Carlisle United boss Mark Hughes wasn’t reading too much into his side’s 2-0 friendly win at AFC Fylde.
Speaking to CUTV, Hughes said: “It was a good exercise but we don’t really put value on wins and draws in pre-season because there’s too many changes.
“Obviously, we did wholesale changes after 60 minutes, so it’s always going to affect the rhythm and what we produce.
“But yeah, I was happy enough. More difficult for the lads that just had the 30 minutes. Lads that were on for 60 minutes had a better chance to get to grips with what we were talking about before the game.
“I thought we showed good signs, created a lot of chances in that first half hour, so a score of two could have been more.”
The fact that the goals came from two forwards – one of them new to the club, particularly pleased Hughes.
Luke Armstrong and recent signing Regan Linney both hit the target.
Hughes said: “They looked bright and lively.
“We’ve seen that in pre-season already. They don’t give back fours a moment’s rest, so that’s going to be encouraging for us moving forward. It’s always important that strikers get off the mark, even if it’s just in pre-season.
“When you come to a new club as well, like Regan, that’s important for him just to get off the mark. Pre-season friendly goals still count.”
At the other end of the park Hughes also had special words for Gabe Breeze who made a couple of excellent saves.
He said: “Gabe’s had a good pre-season. He made a couple of outstanding saves, but we’ve come to expect that from him.”
Discussing the general fitness of his players Hughes said: “I thought they looked okay. It’s a little bit different when you play an actual competitive game, but the work that we’ve been doing ever since we’ve been here, we’re training twice, 90 minutes every session, so the actual minutes on the pitch won’t affect them.
“It’s just that competitive edge that we have to add to our game.”
