Wednesday 8 October 2014 13:32, UK
Rob Edwards has urged his struggling Tranmere players to take confidence from their JPT penalty shootout win over Carlisle.
Rovers booked their quarter-final spot thanks to a 5-4 win on penalties, with Ben Davies slotting the decisive spot-kick. It came after United's Brad Potts had cancelled out Max Power's first-half goal with a 76th-minute equaliser. And Edwards, who took charge in May following their club's relegation to League Two and whose side sit above second-bottom Carlisle on goal difference, said: "I'm happy that we've won the match but it was a struggle at times. I think it actually shows us all and me where the players are confidence wise. "Carlisle played well, they've had two good results, got a new manager and they came here and played well whereas at times we didn't look like we could run. "There's a lot of voices in the players' heads due to lack of confidence but the game was about winning and we did that. "I know our results haven't been great but we looked nervous at times, which I don't really understand - they're not feeling free to play. "I know it's not a great position we're in but I haven't gone hard at them this season since I've come in. "I was aware that it was a group that needed to build confidence on the back of relegation. We've won the game and it will give us a platform." Carlisle started brightly with Steven Rigg and Billy Paynter heading off target before Power pounced upon Jason Koumas' parried free-kick on 40 minutes to give Tranmere the lead. But the visitors got a deserved equaliser when Rigg played in Potts to equalise and despite coming out on the wrong side in the shootout, manager Keith Curle was upbeat. "Obviously I'm disappointed to be on the losing side but I think there's plenty of positives that we can take out of the game out there," he said. "Firstly I felt that we started the game the brighter of the two sides and we could have been two up during that early spell of pressure that we had. "Secondly we showed great character to come back into the game after going a goal down, undeservedly I felt I must say, and then after that we were the only team that looked like we were going to score and we pretty much pegged them into their own box in the final five minutes. "Then after that penalties is a lottery and we were just unlucky, I thought we might have gone on to win the shootout after their lad missed the final one but it wasn't to be and we now move on."