Greg Abbott - Radio Cumbria Interview Part Two

Last updated : 17 September 2009 By Thetashkentterror

Blues boss Greg Abbott
United boss Greg Abbott (GA) spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria's Paul Newton (PN) at Tuesday morning's open press conference for the local media, Abbott in the second part of the interview talking about the latest injury situation at Brunton Park :



PN

In terms of the latest on the injury front, good news on Kevan Hurst.

GA

Yeah, Kevan has had a bit of a roasting from me today in terms of making sure he deals with it properly. It is something we don't want him to develop into anything worse. He has only got himself to look after and I have got all 22 players plus everything else that goes with the job. So I have told him that if he is injured he reports his injury to Dolly (Neil Dalton) who is terrific with his rehabilitation programme.

It is a similar type of injury, although it is only in its nursery stages, as Danny Livesey has had. The last thing we want is for Kevan in the type of form he is having to not deal with it properly and it develop into something worse. So he has had the sharp end of my tongue today and he has actually been doing very, very well for us.

PN

Do you think with the benefit of hindsight Kevan shouldn't have played on Saturday gone?

GA

No, absolutely not, because he was fit to play and he told me he was fit to play. He just said that he twisted once awkwardly, it just affects him sometimes. He hasn't had the same amount of games that he has had at Scunthorpe, at the minute he has played in every game. Possibly in hindsight for the Morecambe game we might have left him out to rest him but he was adamant he wanted to play and he said his knee was fine.

I can only go by what a player is saying, that shows a good character in the kid and I am not going to knock him for that. He is the type of player that wants to play, he wants to train, he loves the way we train, he says that he has never trained like this before, he says we train like we play and he enjoys that. What we might have to do with him, we might have to manage him and not let him manage himself.




PN

I have got to ask you about Lenny Pidgeley who was convicted for drink driving today, a three and a half year ban, which is a hefty ban. Is that the end of the matter as far as the football club are concerned?

GA

Yeah, we need to draw a line under it now, I have said my bits and pieces a couple of weeks ago. Lenny has gone now, he has got his punishment, he is the one that is going to suffer, the football club won't suffer, he will suffer more than anybody. He is going to have to deal with that, as far as I am concerned I want him back playing to the best of his ability, keeping clean sheets and improving the situation at the football club.

PN

Clearly he has had this hanging over him for the last couple of weeks, how well or otherwise do you think he has responded to that?

GA

Well he has responded in a way I thought he might do, in a very professional manner. He has been brave enough to accept all the criticism, he has been brave enough to accept all the responsibility that goes with it and he will be the one that suffers more than anybody. At the moment he is dealing with that, the games he has played since that have been no problem whatsoever. He has not made a mistake in that period, long may that continue and long may his improvement that we have seen in him as a goalkeeper since he came here carry on.

PN

So as far as the club are concerned now, that is pretty much it and life moves on.

GA

Yeah, well we have dealt with him internally in terms of the disciplinary procedure we have had. He knows what I feel about the whole situation, I have said it in print, now is the time for Lenny to get on with his life and get on with his football.




PN

I know we will talk about Oldham in a bit more detail later on in the week, but just going into the Oldham game, given what happened against Brighton, how important is it now that you try and get back on track as soon as possible?

GA

Listen, every game is important to me. The next one is always the most important one, what we want to do is get a run of results and a momentum going where we have got some clear water between ourselves and the wrong end of the table. I think Saturday is a key to that, if we can get the three points that we missed out on on Saturday we are looking forward rather than backwards.

What we don't want to do is get involved in that scrap because nobody enjoyed it, not you, not the press, not the fans, not the club, not the players, not me, nobody enjoyed that. I don't want to take part in that again, I think we are good enough to be looking the other way rather than that way, but results dictate where we are going to go. At the minute we are looking forward to Saturday because we feel we can do something about it quickly.