Neil McDonald Talks About The Match

Last updated : 13 January 2007 By Thetashkentterror

Blues boss Neil McDonald
United boss Neil McDonald spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria's Derek Lacey on Saturday evening as he gave his opinion on Carlisle's 3-2 defeat against Northampton at Sixfields. McDonald talking about the dire performance of the officials and how some of the players missing with injuries are progressing :


" It was close in the end but we didn't give ourselves a chance until the last fifteen minutes when we scored a couple of goals. I'm quite aggrieved with their three goals really altogether, I very rarely try and make excuses but I thought the referee today was pathetic, absolutely pathetic. There wasn't a bad tackle in the game and we've had five bookings, the lad has punched it in for the second goal, there was definitely a foul for the first goal and the third one, to be fair, we fell asleep altogether and let him tap it in.

" We pushed an extra forward on to try and get back into the game and it's almost worked, overall though our performance was quite poor today. On the second goal – he punched it and he was offside as well – I very rarely criticise the officials because I don't like getting involved but I thought they were all rubbish today. That's certainly not taking away from the fact that we were poor though.

" We haven't come out of the blocks, we created a couple of chances in the first-half but the game never really got going to be fair. They possibly could have been 2-0 up with Keiren (Westwood) making a save early on in the first-half but there wasn't that much football played to be fair from both sides in my opinion. The conditions were difficult but you expect the officials to be neutral and fair for both teams and we certainly didn't get any of that today.

" We need to bring players in to strengthen the squad, freshen things up and have competition for places, and we're working really hard behind the scenes to do that, we'll see what happens over the next week. We have kept going over the time off, everybody deserves a little bit of a rest, it certainly wasn't abused that's for sure. We got into our stride with only fifteen minutes to go but we certainly weren't out of the game in the first-half. It wasn't a pretty game to watch, I didn't really enjoy it and for the first time this season I'm aggrieved with the officials who were really poor.

" It's great for Danny Graham to get his first goal, the pleasing thing for me is that we've gone 3-0 down and we've still kept at it, we've kept them on the back-foot. If you concede three goals though it's a bit of a mountain to climb, at least the lads never gave in and they kept on going right to the end. Peter Murphy should be fit for next week and it all depends on how early next week starts with Kevin (Harper) as to whether he is fit or not.

" Paul Murray is coming along quite nicely, we're just trying to protect him at the minute, he's in full contact training, we arranged a behind closed doors friendly for him last week and we might do it again this week. We still have to be very, very careful with his injury though but he's almost there. It's always going to be hard work but I'm sure we'll be OK. "