It felt more like an interrogation than an interview.

For more than ten minutes, Greg Abbott sat penned in the Valley Parade press room surrounded by Carlisle media wanting answers.

Last month’s mismatch with the Bantams was not the “homecoming” that he had envisaged.

Only 11 players in City’s history have made more appearances than the 343 times he turned out in the claret and amber. A fierce competitor, Abbott would snap into every challenge – quitting was not in his character.

Rewind five weeks and his team had rolled over with a meekness that must have made their manager shudder.

But it was no Hartlepool-style one-off. The week before, Carlisle had been battered by Leyton Orient – the following game, it was Coventry’s turn to fill their boots.

No wonder then that the local press pack were not settling for simple platitudes.

Abbott did not shy away from the inquisition. Unlike the players he had sent out of the dressing room two hours before, he did not duck anything uncomfortable.

But watching on from the sidelines, you knew the writing was on the wall for the third longest-serving manager on the block.

That axe fell this week after a late, late goal from Port Vale inflicted a fourth defeat in this infant league campaign. But the decline had set in long before.

Talk that he was “informally” offered the City job before Phil Parkinson stepped in is not true. Parkinson was the only man considered when Peter Jackson walked away.

But Abbott still has many friends around the club and in the stands. He was a real City warrior who will bounce back from this body blow.