Positive Greg Abbott is looking for repeat
Nov 17 2009 by Mark Douglas, The Journal
CARLISLE United boss Greg Abbott reckons a repeat of their losing weekend performance at Bristol Rovers should be enough to avoid a first round FA Cup exit.
A spirited performance went to waste as the Cumbrians fell to a 94th-minute winner at the Memorial Ground, but Abbott has urged his team to retain the positives from the defeat and take them into tonight’s replay.
It was the sixth away league game without a win for Carlisle but in terms of fight and determination, it couldn’t have been any further from the tame surrender at Yeovil on October 17.
Abbott’s men face lower-league opposition in League Two Morecambe tonight but Carlisle are assured a difficult game against a team that have only lost once on their own patch this season.
“We were very disappointed to lose the game on Saturday but sometimes you can’t see the wood for the trees and we didn’t half play well,” he said.
“We lost the game but I think we need to look at the bigger picture. We are starting to play in the right way and to compete in the right way too, and that performance on Saturday will win us more games than we lose.
“The cup is important to me. We don’t want to lose any games we’re in and we want to get as far as we can in every competition we enter.”
The Carlisle boss must decide whether to persevere with Vincent Pericard as a lone striker in front of a five-man midfield – a tactic that appeared to suit the former Juventus striker at Bristol Rovers.
While Abbott is pondering changes to his starting XI he will not rest Ian Harte, who hit his seventh goal of the season over the weekend to consolidate his position as the club’s top scorer.
It is a fine return for a player who has spent most of the campaign at left-back, and Abbott is delighted with the way his veteran has assumed the goalscoring mantle.
“Ian’s done well to get those goals. And he certainly hasn’t been shy to remind us all that he’s our top goalscorer,” the Carlisle boss quipped.
The Cumbrians have been handed a home game with League Two Bradford City in the regional semi-finals of the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy. The game will be played on December 15.
