Following United’s 2-1 win away to Altrincham, we spoke to Head Coach Mark Hughes.
Speaking to CUTV, he said: “There was a lot of different conditions today, I think everybody saw what we're up against, up against a good team, elements, sending’s off, so to come through all that, that's a really pleasing performance from my point of view.
“Just to show the character of the guys and how close they are as a team at the moment, they're all working exceptionally hard to make sure that we're getting the right results, and I was really pleased, proud of that performance.”
On Cameron Harper’s second-half sending off, he said: “It's a nothing challenge, it's a challenge that happens 20, 30 times in the game, it's just coming together, not every foul is a free kick even, and certainly not every foul is a booking, but it seemed like at one point it was.
“The one thing I said at half-time is that I said be very, very careful because we can't lose anybody to a sending off, I shouldn't have to say that at half-time, but that was a real concern for us and lo and behold, nine minutes later, we're down to 10 men, nothing we could do about it.”
The Blues took an early lead when Georgie Kelly forced Lewis Banks to head into his own goal before Regan Linney fired a stunning effort into the top left corner to regain United’s advantage after Jimmy Knowles had levelled the scores from the spot.
“Georgie (Kelly) will always affect the opposition in their own box, and I thought he was excellent, certainly when we went down to ten men, he gave us a focal point and never stopped running.
“(I’m) really pleased for him, he's had a good weekend, it was a good effort.
“The second goal is what we expect at the moment from Regan (Linney), it was a fantastic strike and I felt certainly the majority of the game we're in good control, we came out for the second half in good control again and then it's a little bit back to the ball, but in saying that, they never really created a mountain of chances, three or four maybe balls across the box that we dealt with and had to deal with.
“But apart from that, we're still in control, still out of shape and understood what we needed to do.”
On Regan Linney, he continued: “I thought initially they were trying to rile him a little bit, and I thought he showed good control, just got on with hurting the opposition like we know he can by scoring goals, and that's what his focus was.
“He didn't get involved in too much in terms of the crowd or their players, his ex-team is trying to get him booked or whatever, he just got on with it and got his reward with a fantastic goal again.”
United showed resilience and determination to defend the lead despite being down to ten men for the majority of the second half.
“They stood up in fairness, everybody did, Gilly (Alex Gilliead) was in there, I saw Harvey (Macadam) came on and really blocked everybody out and David (Ajiboye) and JJ (Jordan Jones) and gave us an outlet to carry the ball forward.
“(I’m) really pleased with everybody who made a contribution today.”
On Jordan Jones' return to the matchday squad: “He's been playing really well, and he's not ready to start games yet, but he gets on the ball, and he's got good quality. It was good to see him out.”
Luke Armstrong missed out due to illness: “We just got the message yesterday morning, and I think he's still in bed, so we hope it's just a 24-hour thing and he'll be an option for Tuesday, but we'll have to wait and see.
On the test York City will provide in midweek, he said: “They're a good side, they're one of the better sides in this league, so it'll be a good game, looking forward to it, we're in a rich vein of form.
“Four wins on the belt, I'm not quite sure when the last time Carlisle team did that, so we're in good shape going into a game that will test us, but I think they got beat, so they'll be wanting to bounce back quickly.
“It'll be a really good game, I'm sure it will.”
A brilliant 1,056 fans travelled to Altrincham to witness the Blues' fourth win in a row.
“Yeah, they were great, they really enjoyed themselves, everybody was soaking wet at the end, but nobody was going to leave, so yeah, it was great to share that with them.”
