Neil McDonald On The Oldham Game

Last updated : 04 March 2007 By Thetashkentterror

Carlisle manager Neil McDonald
United boss Neil McDonald spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria's Derek Lacey on Saturday evening as he gave his opinion on the 1-1 draw at home to the Latics. McDonald talking about the never-say-die attitude that the Blues showed in the match :


" I just felt the crowd got a little bit frustrated, I suppose it's slightly having a go at them, surely they can see that we weren't playing very well and that the players needed a lift. For me they didn't do it until we scored the goal, that's my frustration as well because their team didn't play very well and my team didn't play very well. There are times though, when we don't, that the team still needs lifting and I thought we could have done with it a little bit sooner if we possibly could have.

" They are fifth, they have been up there, they were second at one stage, they have gone through a little bit of a run but they are a good team. When you play against teams that are above you it is going to be very, very difficult. We can't always play the football that we want to play, but I've said over and over again - at this stage of the season sometimes it doesn't matter how you play, it's about getting results. We've got a very, very important point and I think that has put us up the league.

" When you play against the top teams, especially the top six teams, you need your strongest team. We've got Karl Hawley, Paul Murray, Jeff Smith and Simon Hackney out of the team, so is that a measure of how far we've come even though we didn't play very well? I'll keep on saying that we didn't play very well today but we've got a grit and determination where we don't want to be beaten, and that is another vital point for where we are trying to get to.

" In the first-half I thought we tried to play a little bit too much football in front. We didn't try and turn them, we were against the wind, the sun was in our eyes and we gave ourselves an uphill battle by conceding a soft goal to a certain extent for me. I just wanted to move the ball a little bit quicker but that doesn't work sometimes, they certainly didn't give up and they kept on battling. Their goalkeeper (Les Pogliacomi) has made a fantastic save there before we scored, if we'd scored that then with the next one we would have won the game. I'll gladly take a point today though because of the performance, and I'll keep on saying it, it was poor today but it's a point.

" He (Derek Holmes) has done alright when he has started as well, he comes up with a vital goal which is excellent and it's one of the reasons that I didn't want to let him go, he's contributing excellently well. Danny (Graham) has just got a bit of a dead calf, we tried to get through it but he wasn't moving as much as he could. Really we needed eleven players out there to work as hard as they possibly could to create one chance, which we eventually got to get the goal. We'll gladly take a point to be fair.

" I don't think he (Johann Smith) lost confidence after his chance. It wasn't a pretty game of football, it was very, very physical out there. Our two centre-forwards have taken an absolute battering again with little protection I suppose, but they still get up and get on with it. That is the determination that the squad has got at the moment because we've lost one in seven, we're unbeaten in four and we are up to ninth.

" It seems to have turned round, I said two months ago that we might be picking up more points away from home and be slightly struggling at home, which I think we've done over the last couple of games. If we keep on winning the three points away and the one point at home then that's not too bad. In a perverse way, even though we didn't play very well, and I don't think we played very well and I told the players that, they showed a never-say-die attitude where they didn't want to be beaten. It might end up being one of the best results of the season because of the way we played. "