Greg Abbott On The Leyton Orient Draw

Last updated : 01 February 2010 By Thetashkentterror

Blues boss Greg Abbott
United boss Greg Abbott (GA) spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria's James Phillips (JP) after Carlisle's 2-2 draw at home to Leyton Orient, Abbott understandably disappointed that the Blues threw away a 2-0 half-time lead :



JP

What are your feelings after the second half performance there today?

GA

Well we were a bit disappointed with it, we feel at half-time that we have played decent enough up to half-time and we think we can play better than that to be honest. But in the second half we allowed them to get back into the game and dominate for large proceedings and obviously we are not too happy about that.

JP

Credit where it is due, you were a very good side in the first half and you made Leyton Orient look very ordinary in that first spell, but what changed after the break?

GA

Well Joe (Anyinsah) going off was a big blow to us, we have been looking for that centre-forward that causes problems and he is doing it at the minute, he looks a handful.

But he has got a problem with his groin area again which I think is the same as has been his issues before. So you are taking out somebody that has been in the team and doing well and it is always going to hurt you. Joe we think is becoming a very good player and we missed him.

JP

Easy for us to get excited, and I was doing at half-time about the partnership that maybe just sprung into life there with him and Gary Madine. Did that have a really big affect for you then on the game losing him upfront?

GA

Well you lose good players and we have lost a good player, and it has affected us.





JP

How do you legislate for the second half goals you conceded though?

GA

Because we didn't hold the ball up well enough, we didn't pass the ball well enough and we weren't tough enough around the second balls and some of our play was ordinary. When you do that you invite teams onto you and it becomes that sometimes you are defending for large periods of the game when you don't need to be.

But we never passed the ball, to be fair to the front players we never got the ball into them with enough quality and when it did come back off them we never won the second balls, and we were sometimes lightweight in some of the tackling.

Which, you are talking about responsibility in the dressing room and everybody to a man, all of us, the whole lot of us, because the dressing room is so tight in there, it is so united, we all have to take responsibilities. We all have to do what we have to do in games and some of us haven't done that today.

JP

Talking about the defending in particular. A few fans were a bit unhappy with the way that you defended, there was quite a bit I guess in the second half of that, so you are always going to come under a bit of pressure as Leyton Orient went at you. But do you feel that you were not as solid as you have been in recent weeks?

GA

Listen, you can talk about the back four but if you don't hold the ball up or you don't get the ball into the front players with enough quality then it is going to come back at you and they are going to be under pressure, and we didn't do that.

So we take responsibility as a team, we don't just point fingers at four or five players, we are looking at the way that we passed the ball forward and it kept coming back too easy. Then we are always on the back foot second half.

JP

But you take responsibility as a team, it is the second match in succession that you have surrendered a two goal lead, I am sure you are aware that can't continue.

GA

It is the second match we are unbeaten as well.





JP

No doubt about that one but you must admit, there were boos at Brunton Park, it did seem a bit harsh but the fans are disappointed with the manner in which you dropped two points.

GA

Well I am bit disappointed with boos at full-time when we have just drawn a game against a team that have beaten the second team in the table at home in the midweek. But they are frustrated, we are frustrated, the dressing room is frustrated, we are all frustrated.

What we have got to do is we have got to quickly try to do something about it. So the fans show extreme disappointment, we are as disappointed as them but I can't boo the players in the dressing room can I? I have got to try to pick them up, dust them down and find a gameplan that gets us another result.

When we have had our backs to the wall, or I am not saying we have got our backs to the wall at the minute, but when we have had a slightly disappointing result, which is what it is after a 2-0 lead at half-time. Pick them up, dust them down and just watch us go again on Tuesday night. We have bounced back several times this season and that is my job, we have got to make sure that we try to do it again.

JP

Can you put your finger on what it was that was different in the two halves?

GA

I have told you.

JP

You think it is down to Joe Anyinsah then?

GA

I have told you what it was, we didn't hold the ball up well enough upfront, we didn't pass the ball well enough in the game and we didn't tackle as tough as we need to do all the way through the second half. Without labouring the point I have told you three times now.





JP

I will take that then, one fan demanded on the way out to know why you went so long ball in the second half? It did go over the top quite a lot rather than on the floor as it was in that first period.

GA

What we tried to do was get the ball in the channels for Richard Offiong to stretch the play and then pass the ball about, but we didn't do either very well. We didn't put the ball in the right areas with enough quality, and then we never got the ball down enough to pass it with enough quality.

That again is about players showing responsibility, and the fan is quite right, we hit the ball too long too often in the second half and actually surrendered possession too easily.

JP

After Tuesday night and the first 45 minutes here, fans could have been forgiven for thinking 'well actually maybe we were wrong, maybe we don't need to go into that transfer market'. Does that come more into your mind after the second half almost collapse as it was there?

GA

I have to improve the squad, I have to keep results as they are and I will do what I have to do.

JP

But at half-time it looked like everything was pretty hunky-dory and maybe everyone was wrong and you didn't need to, but do you look at that and think that maybe you do need just a touch more?

GA

That is why it is not easy to be a manager, after half-time we are thinking we have cracked it, but you have never cracked it have you.

JP

But you have not got many hours of this transfer window left, are you looking to do something as things stand tonight?

GA

Like I said, I have to do what I have to do.





JP

OK, just any other injury concerns that you know about ahead of Tuesday's game at Colchester?

GA

Just Joe, Joe is struggling with his hip, or sorry his groin/pelvic problem. Apart from that we will have a look at everybody on Monday but we are ready to go again.

JP

And Tom Taiwo is another option that you have got there, there is no injury problem with him at the moment is there?

GA

Tom is fine.

JP

Just a selection issue?

GA

Tom is fine.