Michael Duffy is more than happy for Cheltenham to win ugly after a 2-1 win at Carlisle sent them into the League Two automatic promotion places.

Goals from Will Boyle and Conor Thomas, from the spot, were enough to get the Robins back to winning ways.

Goal machine Jon Mellish’s 11th goal in as many games was a mere consolation for the hosts.

“I’m delighted,” reflected the Cheltenham manager. “We’ve shown another side of us today.

“I almost asked the lads for a dogged performance and I didn’t expect it to end up like that.

“I think we’ve asked for a bit too much recently, we can’t always be an open, attacking team.

“We’ve given away some soft goals and soft performances recently really.

“The reaction to going a goal up has been to keep playing but it’s an attritional league.

“The message we need to be sending out to the lads was ‘let’s get back to basics’.

“I always do a presentation before the game and the last slide was to get back to basics.

“We had to get back to what last season was built on and that’s the horrible, gritting it out side of the game.

“Today the football didn’t come out but we still won the game and sooner or later that will come out as well.

“I was disappointed with their goal just before half time because it gave them an incentive.”

Despite seeing his side’s unbeaten home start come to an end, Carlisle boss Chris Beech was full of praise for his players.

He admitted: ”All I could say to the lads at full time was well done.

“They’ve given everything but we just didn’t get that second goal. The frustrating part is that we deserved it.

“It’s always difficult to go two behind to a good team, and they certainly used situations to their advantage.

“Their first is a poor goal to concede but they’ve got a long throw and they use it well.

“As far as the penalty is concerned it was a foul on Jon Mellish before that incident happened.

“Credit to Jon because it’s 11 in 11 for him now and he keeps growing in confidence.

“We need support from others, we know that, but it will come. The chances are being created and the build-up play is excellent.

“Perhaps I need to speak to our lads and ask them to bring some of those lower league dark arts into their game.

“We don’t play that way, where you see other teams crowding the referee and using every avenue to waste a bit of time.

“I like the way we’re playing at the moment, it’s where our good run has come from.

“They’re as disappointed as anyone else but they come out of it knowing they represented themselves and the club really well.”