Keith Curle delighted as Carlisle rewarded with Liverpool cup tie
Wednesday 26 August 2015 13:42, UK
Keith Curle had no need to think outside the box as his Carlisle side shocked QPR to earn a Capital One Cup trip to Liverpool.
Curle's League Two outfit won 2-1 on Tuesday against a side who were playing in the Premier League only last season and their reward was a tie at Anfield when the third-round draw was made afterwards.
"The players have to get the praise and the accolades," Curle said. "We came to a very good football club and imposed ourselves and got the rewards.
"I came up with a formation - 'the box'. We played a box in midfield. Gary Dicker and Luke Joyce at the base of the box, and then (Antony) Sweeney and (Angelo) Balanta at the top of it.
"We worked on playing four versus three in midfield and keeping possession of the ball until we were able to get our spare man away from them, and I think it worked a couple of times.
"You could hear some of their coaches saying 'how have they got another man in there?', so it was working, and we got the rewards with the goal in the first half."
Liverpool will present another challenge altogether - one Curle is not yet thinking about.
"It was one of those, it came down to the end - and oh, we've got Liverpool," he said, reflecting on the draw on Sky Sports News.
"The chairman said to me 'Go on then, how are you going to win that?'. I just said 'We've got to deal with Hartlepool (in the league on Saturday) first'.
"We're trying to get a feel-good factor into the club. When I came in they'd had a relegation and they were in a relegation fight and it was not a nice atmosphere at the club."
That was at least evident in the celebrations between players and fans after beating QPR and Curle hailed the travelling faithful who had made the 634-mile round trip to Loftus Road.
"We need to show the appreciation we have for our away fans," he said. "At times all you could hear was 'Carlisle's Blue and White army'. It's brilliant.
"I hope the QPR fans didn't think we were lauding it or over-celebrating."
