We spoke to Mark Hughes after today’s comeback win over Newport, firstly asking him for his overall assessment of the game.
“I thought it was great,” he said. “Difficult start, conceding first again which we're trying to avoid in every game we play but we found it difficult. The second goal was a worldy, you can't do anything about that, wind assisted so it just flew in.
“I don't think the lad has scored one before and probably won't score one again. So no doubt it's a situation that maybe if we weren't a team that were prepared just to dig in and change the situation that we found ourselves in then we would have gone under. But we got back into the game.
“It was a great goal from Georgie, he’s a good player. It was good football, a good finish and that was important for us because from that point onwards we knew that if we scored the next one then it'd be very difficult for them.
“We're delighted. I just asked out of curiosity when was the last time we came back from 2-0 down, I think it was in 2015. So that tells you something. We've done something that not too many Carlisle teams have done today.
“Maybe people have questioned us and said that we're not committed or we're not trying. Of course we're trying and we've been trying all season clearly but sometimes you just need a moment and a belief which I think we've got now. We believe we can still get out of this situation.
“We needed to win today clearly and that's what we've been able to do thankfully. It's only a start, we haven't done anything, we haven't achieved anything. We've won a game that we expected to win today so that's the first step.”
We then asked Mark how important it was that the players showed the fight to comeback from two goals down, he said: “Very much so because it's difficult to do. It doesn't matter what level you're at or what level you're playing at.
“When you're 2-0 down at home it can be very difficult but we stuck at it. I thought the fans stuck with us as well, I thought they were great in that regard. So overall we deserve what we worked really hard for and credit to the guys, I thought they were excellent today.”
Georgie Kelly scored two goals and got man of the match, we asked Mark what he thought of his performance: “Well that's his first 90 minutes for a long, long, long time. I was expecting that at some point he would have emptied his tanks and I would have had to take him off but then I was reminded he's centre forward and he's scored two goals and you don’t take that off.
“Psychologically for him just to break that barrier and play 90 minutes it's really important for him.”
Mark also commented on Jack Ellis who played left back and right back in a solid performance: “He obviously had to change positions when we lost Archie but I thought he was excellent, rock solid, did his job, understood what was required and got it done.”
Archie Davies came off with an injury in the first half, Mark gave an update on that: “It looks a bad one, he could be struggling I think now to come back before the season.”
And ahead of next weekend’s game against Morecambe he said: “We've got to keep on going, I mean Trammere have obviously had a fantastic run, they won again today and that was part of what we were up against today, we knew the result once again. I think in the last game when they'd played early again and won, I think he probably at some point did affect us so today there was a danger of that happening again but it didn't thankfully. We can't affect Trammere but we can affect Accrington so we've just got to go there and beat them and see what else happens.
“That's all we can do, we're not finished yet.”
