Greg Abbott On The Walsall Draw

Last updated : 12 February 2009 By Thetashkentterror

Blues boss Greg Abbott
United manager Greg Abbott spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria's Derek Lacey after Carlisle's 1-1 draw at home to Walsall, Abbott later also talking about the expanding injury list at Brunton Park :


" We should have been out of sight at half-time and the players are disappointed, but what we have done is produce a first-half performance that could have won us a lot of games. We could have been 2-0 or 3-0 up, 3-0 was probably conservative, 4-0 was probably being a bit biased and 2-0 was probably underselling us a little bit.

" Lewis (Neal) has come in and he hasn't played a great deal of football but he has looked bright on the left-hand side. In the first-half he has had two fantastic chances, Danny Graham has had a fantastic chance. We have got the goal and we think that our first-half performance will take us away from Walsall, but it didn't. Then we had to dig in in the second-half and it was a tough game.

" There are a lot of players there though who haven't played a lot of football, there are a lot of players making debuts. We have missed some big players tonight and at the end of the day it has got to be a point gained and it is another step in the right direction.

" Evan (Horwood) got cramp, he has not played and it has been difficult to train. The lads that have been playing matches are OK, the ones that haven't been in the team have not been able to train. We have used the Neil Centre over there and we have been frozen off. We have not had any grass, I can't remember the last time that we have trained on grass. So it is testimony to Evan, he has come in and had one of his best games to be fair. I though that he was terrific but he has just run out of steam. "



" David (Raven) has got a dead leg and again that meant Tony (Kane) coming in. We only met Tony yesterday, he doesn't know how we play, he doesn't know what is going on. We had to throw him in though because we needed cover because of Danny Livesey's thing. So he has come in and he has given us 35 minutes, which is good for him and it is throwing in him.

" Michael Burns has made his debut coming in at left-back, I don't think that he has played much at left-back, he is a midfield player. So we were down to the bare bones really, so it is credit to the boys there. Lummy (Chris Lumsdon) hasn't played for how long, it was his first game of the season, he hasn't played and he missed all of pre-season.

" He has missed a lot of training and he is still not quite ready but he has given us some honesty in there and some endeavour. That is typical Chris Lumsdon and if we have got that sort of spirit in the squad then we will be OK. I'm sure that David Raven will be fine for Saturday though and Michael Liddle will be back for Saturday as well.

" If you think that Ben (Williams) has come in for his second or third game then it is near enough a whole new back five, apart from Peter Murphy. Again, Peter wasn't playing for a while so the whole of the back five is how do you do sir and what is your name as they had never met.

" To be fair to them though they have had a right go at it. They have been thrown in at the deep end as we didn't want Michael (Burns) to go on at left-back but we had no choice because Evan was out on his feet and David has got a dead leg. So it is just sod's law that when you need a bit of protection and you don't need any injuries, which we haven't had for quite a while, that we get them all in one fell swoop. "



" Michael (Bridges) has not done anything training-wise, I am not being funny but there is a case for Michael, is there a case for Joe Anyinsah? There should be some texts coming in to say that Joe Anyinsah should be starting with the way that he played in the first-half. He ran out of steam a little bit, again he has not played a great deal of football, like Michael.

" Michael has had problems with his injuries and because of the lack of training we have had nothing to give him. So he knows that he is not right, me and Michael would be falling out if he thought that he should be playing and he is not, he would be coming and knocking on my door.

" He knows, he understands the situation, he has looked rusty when he has come on the pitch but he needs pitch time and he needs training time to make sure that he doesn't pick up any injuries on the pitch. Michael is valuable to what we are trying to do, we all understand that, there is nobody more wants him fit and on the pitch than myself.

" With the training though, or the lack of training we have had to do or we have had with him, he can't train on indoor surfaces, people don't know that. Because of his hips and his knees he can't train on indoor surfaces so he has done little or nothing to get back to full fitness, it is a frustrating situation and me and Michael are the most frustrated. "



" We have had a lot of players showed character there and with Ben it starts from the back. Character is a big word isn't it, it is part of my set-up, it is part of what I am all about and we want tough characters. I don't mind people making mistakes, I really don't mind, as long as they make them in the right way trying to do the right thing.

" Because we are League One footballers, we won't get Real Madrid type football, sometimes we will be on the up and we will create the perfect goal or we will do the good thing. Sometimes we have got to scrap things out, in the second-half we had to scrap things out because of the situation.

" I don't make excuses, these aren't excuses, these are just facts, the weather has been horrendous in this part of the country in terms of getting somewhere to train. Walsall had their game on Saturday and it is massive that they have got on some grass at Hartlepool and had their game.

" You could see in the second-half that they ended up finishing stronger than us, I will accept that. It is not through lack of training, it is not through lack of work, it is the fact that we haven't had anywhere to do it in. I am not going to make that as an excuse because we have to just get on with the job.

" What I am trying to do though is explain the second-half where you think that we are on the back-foot a little bit here. We have been rocked back, the number of changes that we have had to make, the lack of football we have had, or work we have had to do inbetween games, it makes it difficult. "



" We will be OK for Saturday though, and if we haven't got bodies there then we will find bodies and they will come in and they will do a job. They (Kevin Gall and Grant Smith) are around and they are training and it is up to them to produce in the reserves.

" Again for them we haven't had any reserve football for quite a while, but they have got to perform in the reserves to prove that they can be better than what we have got out there. So they know the situation and I am looking for that and up to now I haven't seen that, so that is the situation.

" We can't just keep bringing in player after player but what we will have a look at is that we will look at it when we get players fit and when we get a full quota. We know that we have got a few problems but we will have Graham Kavanagh back, we will have Michael Liddle back at the weekend.

" Big players there, hopefully Marc Bridge-Wilkinson isn't too long, Jeff Smith might be back. So when you get those sort of people back then the squad is big enough. We can't carry too many more players because we are up to about 22-23 at the moment. There is not a bottomless pit of money, so we just have to look with what we have got, work with what we have got.

" To be fair this is the same group that beat the big clubs, MK Dons, Huddersfield and Leeds. So we will stick at it and if the situation gets to the stage where I need more then I will go and ask the board for that person or that player and we will move on from there. "