Eric Kinder spoke to us after the 2-1 victory over Chester City:

"We had a pitch inspection at quarter past seven on the morning of the game. We were really desperate to get it on because I knew we'd been off for two weeks.

The game was poor from our point of view. The good thing about not being happy when you win is that the lads listen more. It's easy to blow your top when you lose four or five nil, but I don't think it sinks in as much as when you are critical after a win.

I think when you've gone out and scraped a 2-1 win, which we have done, and when you haven't played particularly well, which we haven't, then your words mean more. 

Everybody looked as though they were running with bags of cement on their backs in this one. The passing was poor, the closing down was lack lustre ... in fact, everything that they had been doing right for most of the season was missing. It took me back to right at the beginning of the season, because I didn't see anybody taking any kind of responsibility at all.

It's turned out to be a good morning for us, because we've got that first game of the New Year under our belt and we've managed to get a win. It's out of our control next week when we play Accrington away. If the weather stays like it is I can't see us playing next week, so at least we've got 90 minutes under our belts before we go to Northwich.

The game itself was a really scrappy affair. We had a very overzealous referee, very picky with things, and the game never got going.

They had a lad sent off after 8 minutes, which didn't help. Basically, Andy Cook flicked one on, Gary Madine got clear, he was through with just the keeper to beat, and their lad hacked him down from behind. It was unfortunate for him but, in the rules of the game it's a red card, and he had to go. Gary took the penalty and put it away with ease.

With us up against ten men I started to think we'd run riot, but we didn't. We found it very difficult and bungled our way through to half time with just the one goal lead.

We were a little bit better at the start of the second half. We started to pass and move a bit more than we did in the first half but then, unfortunately for Chester, Andy Cook got clear of their full back and cut inside. Their lad's made a great tackle but landed hard and dislocated his shoulder, so the game was held up for 20 minutes while the ambulance came.

We had 22 minutes to play when the game restarted and, if I'm honest, we were just about getting in to our stride when the accident happened.

Luckily for us Jonny Blake had a shot and it struck a hand. The referee gave another penalty, and they thought it was harsh from their reaction. I thought he moved his hand towards the ball, so for me it was a penalty. Gary Madine kept calm and put that one away.

We had about 15 minutes left to go after that, and we were playing against ten men, two up, and were thinking that everything in life was nice. Then Dan Wordsworth made a really bad judgement on a tackle. He's gone to ground, put a leg out, and even though he says he got the ball, it looked a clear penalty to me. Once they scored from that we found ourselves under pressure for the rest of the game. I was more frustrated with the tackle than the performance, because Dan is better than that. He's learning the hard way, with his sending off at Stockport and with this. I warned him before the game about the way he tackles in the box, so that frustrated me more than anything.

I suppose if I really sit back and think about it all, the fact that we've come back after the Christmas break, we've trained for two and a half days, we've gone back out, played in difficult conditions and we've won 2-1.

People keep telling me only good sides can do that. However, we didn't look like a good side this morning, but people keep coming up to me and saying that this is by far the best Carlisle Youth team for a bit.

I didn't see that today, but I'm ultra-critical. I've had a bit of a go in the dressing room afterwards, and the lads can't understand it, but it's only because I realise that we can achieve something this season. We won't get anywhere though, unless we play better than we did against Chester. 

I'm sure we will be better next Saturday, now that we've got that game under our belts, and we can move on to Accrington next week and expect a little bit more."

Team - Mitchell, Brown (Seaton 80), Wordsworth, Aldred, Duffy, Hindmarch, Wood (Lakeland 58), Blake, Tinnion, Cook, Madine.