Carlisle United boss salutes win at Bolton Wanderers

Jordan Gibson’s hat-trick earned the Blues a memorable 3-1 win against the high-fliers.

Gibson’s inspired afternoon delighted a 4,407 travelling support as Carlisle secured their first away win of the season in style.

Simpson saluted United’s number seven but also shared praise around the whole team.

“We’re all delighted, you can tell from the feeling in the changing room. I’m chuffed to bits for everybody,” said the manager.

“It’s a big result. Gibbo obviously gets the plaudits because he’s got a ball under his arm but it was everybody who earned that result, even the lads not involved in the starting XI, all the staff…everybody’s earned it.

“We were good value for it as well.”

Paul Simpson applauds United's fans after the game (Image: Richard Parkes)

Gibson became Carlisle’s first hat-trick scorer at this level since Gary Madine at Hartlepool United in September 2010.

It was the first treble of his career and indeed the first time he had scored more than once in a game.

It capped an impressive spell from the midfielder and Simpson said: “He’s risen to the challenge. He’s been very good.

• Jon Colman's big match verdict on Blues' brilliant win at Bolton.
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• Bolton 1 Carlisle 3 - as it happened
• Watch the moment United's 4,407 fans saluted victory

"Even last season he had spells in games where he did it but he just wasn't consistent enough.

“I think when you’ve got his ability you have to marry that to a work ethic. You can’t fault his work ethic now – he’s putting a hell of a shift for us.”

Simpson felt it was United’s most complete display since promotion and was also pleased big decisions went his side’s way.

Carlisle were awarded two first-half penalties – one saved from Joe Garner, the other scored by Gibson – having been denied a number of appeals in previous games.

“I thought the referee was absolutely correct,” said Simpson.

“I’m obviously biased but I thought it was a foul on Seani [Maguire] just like I thought it was against Peterborough. I also thought it was handball just like I thought it was against Peterborough.

“I thought their player [Dion Charles] gave a shocking dive that deserved to get a yellow card.

Tomas Holy and Jordan Gibson celebrate (Image: Richard Parkes)

“All in all, I thought the referee was right in the decisions he made and I said to the players at half-time, make sure you have the discipline that you don’t give the referee a decision to make second half and give them something.

“Thankfully the players stood up to the job, defended with discipline, a real clear mindset, and thankfully we got a huge, huge result.”

United had to come from behind after Jon Mellish’s own-goal handed Bolton the lead, but their response was outstanding against Ian Evatt’s side.

“That was a full performance. We’ve had bits of performance but that was full today, it was everybody playing their part, everybody digging in, doing the horrible side of the game – then doing the lovely side of it with the football we played as well,” added Simpson.

“I’ve got no problem with people doubting [whether we could do it]. But we had a belief in the shape we were going to play, a game plan we believed would be the right sort of game plan to go with, and thankfully it worked.

“Sometimes it doesn’t, and when we went 1-0 down we’re thinking, ‘can we still be patient, are we going to get the chances by being patient and disciplined?’ – and we got loads.

“We’ve had a one on one with Seani on the keeper, we’ve got a missed penalty, there are saves the goalkeeper’s making…

“We had lots of opportunities. In the first half we had lots of opportunities where we caused problems, and I thought the players went and executed the plan really well.

“It doesn’t always work that way but did today. I’m absolutely delighted and 3-1 is a really well earned result.”

Simpson was also quick to salute Carlisle’s 4,407 travelling fans who created a memorable atmosphere at Bolton.

“Absolutely incredible,” said the manager after some supporters had to change travel plans at the last minute after train cancellations.

“And the players gave them something to shout about as well, and that’s really important.

“I talked about it at half-time. After I got my messages across about tactical stuff, I said, ‘Start getting a picture in your mind of what this is going to look like at the end when you’ve got a performance and result in front of these supporters – what a feeling we can all have’.”