Striker Ashley Nadesan bagged the winner for the Blues in their home victory over Crewe Alexandra on Saturday afternoon, and it was also his first goal here at Brunton Park in what is his second loan spell with the clu
We caught up with him shortly after full time at the weekend to get his thoughs on the finish on the what was the team's third consecutive league win, taking them up to fourth in the League Two table.
“It’s a bit of a relief to get my first goal at Brunton Park,” he admitted. “It was frustrating through my loan spell last season, and the couple of games I’ve played here this season, to not get a goal here, so it’s pleasing. The fact that it’s meant we’ve picked up the three points makes it an even better feeling.
“The game plan was for me to play on Raynesy [Michael Raynes], so when Benno [Richie Bennett] won the flick-ons I just kept running in behind. For most of the game that wasn’t working, because the ball just wasn’t bouncing to me, but the one time it did I took the chance.
“I had another chance before the goal and I waited too long, so I just wanted to get my shot off straight away. In training at Fleetwood the keepers always seem to keep their legs open, so I thought I’d go for that one.
“To get the goal here so early into my second spell means the world, especially when it means we get the three points and the fans got right behind us. It was a tough game and both sides had chances, we know we aren’t going to get the rub of the green all of the time, and these are the games we need to grind out and win."
“I think we were sixth before the game and the win has taken us up to fourth, so we’re pushing at the right end of the table," he said. "There’s obviously a long, long way to go but it’s always nice to be at that end of the table.
"After the game on Tuesday we looked and we were sixth, and we were a bit gutted after today’s game because if we’d scored more goals we could have been third.
“It was a difficult game, but I think those are the games where you find out about the players. All of us dug deep, especially after the injury to Joe [Fryer] which set us back, but Adam Collin came in and produced some quality saves to keep us in it. We all obviously wish Joe a speedy recovery, as well as Danny [Grainger] who had to go off earlier in the game."
“I think me and Benno have a good connection, which is great news for all of us," he commented. "When we attack, we do it with a front four, with Hallam [Hope] and Jerry [Yates] on the wings, and Devitt coming in behind.
"We attack as a team and defend as a team, and it seems to be working so far. I think we’re going into games expecting good performances from one another. We’re expecting three points, but we’re not putting too much pressure on ourselves, we just want to keep impressing the gaffer and doing well for everyone around us.
“We knew that Crewe would want to bounce back from their bad result on Tuesday night, and we also saw at the start of the season that they were capable of turning teams over by 6-0 as well. Brunton Park is a tough place to come for teams, and although they didn’t sit back, they did invite pressure and thankfully we managed to get the goal."
On just how quickly he's settled back in to life in Cumbria, he said: “When I came back Parkesy [Tom Parkes] was joking with me and saying that 'Mr Carlisle' was back, but I can’t take that title!
"It’s just a good feeling to be somewhere where all of the fans, players and management are supporting you."
“We had a steady start to the season but I think we’re starting to find out feet now," he continued. "Everyone is learning about how each other plays and we’ll all just keep working hard to impress the gaffer in training. He’s sticking with the same team at the moment, while we get the results, but it’s about the squad as a whole."
“It was one of those games where neither team wanted to concede a goal, and we have been solid in the last three games," he said. "It was disappointing to concede the set piece on Tuesday, but we still got the result which is what mattered.
"Crewe obviously didn’t want to concede as many as they did on Tuesday, but it was all about us opening the deadlock and once we did that we had a few more chances. We should have wrapped it up really, but we don’t seem to make things easy for ourselves.
“We’ve had a tough week with three games so we’ll have a day off for recovery then in the early part of the week we’ll work our way back into training. We’ll be looking forward to the game against Mansfield and hopefully getting another good result to keep the confidence up.
“The players are full of confidence and the gaffer has got confidence in us, and it feels like the fans are starting to believe a little bit again. We can only look up from here.”
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