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" I’m absolutely delighted for the players because they have had a hard week, we asked for a response from them, and this is what we’ve had today. I think we’ve been absolutely superb with some clinical finishing but the big thing today was our attitude to working. They have all closed down, chased things around and we’ve thoroughly deserved it.
" On team selection, eyebrows are raised whatever I do to be fair, you get criticised for one defeat, I don’t really care what people other think. I picked a side that I thought was going to win the game today, I picked a side that I thought could cope with anything Chester did and I don’t need to say anything else really.
" The second goal was a killer for them, it was important that we got another, I felt we could have got goals before we got our first one. I was disappointed not to have gone ahead and the big thing that I feared was because we’d had that domination early on in the game and we didn’t get a goal, I did worry that it was going to go against us.
" We kept battling away though and got our reward. I think the second goal is probably as good a goal as I have seen for a long, long time and it shows the sort of quality that Michael Bridges has got. He’s getting fitter, he’s getting stronger, he loves it at the moment and hopefully there is more of that to come.
" The big point in the game was the penalty save. We wanted a good start in the second-half, we said at half-time that if there is going to be another goal we’ve to make sure that it’s us who are scoring that and we don’t put ourselves under pressure. I was disappointed with the way we defended the ball to start with down the line, then it’s a lazy little flick out from Peter Murphy, I think it was, to give the penalty away. Keiren Westwood has done his job though, he’s saved it with his feet, it doesn’t matter how he does it and we’ve gone on and got stronger and stronger as the game has gone on from there. "
" I’m delighted that Karl Hawley got a goal and Glenn Murray has got another one. We just need to keep working away, keep moving and hopefully we won’t get carried away by going top today and we can keep everybody’s feet on the ground again.
" I kept Derek Holmes on, I knew he was shattered but I tried to keep him on to see if he could get himself a goal, he didn’t though but he did a major part for the team today as I think a lot of people did. I thought Chris Billy was absolutely superb in there, Adam Murray was excellent, Chris Lumsdon looked more comfortable on the right-hand side and was putting balls through and getting into good areas.
" The back four looked strong, Zigor Aranalde looked happier playing at left-back and all-in-all I think it was a very, very strong team performance, against, what I still believe are a good side in Chester. They didn’t show it today but I think the way they played early in the season at their place shows that they have got the players and they can cause problems.
" As footballers you are there to be shot all the time so that’s something that you shouldn’t fear. We’re top of the league and we deserve to be, there is nobody that can say it is luck. We are there because we have earned the right, we are there because we have kept things right and we’ve kept working hard. This week has been a physical week, there will no be let-up next week, we’ve got some massive games to come and we want to keep this feeling that we’ve got today, keep looking at that table, be top of it and keep everybody right.
" The crowd saw a true Carlisle United performance today, hopefully we can keep building on that. We’ve been up here now virtually all season and hopefully we can keep that fanbase going, we’ve got a real tough game next weekend, we know we are going to get good support, particularly from our London branch supporters. We’ll go there full of confidence, looking forward to it but making sure that we do the same things that we did today. "