Carlisle boss Mike Williamson has challenged his players to use their 2-1 win at Fleetwood as a catalyst for avoiding relegation.
The Cumbrians dominated the first half and led at the break through Cedwyn Scott.
They were pegged back 20 minutes from time when Ronan Coughlan fired in an equaliser but then snatched victory courtesy of Sam Lavelle’s winner five minutes from time.
And having climbed off the foot of the table with the victory, Williamson is demanding more from his squad as they look to climb away from danger.
“I’ve got mixed emotions because of the contrast of the halves,” he said. “But I can only praise their character and personality in the second half.
“I don’t want to talk about anything that wasn’t good because there were things there and I think those things are obvious and we need to nullify them and get rid of them from our game. But the spirit got us through – even after missing chances and then taking that blow conceding the goal – and for us to come back and get the win was really enjoyable.
“In the first half when we were really on the front foot, we created good opportunities that we didn’t take. And then obviously we get the goal, which was really good. And then our mission and our challenge to them is to keep those habits consistent.
“The recovery after their goal was fantastic, and the fight and spirit in the end was brilliant to see.
“I’ve said to them in there, this has got to be the catalyst. It wasn’t pretty at times. And we’ve certainly got much more quality. We’ve got to build off the first-half performance again. We’ve got to learn, we’ve got to use that, use that energy and the connection we found with the fans.
“It’s got to be a real foundation for us to jump up the table and move forward.”
Cod Army boss Pete Wild had warned against any complacency in the week and said his Fleetwood players looked somewhat leggy throughout, although he was pleased that they managed to fight their way back into the game.
“I’ve been quite clear with everybody all week that, if we’re half a yard off it we’ll get beat,” he said.
“I didn’t think we started that great and we gave Carlisle a leg up in the game. We looked tired. We put a lot of effort into this week so it was a tough ask to go again, but you have to and that’s the position – we had to go again.
“We gave Carlisle a leg up in the game before we finally decided to get going. I thought we finished the first half really strongly and I felt better going into half-time.
“In the second half we changed shape and tried to get more people higher up the pitch. I thought it worked and it was the case of when we were going to score. In the second half, we were back to what we want to be – on the front foot, attacking and being the aggressor.
“When we scored we then tried to go and win the game. We weren’t settling for a point with over 20 minutes to go. And again, I was really happy with how we went about it, how we were trying to break them down and how we were creating chances.
“We’ve had two kicked off the line and we were finishing strongly. Today shows we’ve got a lot of hard work ahead of us, a lot of work to do.”
