United assistant manager Dennis Booth spoke exclusively to BBC Radio Cumbria yesterday afternoon as he gave his thoughts on the 2-1 comeback win over Rochdale that stretches the Blues' play-off cushion to eight points :
"It was a hard fought win. I think on our pitch it’s not going to be easy to play good football, it stood up well to it though. Yesterday it was frozen and had water lying on it, we just hoped that it would thaw out which it has done. It certainly makes it difficult to play good football on though and you have to play the conditions and I think both sides did very well today.
" In their first attack it was bad defending by us. To be fair to Blair Sturrock though he took the goal well. Sometimes when you look back on a game now you can you probably score too early, I know it sounds silly but we had 88 minutes to pull it back. We certainly struggled for 20 minutes or so to get to grips with their system and that’s why we made the change.
" They were playing three in the middle of the park and we weren’t getting to grips with it so we took Raphael Nade off and matched them up in there. Still, it was a difficult game and they had chances but we just said to the players at half-time that it wasn’t the ground to play and pass on. It had to be that we showed some spirit and dug in, they had played very well though and possibly could have been more ahead. I thought that it might be in the back of their minds that they were only winning 1-0.
" I didn’t see Danny Livesey score. I just saw the header from Kevin Gray because it was a good ball in from Adam Murray, with a good pace on the ball, when Kevin met it I thought it had gone in. I didn’t realise it had come off the bar.
" Then for some reason we went on the back foot again and they had three corners and looked very dangerous. I thought we sat in a little bit too much, we tried to get the players out but then Michael Bridges showed his class. He didn’t have the best of games by his standards with the ball bobbling about but it was a fantastic finish.
" Maybe he was trying a bit too hard but I’m not so sure. He wants to do well and he wants to play football at whatever level as he said yesterday. He’s a class player, on the pitch today some of the bobbles and things made it difficult but he never let himself get frustrated.
" That is the sign of a top player when you haven’t had such a good game and you get through in a position like that and you don’t freeze and he took it superbly. I just kept watching the ball bobble all over the place but he kept his concentration and stuck it in the net.
" If you are going to win anything, no matter what level you are at – Premiership or whatever, then you have got to have that character in your side. It’s not just about football and passing, you have to have that inner belief no matter what happens.
" There might be games again when we go 1-0 down. You can’t always get off to starts when you are winning 2-0 and 3-0 and coasting. That might happen again and you have to deal with it and I thought we dealt with it today. That’s the confidence that it brings when we are playing well.
" At the moment we are showing that we’re not going to be beaten. That’s twice now we’ve come back from behind, here and against Wrexham. It’s not easy because Wrexham are a good side and certainly Rochdale were a good side as well today. I thought they played very well and you look at them losing four on the trot and you wonder how, because they did play well today.
" It was a great birthday present for Danny Livesey but as I say I didn’t know he’d scored. He said he fancied scoring, it doesn’t matter who scores really. He did tap it in though and I’m pleased for him. He can’t have a drink anyway so I’ll probably have his drink for him.
" We enjoy the big games but when the games are coming this quick you can’t just switch off. We’ve got to go again as Grimsby have got to go again and their home record hasn’t been as good their away record which is surprising because I’ve been to Blundell Park a few times and I always found it a difficult place to go to.
" We shouldn’t have any fears over going there though, we’re a decent side and they are so it should be a cracking match. We’ll prepare properly for the game, we’re going down there tomorrow and staying over and we’ll be ready for the game.
" At the moment there is a promotion battle coming up but there is a long way to go yet. We don’t get carried away with it, we just take it, I know it’s the old cliché, one game at a time. We can’t do any more than we are doing, it’s nice to win but we’re not going overboard at all about it, we just keep ticking along and if we’re there at the end then so be it.
" For the New Year I wish we get automatic promotion obviously, that is what we would all like and if not that then the play-offs. The crowd stick with us and if they see us battling and fighting like that then they stick with us. Like I say we got off to a poor start and we were very edgy then but we got through those fifteen minutes.
" We want to try and make it difficult for teams to come here, it‘s always been a difficult ground when I’ve played here. Certainly that’s what we want to try and make it again because we do get the best gates in the League without a doubt. Good support, brilliant support infact. "