Preston boss Graham Westley spoke to his club's official website and the Lancashire Evening Telegraph after his side's 1-1 draw and subsequent 3-1 Johnstone's Paint Trophy penalty shootout victory over Carlisle at Brunton Park, Westley saying it was a scruffy performance from the North End players:
"We did what winners do, we found a way. It was a scruffy performance from us, in fairness you could see that we were forced into a lot of changes tonight and the performance was disjointed in all sorts of ways. We needed to get some freshness into the side but I thought as a unit defensively we lacked a little bit of structure and in possession we lacked a bit of composure and quality.
"Some of the partnerships in defence and in attack were new ones. Players didn't have an easy job of it tonight, they really had to work hard to get themselves together and play enough football to win the game. It wasn't a nice night, it was a scrappy performance but they have done the job. You send them out there with that as the intention, make sure that we are in the hat when we get back in.
"We have had to do it on penalties, they have shown good nerve and good quality with their penalties on the whole and Simo (Steve Simonsen) has done the job of making a save. He will be glad to get a penalty shootout under his belt that has actually ended victorious I'm sure. I think the rules are there to make sure teams treat the competition seriously. We will treat every game we play in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy with a serious nature and Carlisle do as well. No rule can stand in the way of putting the best side out on the pitch to win the game.
“When you only have 48 hours’ recovery from the previous game, believe me you need to dig into the squad to give yourself a chance. I didn’t want to put tired players out there that couldn’t perform to the level needed to win the game. We had to do what we did to be in the next round. You could see with one or two incidents where concentration levels dropped .
"Chris Beardsley needed a goal, he has not scored since he has been here either in pre-season or in the regular season here. He will get his ten or twelve or fifteen goals like Beardo does, he will lead the line with a lot of hard work and a lot of urgency and a lot of desire and drive. He will always chip in with his goals. But, when you haven't got one for your new club it is always good to get that first one, whether it goes in off the back of your head or your backside, it doesn't matter, it went in off the back of his heel and he will be delighted to have notched."
"Bailey Wright as well leads by example, whenever he pulls on a shirt you know he is going to give you 100%. You want your captain to do lots of things but leading by example is a fantastic way of creating a captaincy role. I think it was an easy job to give Bailey the captaincy and he did it very well. I haven’t appointed a vice-captain at the club because there is enough leaders when John Mousinho isn’t in the side, you are spoilt for choice who to gve the armband too.
"Their goal was a scraggy goal, we made so many errors during the build-up and it was just a horrible goal to concede. I thought they deserved it, they had had other chances before that in the first-half, the boy (Jake Jervis) lifted it over when he really should have done better. So, you couldn't say that it was a bolt out of the blue, I think it was a deserved equaliser.
"But, you have got to remember they had their front line eleven out there and we have had to make these changes with the game on Sunday having been so close behind us. So, under the circumstances our lads who came in who faced all the difficulty of travelling away and all the change, they have dug in and done a decent job for the club.
"It was a terrific move that almost won us the game late on, Jeffrey (Monakana) was on by that stage and he carried on where he has left off in previous games. He has great ability and Akpo Sodje is in great goal scoring form and you would have expected for him to put it in but it was a terrific move and it could have easily won us the game.
"On the penalties they showed nerve, they showed courage and they showed real desire in the way that they did things. The penalty situation is not easy, especially in front of a hostile home crowd who were doing their utmost to help the home club as you would expect. But, the boys did the job in a courageous and very professional way."