Mark Hughes was thrilled to get his first home win as Carlisle manager after the Blues beat Bromley 2-1 to reignite their battle to stay in the Football League.
Stephen Wearne and Callum Whelan both got their first goals since making the move to Cumbria in January, with Bromley hitting back through former Carlisle man Harry McKirdy, who received a frosty reception from the home faithful throughout.
Hughes said: “I thought we were excellent, I was really pleased for the lads, I thought they put a huge shift in. We showed good quality and were brave in and out of possession too.
“Maybe we’ve been questioned about whether we have the ability to put in a performance like that and we’ve proved a lot of people wrong.
“We’ve set a standard now, our general play was excellent and we’ve just got to replicate it now.”
The Blues have been plagued by their inability to get the first goal in games, but they did through Wearne, with Hughes adament it was pivotal to the win.
“I said before the game that the first goal shapes the game and shapes the confidence of the team,” he added.
“We were disappointed with their equaliser, it could have been avoided, it probably comes as a consequence of the season we’ve had and we had a bit of a wobble then but we picked ourselves up again.”
The win moves Carlisle to level on points with second-bottom Morecambe and they are seven points behind third-bottom Tranmere with a game in hand, which will be played against MK Dons on Tuesday.
On the other hand, Bromley boss Andy Woodman admitted that his side “weren’t good enough” as their play-off hopes were dented.
Woodman said: “It was a tough one to take, but you’ve got to respect the league.
“Carlisle are fighting for their lives and are in a position that they shouldn’t really be in given the size of their budget and the size of their squad, but they are.
“Mark (Hughes) and Glyn (Hodges) have got them scrapping and fighting and churning out results, which is what they did today.
“That’s what happens in the game, you’ve got to scrap and fight and they did that better than us.
“I’ve been Reading Carlisle’s reports and watching their games ahead of our game against them and you just know it’s going to turn for them, we were hoping it was going to be their next game when it did and credit to them, they’ve ground out a result and we didn’t take our chances.”
Bromley had plenty of chances to find the equaliser in the second half, with Jude Arthurs, Nicke Kabamba and Michael Cheek all missing the target from good positions during the second half, and Woodman admitted that the Ravens’ missed chances cost them.
“When you come to these places you know you have to weather a storm of some sorts and get through that period and we did weirdly enough and we should have been out of sight, but we weren’t good enough and I’ve got to be brutally honest about that.”
