Carlisle United’s youth side brought some cheer to the struggling Brunton Park club with a good win over Shrewsbury Town.
A tight game was actually settled early, with the only goal of the contest coming on four minutes from striker Nic Bollado.
Youth team coach Mark Birch was especially pleased with the performance as the first team staff were watching.
He said: ““It was a win we think we deserved because the lads worked really hard from the first minute and all the way through. It’s credit to both sides because it was a great game in terms of what youth football can be about.
“It was competitive, it was aggressive, but there was a lot of good football on show as well. There was a real will to win and a desire to perform, and it was just a good game of football.
“The game started well for us even though sometimes you can think that you’ve scored too early. To be fair to the lads they went on to create the better of the chances over the rest of the 90 minutes.
“There were parts of the game where we didn’t have it our own way, but the lads concentrated, they defended as a unit and they did what was needed to get themselves back on top.
“They kept closing every ball and I can’t give them enough credit for that performance.”
Birch thought that Shrewsbury were probably the best team his team have played so far this season.
He added: “It was a demonstration of the good spirit we have in this group. The lads train all week to get three points when they play on a week-end and they don’t want to let that go easily.
“We want to take them to the next level of football, and part of that is knowing what to do when there are periods of games that aren’t going their way.
“Everybody loves the games where you win by four or five, but that can’t always be the way. Sometimes you have to do the tough and ugly stuff, and they’ve shown with this that they understand that.
“The key for them now is to understand that they’ve done this in this way, and well done for that, but it’s already gone.
“That’s another reality of football. Enjoy the win, but immediately start to think about the next game and how you can be even better. It’s the players and teams who do that who then go on to enjoy consistency and the success that brings with it.”
