We caught up with the manager after the game yesterday:
This was a tough game, but they are going to get bigger as we go along, and they are not going to get any less important. Winning at home has become a nice habit for us, but a lot of hard work had to go in to the game to beat a very good team. Doncaster are a team that fully expect to be chasing promotion and, if we stay with them, as we've done today, then maybe we have a chance of keeping our top six place, which is very encouraging for us.
They are a good side, we've got great respect for Doncaster Rovers, and we came up with a way that we thought we could deal with them today, and it's paid off for us. Another day we might not get it as right, but the discipline and the organisation of the team, and the willingness of the players to do that, made it come off for us.
I've known Grant Smith for some time now, he was a player I was very much aware of, and I knew he could do very well for us. It was a bit out of the blue in terms of how he got here, and the fans have waited a while to see him. He's also waited a while to fit in, but I think they'll all go home satisfied with what he's done today.
Under the circumstances I think both teams put on an excellent afternoon. I would be amazed if anyone left the game early, because you never knew how it was going to finish, even in the last two or three minutes. We have to deal with the pitch, that's how it is, there's no point in worrying about it. If it's windy we have to deal with it, so things like that are all fine, we just get on with it.
The fact that we had a two week lay off made things harder for the players. Whatever you do, you can't replicate match fitness in training, and the weather was against us a little bit as well. To be fair to the players, games at this level, with the emotion and the physical effort that has gone in, it's not surprising one or two people have got a bit of tiredness about them. We don't have that long to recover, but we go to Crewe on the back of a win. If you're losing games the weariness becomes heavier. If you're winning games it gives you the incentive to pick yourself up and go again, and that's why we are looking forward to Tuesday.
With so many games in such a short run we have to tailor our training accordingly. We've got to look at it and think about things for all of the players. Those that haven't started the game today, when do they play, when do they keep working? You will have seen today that I used three substitutes. I don't think I've done that too many times at Carlisle, so we need to keep working with the whole squad. My backroom staff are going to become more and more important to me now. Their advice and help will be needed as we decide what we are going to do, and how we are going to do things.
We've got the Cumberland Cup game to fit in next week, and games on Tuesday and Wednesday, so we'll be using the full squad in the next few days. Everyone will have some work to do in that period, but we'll deal with it and we'll be ok.
