Ebbsfleet reaction from the manager
United manager Greg Abbott gave us his reaction to the 4-2 victory over Ebbsfleet shortly after full time on Saturday.
He said: “We’re obviously really happy with the result and the fact that we’ve gone through.
“We wanted to see the lads respond to the things we’ve said and the work that has been done this week and we got that. It wasn’t flowing football and credit to Ebbsfleet because they have done exactly what we expected. They made us earn the result because they came here and played their football and they’ve contributed to what was a good game.
“The lads were edgy and nervy at times and that does play a part. It’s understandable though and we are possibly victims of what we’ve done over the last few seasons. We’ve had a little bit of success and I think we’re expected to reproduce that again. We have to deal with these injuries at the moment and once we’re through that we know we’re going to have a really good squad. At the moment we just have to battle through and make sure we keep picking up results.
“There are no easy games in this business. Ebbsfleet have some real quality and determination in their side and the thing about today was that we needed the victory. The recent run and the goals we’ve conceded at home aren’t what this team is about and we knew we had to get something from what is a difficult fixture.
“Like I say, we had some players who had good games and others who struggled to get going. I thought Peter Murphy did an excellent job in a new role for us and Mike Edwards had his best game for a while.
“Dave Symington has a lot to learn and we still need 90 minutes from him, but that will come. His goal was probably from the move of the game and it was another good finish for him. Adam Collin looked good and confident, so there are some plus points to come from an afternoon of really hard work.
“Hopefully the injury situation will ease for us. It’s good to see JP [McGovern] back and we will look again at where we are with Paul Thirlwell and Matt Robson on Monday. The Mark Beck situation is a strange one. He broke his finger at home on Friday night and that ruled him out. I don’t know the full story behind it but all you can do is deal with it.
“We do want to strengthen if we can and we have been making phone calls to see if some of the bigger clubs we know can possibly help us out. Whether we can make something work or not comes down to one or two different factors, but we’ll ask a few questions and we’ll see what comes of it. There are no guarantees but if we can get someone to do us a favour, and if it’s right for us, then we can take it from there.
“I’d like to go on record to say that I’ve spoken to Liam Daish and to Craig Stone about the comments that were taken out of context before the game and they were both very amicable conversations. I am not the type of person who would ever show a lack of respect for any side and I told them that if they had seen the whole article they would know that I didn’t mean anything bad by what was said at all. It was good for me to be able to clear that up.”
United Player subscribers can see a video interview with Greg Abbott later today. For more information on United Player, and to subscribe, click HERE.
