GREG Abbott gave his Carlisle players Christmas Day off – and the only gift he wants in return is three points against Preston North End today.
Carlisle face three games in the space of eight days, starting against 10th-placed Preston at Deepdale, before the Cumbrians go to fourth-placed Huddersfield on Friday and then entertain third-placed Sheffield United on January 2.
And boss Abbott is trying to strike a balance between training just enough to keep his players in peak shape, but not so much that injuries take their toll on his squad over the busy festive period.
To that end, he gave his side a break yesterday, and he is hoping it pays off.
“We’ve had another decent week,” he said. “We’re fighting hard against over-training, but we don’t want to go too far the other way and under-train. The next ten days are tough, and we want everyone to be as right as they can be for what is always an important period.
“The conditions become heavier, and that puts extra pressure on legs, so you have to tailor the sessions to that on some occasions.
“We are wrapping the players in cotton wool a little bit because we have a tight squad, and we obviously can’t do anything about that until the January transfer window opens, so we want to keep everyone in peak condition as much as we can. We are bringing the players in just about every day, but they got Christmas Day off to spend a bit of time with their families. That comes down to trusting them to do the right things.
“We’ve done it with them for the last few years and they have been excellent, so we expect the same again.”
Abbott faces a selection decision at full-back, with Christian Ribeiro and Frank Simek both now fit.
Simek started his first game last week after a four-month lay-off with hip and calf problems, as Carlisle drew 2-2 at home to Wycombe.
Ribeiro missed that game with a minor hamstring problem but has now recovered.
Abbott said: “Ribeiro and Simek are both fit, so there’s a real battle for a starting place there. We stayed on the cautious side of things with Christian last weekend, but he trained on Wednesday and Friday and he is looking sharp again.”
The sacking of South Shields-born Phil Brown leaves Preston with senior player Graham Alexander and first-team coach David Unsworth in temporary charge, and they got off to a good start last week with a 1-0 win at MK Dons.
Alexander said: “The players are upbeat and they are looking forward to the games.
“As long as they take the spirit, togetherness and confidence they demonstrated at MK Dons into the Carlisle game, we will be happy.”
Unsworth added: “We have put the MK Dons result to one side now and the focus is on Carlisle United, which will be a tough game.”
