Greg Abbott On The Millwall Defeat

Last updated : 10 March 2010 By Thetashkentterror

Blues boss Greg Abbott
United boss Greg Abbott (GA) spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria's James Phillips (JP) after Carlisle's 3-1 defeat at home to Millwall, Abbott pinpointing his lack of available striking options as the difference in the game :


JP

I guess the first question is what you felt about that game as a whole.

GA

It tells me that we need a striker, box to box there is not a great deal between the two teams. They are at the right end of the table, they have got a quarter of a million striker (Steve Morison at £130,000) up the top end of the pitch and it showed, that is probably the difference.

We battle away, we are scrapping away but we have lost Darryl (Duffy), we have lost Joe (Anyinsah), Scott (Dobie) has got a groin injury - he had it after five minutes but he battled away for an hour. We are short, we are short, and we have passed the ball quite nicely, we have got the ball into the box quite a number of times, played some decent stuff at times, probably played better tonight than we have on Saturday.

But we are missing that moneybags striker aren't we, the ones that cost all the money and everybody else seems to have. But we have been unlucky in that department with injuries and we are going to have keep trying and do something about it. We already have been, as I said on Saturday, and the work will go on to continue, because the boys to a man have performed and had a go.

We are not going to be too critical of them but it is difficult when you have so limited options in that area of the field. We are not magicians, we can't just pick rabbits out of the hat, we need strengthening there and due to our injury situation it is getting desperate for us.





JP

Two of the points you have said just mirrored what we said in commentary, a very even match here, they just looked more potent upfront did Millwall.

GA

Well, I am glad we see it the same way, we see that, we see it, I don't think we are daft. We know what we need, it is the time of the season where you don't need injuries, all our injuries are in the same department and all our problems are in the same area of the field.

We have got five or six midfield players, you could pitch any of our two out of any of the four or five on there and they are all good, really good players. None of them are injured, all fit and all wanting to play and we could perm any two from five. Upfront we are actually running out of bodies, we have got not one fit striker at the minute, a natural centre-forward, and that is always going to cause you massive problems.

JP

Richard Offiong came on and if Scott Dobie is the latest player with an injury, he is looking like being in the frame for the weekend? What did you feel about his display?

GA

He huffed and puffed a little bit, he showed a willingness to get involved. He is lacking a bit of confidence at the moment, we want to see more from him but he is the only fit striker we have got now.

He is down on his luck at the minute, he needs to improve, he knows that and we are trying every bit of encouragement we can to get him to a level. But we don't have time, fans don't give you time if you like, it is a brutal game and we have to find the results quickly and find the performances quickly. That is what football is all about.





JP

Just looking down at the table, you are still on 41 and the team at the top of the relegation places, Exeter, still on 32. So still nine points between you but I guess you have highlighted it yourself, the first thing you have said when you came up here, that need for a striker. How much of a chance is there that there could be one in for Saturday?

GA

Well, we will be trying as hard as we can. I can't tell everybody we are going to get one, people don't realise how many phone calls I make and games I watch. There is one club in the Championship that has got seven strikers and they won't let one out on loan. It is absolutely outrageous, well it is not outrageous, that is their choice I suppose.

But all our injury problems and all our areas for concern is in that same position. Scott having a groin injury tonight has absolutely killed us because he is the one that is 6'1, he is mobile, he gets about the pitch and he gives us a chance.

I am just hoping and praying that he responds to the treatment between now and Saturday but along the way we will have to try to do something about that now and maybe find a body from somewhere.

But trying to get anybody in, nobody in League One or League Two is going to let you have a striker because you are competing against them and you can't have the best one in League Two because they need them for their own needs. We will probably end up looking at Premier League or Championship younger players that haven't quite made their first team squad yet and try one of them.

But we are trying our utmost to improve that. But to be fair to the rest of the side we need that and everybody in our team understands that and it is no criticism of anybody what I am saying to our players. It is a fact and I am not coming on here to be critical of anybody, I want to give the players and the fans every bit of help that we can in that area of the field.





JP

One of the things I might have brought up then is whether you might have brought Offiong on alongside Dobie, but I guess that wasn't possible, he just had to come off did he Scott?

GA

Scott is struggling already for Saturday, he was struggling at half-time and we talked about giving it another ten minutes. But he is not right and we just can't risk him not being fit for Saturday and at the minute he is a massive, massive doubt.

JP

Any other problems on that front injury-wise? Have you had the scan now with Darryl Duffy?

GA

Darryl Duffy is going to be at least a fortnight and that means that he is two weeks out and then he is going to be miss the cup final anyway because he can't play in it. Then the next one he can't play in because it is the Bristol Rovers one so in effect he is out for a month, which is an absolute hammer blow to me.

But that is it, we have been dealt a blow with the injuries and the problems at the same time. I hope the fans do understand that, it is not a blatant excuse and I just hope that they have a little bit of sympathy. There were a couple of people really upset behind me but there is not a great deal we can do to change things round when you haven't got that personnel.

I wish we had had Morison tonight, it would have been dead easy for me, and we laughed about having Wayne Rooney, he would make life easy for me, that would make me a good manager. We are having to find that player at the moment because the situation is in that area of the field is frustrating.





JP

Your hopes could rest then by the sound of it on Richard Offiong if you can't get somebody in by the weekend. You talked about him being low on confidence, what can you do to try to get him up for that game, well not up up, but you know what I mean, to get him to that level?

GA

Well, a normal human being would say that this is an opportunity without everybody else, I haven't quite come to the party just yet. But he has had every encouragement and support from us and we keep doing that. At the end of the day we can't make things happen for him, he has got to do that on the pitch himself. If is there for him on Saturday then he has to take that opportunity.

JP

I thought your team played well, just were short of a potent threat upfront tonight, I can't say anything else, I think you were unlucky.

GA

We are agreeing with that, it is frustrating that we haven't got, with the amount of balls we put in the box, that we couldn't get on the end of stuff. Once you get 1-0 up it is easier to defend as well, it gives you that real encouragement, but it wasn't to be.