United ran out 2-1 winners in this weekend’s contest as they welcomed Tamworth to Brunton Park. A Georgie Kelly brace either side of a Gabe Breeze penalty save was enough to see off The Lambs.
Manager Mark Hughes spoke to CUTV to give his assessment of the victory.
Here’s everything we learnt:
1. A tough affair
“It was a tricky game, a tricky fixture. Tamworth have some way of playing and unless you take care of the business and understand what they're going to do and recognise their strengths, then they can hurt you.
For the most part I thought we were excellent, first half especially, but you're always at risk if they put the right ball in and we just got done on the second phase. Up to that point I thought we were excellent in terms of how we moved the ball and executing what we talked about.”
2. Blessing in disguise
“Obviously came out second half and I didn't feel it was a penalty. I haven't seen it again but I can see why it's been given. Then a great save from Gabe.
I think that's what we needed at that point just to shake us up a get us back on track for the second half. In the end we've won the game but made how many chances I have no idea. How many shots? It must be in the twenties I would of thought.
So overall a good performance and a better result than Eastleigh which is what we needed today.”
3. Patience is key
“You can't always keep on putting the ball forward. Sometimes you just have to find a way and if they get enough numbers across, then you've got to start again and then go out the other side. I thought we were good in that regard.
I thought we shifted the ball really quickly and we were able to isolate them in wider areas on numerous occasions. We just needed that one ball into the box to get our noses in front. Once that happened I always felt that we'd win the game.”
4. Georgie gets his reward
“He's had a number of good performances without the goals to illustrate that fact.
[I’m] Pleased for him, he works exceptionally well and exceptionally hard for the team. He got his reward today thankfully.”
5. A handful for defenders
“Strikers are judged by goals so it's good that he's got on the score sheet. I think at times we need to probably get more bodies in the box. [Georgie] He was up against two big guys that were obviously taking it in turns to get tight to him so that can't be helped.
I've played that type of game for a long time myself and I know how difficult it can be. I've got a lot of empathy with Georgie but we constantly got into wide areas always and looked like we could penetrate and get balls across the box.
Thankfully it was a good ball across and a good finish at the end.”
6. More than goals
“Georgie's obviously an intelligent guy and knows what he needs. He's always thinking about well how can I bring other people into the game and give them what they need from his presence on the field so that's good.
Like I said, he's an intelligent player and he's always thinking of how he can affect the opposition and that comes from understanding his teammates as well in terms of what they want.”
7. Controversial call
I thought it was miles over, but the linesman apparently told the fourth official that it was nowhere near which I'm not quite sure where he's got that idea.
It looked like he'd clearly just got the hand back and brought the ball back in so at that point, you're a bit aggrieved because you think it's a clear goal.”
8. Staying level-headed
It was no panic. I wasn't going to go in there and rant and rave because we weren't winning by two or three, which we certainly should have been.
I was pleased with the performance [by half-time] and what we were producing so it was no drama. We just got on with the business of making sure that we won the game which we were able to do.”
9. Dominant display
“Teams will come and try and frustrate us. They will work on percentages and hope to get a break in the game and capitalise and credit Eastleigh did the same.
Tamworth have done the same and they've all got good players within their group that can hurt you so you've still got to be really vigilant. That was a good aspect of our play today.
I thought after the penalty awarded and Gabe's save, I thought we were really focused on what we needed to do from that point on.”
10. Stepping up when needed
“[Gabe] He didn't have a great deal to do in the game in fairness. That's great to see from the guys in front of him.
You want your goalkeeper to step up when needed. That's a sign of a good keeper when you keep your concentration and you understand for long periods you're not going to be involved.
You've still got to be engaged in what's happening in front of you and help the guys to make good decisions. He's constantly talking to the lads at the back which helps them and they help him.”
11. Eleven unbeaten
“It's been amazing. We're on a fantastic run of 11 unbeaten and we're still not top of the league. That tells you how relentless this this league is so we've just got to take care of what we can take care of.
Time and time again, we're doing that at the moment and we've just got to hope that other teams around us slip up. They will do, we feel, but in a sense we're strong at the moment.”
12. Magic of the FA Cup
“We've probably got a bit of a break from week in week out in terms of the league itself. There's a little break at the weekend.
We can enjoy ourselves, we've got a great following coming with us and it's the FA Cup. Why wouldn't you want to enjoy it?”
