PICKING THE PACE
Carlisle United are slowly picking the pace in the race to avoid relegation at the end of the season. They are currently 17th in the table, but a healthy two points away from the drop zone. The club are still capable of getting pulled into the relegation dogfight with only a few matches remaining in the season, but Graham Kavanagh has been able to manage the squad brilliantly in the last few weeks. He could only watch his team get a 1-2 defeat at home to Rotherham United. This was a disappointing result for the club, but it was also extremely hard on the players as well.
The pitch was not suitable for a passing style of football and Kavanagh has revealed that he has given the players rest in order to recover from the match. He says that the rest would not have been provided on any other matchday. Since the pitch was exceptionally poor, he had to give them rest so as to extract the maximum performance from the next home match – against Brentford. For long periods of the match, it looked like Carlisle had done enough to get at least a point from this encounter. However, Agard scored in injury time to give Rotherham a win.
The defeat has left the club only four points above the relegation zone, according to www.anfieldroar.com.
“The group looked jaded and need a few days off. Late on, some of them were dead on their feet. That’s understandable because the pitches we’ve trained on haven’t been great. It was then a heavy pitch for the game – it’s been difficult. I had hoped to sign someone before the game but his club changed their mind. As a result, we lost the chance to keep Michael,” said the Carlisle United manager.
Kavanagh said recently that he expected the club to be promotion challengers.