Harrogate boss Simon Weaver lauded Josh March’s pace as the Forest Green forward scored his fourth goal for the Sulphurites since arriving on loan at the North Yorkshire club last month.

March won and converted a 28th-minute penalty after sprinting past lunging Carlisle captain Nick Anderton to wrap up a 1-0 League Two win.

Town manager Weaver was also impressed with how his team survived an aerial bombardment from a succession of long Josh Kayode throws into the home box.

Weaver said: “Josh’s pace invites players into making challenges on him and that’s what happened. It was a blatant penalty and he’s also stuck it away well for us.

“I am extremely happy because that’s three wins from four and it’s hugely important for us to rack up points where we can.

“It was a hard-fought battle and we came out on top against a very physical outfit.

“I have seen teams implode against their physical approach and go under.

“They turned us around in the second half and were flooding our box at set-plays and seemed to be getting bigger and bigger with every substitution they made, so we had to stand firm.

“It was tough viewing but we had to stand toe-to-toe with them and choose our moments to get the ball down and play to our attacking strengths.

“Our pitch is not the type that you can put 10 or 15 passes together on at the moment, but you can string together five or six and we did that at times.”

Carlisle boss Chris Beech was pleased to play a first game in a fortnight and only a fourth since Boxing Day but was left to lament “a daft bit of rashness” from Anderton.

He said: “It was a tight game and Harrogate showed good energy but it came down to a bit of rashness from Nick. It was daft and there was no need to do it as it wasn’t even a goalscoring situation.

“The lad was going wide of the goal and, if he hadn’t done that, it wouldn’t have been a penalty and 0-0 at half-time.

“But we also need to do better at set-plays in terms of reading second balls and wanting to get to them more than the opposition.

“We worked hard but did not have that edge to our game that makes the difference. We had a lot of strikers out there, but it just didn’t happen.

“We didn’t have that killer instinct and the final five per cent that wins you games was not there. It was great to play a game though and, hopefully, we can get some rhythm now and play more regularly.”