THE compliments are "very nice", respect is being paid his team.
But Greg Abbott insists his Carlisle United players must not let the attention go to their heads, and focus on maintaining a push for the promotion play-offs through the second half of the season.
The Cumbrians are up to eighth in League One, two places and three points from a play-off spot, after Friday’s 1-1 draw at Huddersfield Town.
A “good position”, Abbott calls it, but at the halfway stage of the campaign and with second-placed Sheffield United at Brunton Park today, it is, he says, too soon to talk about targets.
Instead, his in-form side – unbeaten in five league games, with one defeat in nine – must simply strive to reproduce the exciting, attacking football for which they are becoming known.
And with the prospect of a tweak or two during January’s transfer window, Abbott believes Carlisle can enjoy a successful second half of the season.
“Results recently have shown us that we are making ourselves hard to beat,” Abbott (pictured right) said.
“With that comes a greater amount of respect from teams who are due to play us, and we have to deal with that. By and large we’re doing ok, and hopefully we’ll be able to take that into the second half of the season.
“It’s too early to be talking about where we might end up, we’ll leave that until we are 28 or 29 games in, but we have got ourselves into a good position. There have been some very nice compliments made by people at all levels of the game because of how well we are doing with the resources we have, and that comes down to a lot of hard work by everyone connected with the club.
“Managers and coaches who watch us comment on the type of football we try to play, even though we acknowledge that it doesn’t always come off for us. We want to play a brand of football that excites everyone and will give us an opportunity to attack as much as we can, home or away.
“When we do concede the ball we want to defend as a unit, and protect our goal properly. It doesn’t always work, and we have our days when things won’t go for us, but that’s how we want to play.”
Meanwhile, with the transfer window now open, Abbott added: “If we need to do something we will. When you look at who is available we are low on numbers but with one or two back off the treatment table that should ease.
“We’ve spoken to Liam Noble and Christian Ribeiro and we’ll let everyone know the outcome of those situations after the Sheffield United game.
“Chris Chandler is another one and he will come good. I’d like to at least increase Chris’ loan, or if not try and arrange a permanent deal.
“But that’s something we’ll look at further down the line. It’s important that everyone’s focus remains on the here and now.”
