Mike Williamson lauds Carlisle’s ‘heart and personality’ in win at Salford

Manager Mike Williamson was overjoyed as Carlisle scored late to beat Salford 1-0 at the Peninsula Stadium.

After a tightly-contested first half, where Salford bossed possession, the away side muscled their way into the ascendancy and took a deserved lead in the 88th minute when Ben Barclay rose highest to nod home Harrison Biggins’ teasing corner.

He said: “I thoroughly enjoyed that, we created plenty of chances, which was pleasing, and it was nice to top the performance off with a set-piece goal.

“We had to be really resilient in the first half, our defenders put their body on the line.

“In the second half we were on the front foot a lot more and we showed the desire to play forward and run forward. We entered their box a few times and could have created more for our attacking play.

“We knew today was going to be tough, we knew the opposition would want to get bodies in the box but we stood up to it.

“You have to appreciate the stress and the pressure the boys are under at the moment. They showed real heart and personality to defend like they did in the first half and take their chances in the second half.

“We have a lot of personality and spirit and we need to show that consistently now. We have showed glimpses of being hard to play against and we are able to sustain attacks, we have to try and get on the front foot in matches like we did today.”

Counterpart Karl Robinson saw positive signs in Salford’s first-half showing but was disappointed in his team’s second-half display.

He said: “I don’t think we were bad today.

“I didn’t expect us to play so well and convincingly in the first half and then concede the goal we did from the set-play in the second. We need to score more goals even when we have been winning we have been hanging on.

“The frustrating thing for me is when you go in 0-0 and then you come out in the second half and begin to look a little bit suspect. I was more worried the longer the game went on.

“I’m not pleased with the defeat but I am pleased with about 80 per cent of the performance. It’s so frustrating because everything is so close in this league.

“How you take defeats is going to be a support mechanism, you have to lose with class and look at yourself first.

“We will make sure we get things right moving forward. We still feel like we have players good enough to get us out of this league but we need more from our front players.”