The game against Leeds United on Saturday had special overtones for two reasons for United's flying left winger Simon Hackney, as not only did he receive the sponsor's Man of the Match award at full time, but he also registered his one hundredth League appearance as a Carlisle United player.

Hackney, with 123 appearances for the club in all competitions in total, joined the Cumbrians in February 2005 but made just two appearances during that Conference season. He has since gone on to battle through a horrible knee injury before returning to establish himself in the starting eleven under John Ward.

He told us: "The time has flown by, it really has, but it has been a real pleasure. It's unbelievable when you think of where we were then, compared to where we are now. There has been a lot of hard work in between, and we have enjoyed the rewards because of that."

"Who knows how far we can go," he added. "It may be a cliche, but if we keep working as hard as we can, then it can only be to our benefit."

"There have been so many high points right through my time here," he admitted, "but the promotions and the league title were a bit special. Hopefully there'll be more of that to come."

On the Leeds game he said: "Getting Man of the Match is good, but I'd swap it for the three points. I honestly don't think that we played that badly, but a couple of mistakes have allowed them to get in. That's been the difference, in that they have finished their chances and we haven't. We played well in stages, though, so we have to take the positives from that and move on to the next game."