After United’s 2-0 win at home to Aldershot Town, we spoke to Head Coach Mark Hughes.
Speaking to CUTV on the fans staying behind to congratulate him, he said: “Great, I was in my room after the game for a little bit longer, but they stopped waiting just to say hello, so that's always appreciated.
“I thank them for that.”
On the performance, he said: “I was really pleased with how we approached it today.
“Obviously, we were playing at a side that scored lots and lots of goals, and to be able to keep them out, keep a clean sheet again against a side that's obviously quite expansive, take chances and commit people forward, which is an obvious strength of theirs.
“But it's a weakness as well because you can exploit going the other way, and thankfully, that's how the game panned out.
“We were able to take care of business and take a couple of chances when obviously I think in the first half we had a number of really clear good chances to keep and make some outstanding saves in fairness, but we got the job done.
“No drama either at the end, so that's how I like games to pan out.”
He continued: “In fairness to their staff and Tommy (Widdrington), very complimentary in terms of their view of us as a team, so you take note of that, when opposition management say that you're one of the better teams, then obviously you take that as a compliment.
“It was important that we did our job correctly today because, like I said, I thought they were a good team and could have caused us problems if we had hit our rivals today.”
The Shots’ keeper, Marcus Dewhurst, made a string of excellent saves to keep the scores level at the break to Hughes’ frustration.
“A little bit, but we just felt that if we kept on pressing and creating the openings that we know we will do, we felt that the opportunity would come.
“Once we got the one, we did feel that we'd have other opportunities to take the game away from them, and that's how the game panned out. So overall, very satisfied.”
On the game plan, he said: “We've always got a plan, it's a case of just making sure that instead of the opposition dictating their plan to you, we have to have the ability and the understanding to be able to dictate to them, and I think that's what we did.
“We had a clear plan in terms of obviously putting pressure on their back three, and like I said, very expansive, but we felt that if we could win good early balls and release people with good first passes.
“We were a little bit inaccurate in the first half, in fairness, and I think if we had just a little bit of accuracy in our play in that first half, we would have had even more opportunities than goals, but as it was, we took the game away from them in the second half and very comfortable.”
Defenders Terell Thomas and Bevis Mugabi were key in the victory, keeping a third clean sheet in a row.
“Absolutely, I thought the two centre halves today were outstanding.
“Bevis (Mugabi) and T (Terell Thomas) were excellent once again, and that gives us a platform that didn't allow them to get a foothold on the game. They weren't able to retain the ball top end of the pitch because Bevis and T were so dominant.
“Big performances from them too, and lots of good performances right through the team.”
On Bevis Mugabi, he continued: “He's a player we're delighted with, clearly shows his quality every single day in fairness and in training, and what have you is his attitude and his approach to the game is first class.
“He looked like a fully qualified full international, which he is what he is so that's the quality that he's showing at the moment, and we're benefiting from that.”
On keeping another clean sheet: “You always have to factor in the strength of the opposition and what the opposition will allow you to do, like I said before the game, there's a little bit of concern because of the amount of goals that all the shots have scored and the chances they create.
“So it was about making sure that we were rock solid in terms of limiting the key players from having an influence on the game, and that's what we're able to do, so that was a big part of the plan, and we benefited from executing that part.
“I call them games with no drama and that's the ones I like had a little bit of play they were a little bit more direct towards the end just to try and get past that back line but in fairness the back four weren't going to allow that to happen and yeah we dealt with pretty much everything that they were trying to trying to affect us with so all in all very satisfied.”
Hughes reflected on Morgan Feeney making the bench, he said: “It wasn't the game to get him involved; we were quite solid at the back, so no problems there, but it's good to see him back in the playing squad, so we'll try and get him some more games on.”
