United boss Greg Abbott (GA) spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria's James Phillips (JP) at Friday's open press conference for the local media, Abbott first talking about Carlisle's game away to Crawley tomorrow afternoon being postponed:
GA
I don't even want to think about a Tuesday night in Crawley, can't get any further can it, we are in the sea any further. No, it is a long way and the problem with the night games is not the actual getting there and the preparation beforehand, it is the travel afterwards and you miss a night's sleep. As anybody knows, if you miss a night's sleep it takes some catching up, it doesn't take just one or two days, it can be three or four days later and we don't need that at all really.
JP
What are your feelings now you have had a bit of time to reflect on that third win on the trot at home against Coventry, obviously a club close to your heart but a really hard fought victory against one of the good sides in the division?
GA
Yeah, I mean, they ain't that close, they are not that close when I need points. It was just important that this club won and you have seen that obviously we went to the game again against Tranmere and they beat the team that is at the top of the table within three days. So, it just shows you that the result was fantastic for everybody and it shows you what we can do when we are right.
Mark (Robins) was pretty gracious and he actually said we deserved it, I don't know whether he came out in the public and said it but he said it to me, which is a good achievement for us. We know what we are capable of when we are all right and everybody's mental side is spot on. I thought it was a cracking game and it has given us a little bit of a boost, the training has been good again because they are lifted by that.
Certainly they were pretty down after Swindon and rightly so, and so was I in terms of where we were. But, all of a sudden we are a decent team again and a couple of results, especially at home and people start believing again. I think that has done us the power of good the three wins on the trot, there was a lot of belief coming back. It will take a bit of time but things are looking better, they are not perfect but they are looking better.
The league is tough again, and I think it is a league where a lot of teams are finding a lot of problems off the field in terms of the running of the club. We are already addressing our work and trying to make everything add up and everything be right so we can move forward again. I think that teams that are burying their heads in the sand a little bit are going to find it difficult come the summer and come the middle of next season.
So, we think we are going in the right direction, again, everything has not been explained to the fans about what is happening in League One, but the general is that the monies at this level are getting tighter and tighter across the board. We are addressing all the problems so we have got a football club that is up and running and is alive and kicking and is able to go in there and compete again.
JP
On that subject of money is tight across the board what have you made of the story that Swindon are contemplating going into administration to help clear a large proportion of their reported £13million debts, does that sort of get your goat as a manager when you are hearing about clubs spending so much, outbidding you for players and then get into this situation?
GA
They are not outbidding us, they are absolutely blowing us out of the water. Do you know what? I really don't want to make a comment to that, if they are going into administration I would not like to make my views heard because I find that staggering that we are again, we are sitting here as a manager of a club that I want top of the league.
It is easy to be top of the league, just give me Lionel Messi, Ronaldo, (Wayne) Rooney and people like that and we would be top, but we can't afford them so we can't do it, so we have to find another way of getting top. So, basically you have to buy what you can afford and we have done that this..........
Sometimes that particular player hasn't been good enough to get us to the top but we are going to keep trying to find them within the rules and the regulations of what is allowed and we will do it that way. That is the only way that I have been allowed to manage and I think that is probably the right and proper way to do it to be honest.
JP
You are talking about administration, nobody wants to hear about a club struggling but because of all the points they have accrued with all the money they have spent, the talk is that they are looking to go into administration because it won't relegate them, it will just clear a load of their debts. I mean whether that is the case or not with any club who were to do something like that, how would that make you feel as a manager when you are working so hard to keep a club like Carlisle in the black?
GA
I think you have said it all in your question. I think you have said it all in your question. You know my thoughts without me saying anything, I think it is probably........... I don't know the full facts to be honest with you, I don't know the state of play at Swindon, I wouldn't like to make comment on that. You have answered the question yourself without me saying anything.
JP
What has it been like with having Lee Miller as the captain now, how has he responded, some players really puff out their chests and really take to that, has it had the change that you were hoping for beyond the result you got on Saturday?
GA
I have no idea, again, it is a hindsight one isn't it. On the pitch it is the players who are the main and not me, and on the pitch I thought he led by example and I thought he was pretty vocal. I think the players respond to him and it seemed like with one out of one win it is a good decision. That could all change though, that is another one we will have to be talking about in six months time, but something I wanted to do and something I felt I needed to do and I had no problems about doing it.
JP
In terms of even at the start though, the fact that he pulled them in for the huddle, it seemed that he was almost grabbing them in and getting them in, is that the sort of thing you were looking for? Somebody to be that extra bit of inspiration on the pitch?
GA
I have my reasons for doing it and I want to keep those private. I have done it because I thought it was the right thing to do and I thought he would have a positive impact. We have won one game out of one so it proves it was for this particular time. I don't want to be claiming loads of credit when there is a long time to go for him. If in a couple of seasons we have won loads of games and we are challenging at the top of the division and everybody rates him as a captain then it will be a fantastic decision. But, at the minute it seemed the right thing to do and I am OK.
JP
But, how was Danny Livesey with the whole situation? Did that take a little bit of managing? Did he understand why you were doing it?
GA
I always explain decision to players and that has been explained and we get on with it.