United Boss Greg Abbott On Tonight

Last updated : 20 November 2008 By Thetashkentterror

Greg Abbott
United caretaker manager Greg Abbott spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria's Derek Lacey after Carlisle's FA Cup replay at Grays had been abandoned with United 1-0 down after 21 minutes, Abbott straight after the decision to call the game off thinking that it would be replayed next Tuesday instead of a week on Saturday as now transpires to be the case :


" It is a big disappointment, it is a long journey, the fans have made a big commitment to come down with the expense involved as well. I know that we have got a lot from the London Branch here but there are certainly a lot from Carlisle here as well. It is a nightmare that they have got to pay the expense this week, possibly pay it again next week and watch 20 minutes of football, which wasn't very good as well. So it is just a bit of a frustrating one tonight.

" Who covers the expense for us is not something that I have thought about at the moment. I think that the FA Cup, the home team pay the expenses or a certain amount of the expenses, but I have really not given that too much thought just yet.

" They had started well and got at us a little bit which you would expect but we didn't do what I had asked them to do. I have just said that we have had a little bit of luck there because we didn't do the things that I asked the players to do. I don't want to tell you what I had asked them to do because it is part of the gameplan, but we didn't do it and I am a bit disappointed with that.

" Players have got to grow up and they have got to start listening to the advice that they are given and do the things they are told. Otherwise the good run or the good momentum that we will built up on Saturday is quickly going to disappear and I don't want that, I want us to go on a good run.

" I want us to do the right things all the time and I want us to start games as good all the time as well and put people on the back-foot. We didn't do that tonight and that is disappointing, it is a bit irrelevant but I won't forget that 20 minutes, it might be part of my team-talk for Saturday. "



" I am a good sport but I am not that good, it is not in the rules to give them that goal back. The coin has come down on our side hasn't it because we were a goal down, if it had been the same the other way then that would have been good fortune on their part. So we just get back next week and we start scrapping again.

" I think we have had two warnings now though that this Grays side is a decent side and they are going to be right up for this cup tie. We have to be on our mettle if we are going to get through to the next round, absolutely massively.

" I am not angry, I am just frustrated that we can't get the game of football in that we wanted tonight and resolve the cup tie. I am a little bit sympathetic with their manager (Wayne Burnett) as well because he wants the same thing.

" All the fans here wanted to see an exciting cup tie and because they started so well I am sure that we would have had our spell in the game later on at same point and it could have turned out really exciting. At the moment though the game is null and void and we just have to come back and scrap it out next Tuesday, or whenever it is.

" I think that Grays have got a game as well on Tuesday night so the cup tie becomes the priority, so I think that it will end up being next Tuesday night, which we will wait for confirmation of that. If so then our preparation will be exactly the same, just playing a different team and hopefully get a different result. "