United boss Greg Abbott (GA) spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria's James Phillips (JP) following Carlisle's 3-1 League One defeat at home to MK Dons, Abbott saying that the United players looked a bit sorry for themselves :
JP
What have you made of that one today then?
GA
It is a real frustration for us all and sometimes in the dressing room you can go to war with players, but they looked like a group that were slightly down on themselves and feeling a bit sorry for themselves. Quickly we have got to regroup and I think as a group and a dressing room everybody has got to help each other to work their way out of a situation like that. Because, I think some of the players there have waited for things, we seem to wait for things to happen on the pitch, we seem to be second best to certain things. We have always said play with freedom, play with no fear and get the basics right with and without the ball.
I felt today even just the basics were what caused us problems, we have contributed to our own downfall at times. but other than that I was just waiting for somebody to get really upset with the game and make a tackle that really got the crowd going and got all the players going. We didn't seem to have that player and that leader and that spark that got us into the game. We got the goal and we had a bit of a decent spell round that but then it fizzled out when we conceded another really, really soft goal. Then, conceding three goals you don't get anything do you generally, nine times out of ten, more than nine times out of ten and that is what it ended up.
JP
You called them soft goals, I know that you will perhaps feel that you squandered possession cheaply, but when they actually broke they were devastating?
GA
Yeah, but they broke from us giving the ball away, that is the disappointing............. You are right, no listen, there is nothing............ I am not going to decry the quality of the play leading up to it but when you are in possession you don't................. To be honest somebody said to me this week, you are at your most vulnerable when you have got the ball because when you have got the ball you expect to keep it and when you give it away it is unexpected. Then they broke and we were in tatters to be honest and certainly the goal before half-time we had a chance to clear it, we gave it away cheaply and then had a chance to clear it probably two or three times.
The second goal James (Tavernier) has picked the wrong pass, he knows that, but everybody else ahead of him so you are bare behind him and it is just somewhere you can't give the ball away. Then the third one really, that is one where we would have to look at that, an easy ball into a frontman and a bounce pass and then a full-back (Dean Lewington) running in unchallenged to score. Alright, credit to the other team, I am looking at our way of conceding and I am not happy about that.
JP
We have already spoken to one fan so far on BBC Radio Cumbria Sport and she felt that the team played alright, just MK Dons were better, but are you perhaps feeling that as good as they were, if you had had an extra gear or two you could have got something?
GA
Yeah, I don't think............. If we play at full tilt with a real desire and a real................... It is like we did for 20 minutes, for 20 minutes we were the better side without a doubt but 20 minutes in 90 is not going to win you many games. There is a bit of a sympathy vote there which sometimes we don't get, but for me to accept that I would be as a manager maybe saying that no, listen, it wasn't good enough over 90 minutes.
We didn't make enough tackles, we didn't pass the ball well enough, we didn't get the ball in the box when we had chances, even in the first half Andy Welsh had three chances to put the ball in the box in the first ten minutes and never gets one anywhere near where it should be. That is not a criticism............. That is a criticism but not a............... Listen, that is the way it is but that is what he is there to do, supply quality because we think he can, but that spread right throughout the team and that is not just singling anybody out.
Because, if you go through everybody else and I think at times there were flaws in everybody else's game, our passing in midfield at times was really laboured, and laboured is a nice word for it because at times it was really untidy and we kept giving it away, and the way we want to play we can't give the ball away.
JP
Again there will be argument with some of the misplaced passing in midfield that it is because of how they are being closed down, but do you think your players are good enough to be able to overcome that?
GA
Well, I think so because I think if you look at the spell between before half-time we gave the ball away three times in succession, (James) Berrett, (Tom) Taiwo and (Paul) Thirlwell, three of our really good passers, simple passers, simple passes under no pressure. So, that is worrying, if there was pressure on then yeah you can understand that, that is the game, that is what League One is all about, but we were giving the ball away today without pressure on the ball and that is a basic problem that if your team give the ball away it is very hard to manage and it is very hard to put any sort of system in place when you are just swapping the ball over far, far too cheaply.
JP
You have had plenty of good days against the top teams in League One, do you think to get the sort of performance that you need to beat MK Dons on a day like this you would need that 20 minute spell that you had in there for a bit more of the game?
GA
Listen, you need to have that for 60-30% not 25% of the game, and what it might tell us is that when we do get a head of steam up and when we do play with a lot of belief and no fear, or whatever it is, I don't know what the word is today, then we would be a problem to most teams. But, we haven't played well enough for long enough to cause this team a problem, too many problems, well enough problems today.
JP
How do you get that longer spell of that sort then? Because, these sorts of games have been the ones that historically you haven't had any trouble almost motivating the team for?
GA
Well, we will probably end up winning the lesser games now, that is the way it seems to be with us. But, no, listen, we have got a big game coming up now on Tuesday night, we want to go to Accrington and perform properly and get a result and winning games is the key issue. It won't be a nice evening, there will be hardly anybody there and people will think it is a drab night, but if anybody gets that mindset into their head then it will be quickly washed by us because we want to go there and put on a big brave performance and get ourselves back on track.
JP
And I know you won't want to go too far into this like we did in the League Cup, but a good draw for whoever does get through?
GA
We aren't anywhere near through yet, and looking at that today we have got a really tough problem against Accrington on Tuesday night.
JP
And after a couple of defeats what you would want now is to sort of stop that and snip that in the bud as quick as possible?
GA
Absolutely, we need to go and play and do the right things on Tuesday and get a result and quickly put these results behind us. But, they are difficult, it is difficult and the way we were today we have a big............. We have got to work very, very hard.
JP
Just one stat finally that I must bring up that a fan brought to our attention, you haven't scored in the first half yet this season, is that something that you were aware of?
GA
These stats, but we are scoring all our goals in the second half so does that make us a really fit team? I don't know what the stat means, I don't know what that means.
JP
Is it anything of a concern though the fact that you almost don't seem to get going until a bit later in the game?
GA
Well, if we had won the game we would have been top of the league wouldn't we, so it is not a stat that needs really bothering about just yet.