have had?
GA
We have moved on to next season already have we? We've jumped the gun a little bit. No, I am already heavily involved into what goes on next year because that is the way we have to be, we have to be fighting in front of the eight ball if you like getting things in place, the pre-season programme, the training programme and the games programme and the players lined up.
We have got a great list, but we have four players for every position because always the number one target on our list seems to get snapped up by somebody else. But, I still have to make that list and I still have to get that top player there and I still have to name him, so that I can show the people here that we were aware of them, and then we have to fight it out financially, and it depends who we are up against to whether we win or not.
But, it is common knowledge that a lot of the players we would like we can't afford. But, I am excited about this season first and foremost, and moving the club forward is a key to what we are doing, and I think we have probably done that over the last three and a half to four years.
JP
With everything that has happened, edged out of the play-offs just at this stage, can you still do it do you think?
GA
Of course we can, of course we can, because we have still got a game in hand on Notts County. They play Brentford on Saturday, we can beat Charlton on Saturday, I am not saying we will but it is possible. It is possible for Brentford to beat Notts County and then all of a sudden we might be thrown in as favourites again.
We have got to keep going. we have got to keep fighting, we are talking as if it is not going to happen, but I have got to believe it is going to happen, the fans have got to believe, the players have got to believe, everybody has got to believe it is going to happen until it doesn't, and when it doesn't we can say, well we had a right good go at that or we made it. It is going to be one of those two answers and you will find out probably at the end of this week.
Meanwhile Workington Reds manager Darren Edmondson commented to Radio Cumbria on the news that Mark Beck has been brought back to Brunton Park from his work experience spell at Borough Park :
"Mark Beck has been recalled back and he is going to be in the Carlisle United squad for tomorrow's game, so that is a bit of a body blow for us. Mark has done really well in the games and obviously scored a vital goal the previous Saturday over Easter against Droylsden. So, a bit of a blow for us but we have got to cope now without him, and we wish him all the best and I hope that he gets some minutes with Carlisle because he has got a great appetite for the game and he is a great lad.
"But, it will be tough for him because he is only 18 and I believe from before Christmas he has come on leaps and bounds. I don't think it is a step too far for him, it will be tough but he has got great players around him and he will have an enthusiastic crowd around him if he is used.
"His size makes him a threat to anybody and add to that that he has got talent and he has got ability and he knows what he is doing as a centre-forward then I am sure at some point he will be a good footballer for Carlisle United. Greg (Abbott) will manage him properly I know, Greg has had a fantastic year as a manager, so let's hope Mark gets a goal for them tomorrow to keep the play-off push going."