Carlisle boss John Sheridan spoke more about Saturday’s performance as United now switch focus towards tomorrow night’s final Checkatrade Trophy group fixture against Stoke City u21s.
On what had been a very industrious performance, he commented: “We work hard but we do make life difficult for ourselves. Having said that, Crewe are a good footballing side, so it was never going to be easy.
“We could have made life easier by keeping the ball better, and we do give it away far too cheaply. That means you end up defending a lot more than you should need to. I felt we were going sideways and back to Adam [Collin] too much.
“I actually asked Adam if he liked the ball coming back to him as much as it did, and he said no, so I told him he had to tell people that and get us playing forward quicker.
“When we were doing that in the first-half we caused them problems, and I thought Jerry Yates had a good game, both in attack and in defence.”
Jamie Devitt’s last-minute winner relived the frustration of a game where the Blues had battled to break the deadlock without quite managing to take advantage of what had been some good situations in the final third.
“We had good chances and good opportunities, but it comes down to untidiness with the final ball, which is why I do get so frustrated sometimes,” he said. “People try to play one-touch football when they should be taking care of the ball.
“They were trying to do two or three things in their head, but they ended up giving possession away, which can cause you problems. Crewe got a couple of balls in from the left during the first 45 minutes, so we need to do better.
“We’re a long way from where I want us to be, but hopefully this can be the start of a run. We need to be better, because we’ve got good footballers in the side and I like my players to be brave and play with a purpose and a tempo. We’ve got players in the team who can hurt people, and we should be doing it more.”
And on the return to action for Hallam Hope, he said: “I thought he looked lively. I took him off because he hasn’t trained too much at a match tempo.
“He was actually just starting to get into the game when I subbed him, so that was a bit of a precaution. Hopefully he’ll be firing on all cylinders again in no time at all.”
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