Following Carlisle United's 1–0 defeat at Rochdale, we spoke to manager Mark Hughes.
Speaking to CUTV, Hughes reflected on a tactical contest decided by fine margins, the players’ commitment, and the focus on a quick response in the next fixture.
Here is everything we learnt:
1. A tight affair
"Very few teams have come here and restricted them to so little opportunities or so little progressive play. I thought our game plan was spot on. We managed the game very comfortably.
We made one mistake on a set play, and that's what's changed the game. So it's gone in their favour.”
2. Positives to take
“We're disappointed because we came here with a structure to our play. You have to manage your game against these sides with a little bit of thought and care, and that's what we did, waiting for them to come on to us.
"Good moments when we broke quickly, which was our intention on transition. But didn't really have that one great chance."
3. “Fine margins”
"They found it very difficult against us to really create anything of note, and I think we deserve some credit for that. I mean, they've had one shot.
"We didn't have too many ourselves, but the reality is that we've come and had a game plan, executed it almost to a tee and then, as a consequence of just at the back post, we just switched off.
"We can't allow the lad to get at the far post, and that's the difference in the game, and that's all it is. Fine margins.”
4. Tactical insight
“They want you to rush out in ones and twos, and they just pick you off, and then they can get their sixes. They have two lads today who've been really instrumental in how well they've done this season.
"They didn't get a kick because they couldn't get on the ball. So, yeah, it's disappointing because I felt the lads absolutely deserved something out of the game today.”
5. Credit to the hosts
“We want to transition quickly. There was a couple of occasions when we just misplaced that first pass, but we talked about that. We felt that was the way to go, and that was probably an element of our play we needed just to improve on, because I think that would have hurt them really badly.
"But overall, like I said, we went up against a very good team. I came here the other day when they played Boreham Wood and absolutely wiped the floor with Boreham Wood; that was never going to happen today against us.
6. Tactical battle
“You want to get on the end of something, you just need one cross, one quality pass into the right person at the right time, and then you're back on level terms.
"It was just a game that was very tactical today from both sides, and to all intents and purposes, where we cancelled each other out, but it's just that one moment that they've had."
7. Debut for Hugh Parker
“He looks like a confident boy. He's got good attributes, we've had good reports on him, and he can help us.
"Obviously, there's a number of players missing today, Georgie (Kelly) and Regan (Linney), and the likelihood is they're going to be out for a few weeks, so it's good that we've been able to bring him in.”
8. Injury update
Well, Georgie's got an issue with his thigh, so he's going to be out for three to four weeks. Regan's got a virus that can sometimes drag on. We're hopeful that it might resolve itself by the end of next week, but we can't really put a timescale on Regan.
"I mean, he (Chris Conn-Clarke) hasn't had much training, I was wondering whether or not to really put him on the bench because the reality is he hasn't trained much."
9. Looking ahead to Tuesday
“Yeah, confidence-wise, I think we're in a good place. I thought the performance merited something, certainly I thought the draw was probably the real outcome that should have happened, but as I said, one set play where everybody didn't actually do their jobs correctly, and that can be the difference in top games.”
