Chris Beech said he was pleased with the “heart and resilience” Carlisle United showed to remain in the FA Cup.

The Blues are in tomorrow night's third round draw after Saturday’s 2-2 draw at Forest Green.

It means there is the possibility of a major incentive when the sides replay at Brunton Park next week.

And new head coach Beech said his first game in charge showed plenty to encourage him.

“I’m absolutely gutted we didn’t win that game for the supporters, because we were good enough to win it,” he said.

“The heart and resilience I’m pleased with. I want us to represent honesty and hard work, because I want us to represent things the Carlisle supporters can relate to, added to a little bit of quality and the ability to score the type of goals we saw [on Saturday].

“But they should be winning goals, and I want to get rid of the scrappy goals that we conceded. If you get rid of that, that would have been a prime time performance.”

United fell behind then bounced back to take the lead through a Nathan Thomas double before Mark Cooper’s hosts hit back to force a draw.

Beech made some eyecatching decisions on his first day in the Blues dugout, handing a start in defence to Aaron Hayden.

He also recalled Byron Webster, with Jon Mellish dropped and Jarrad Branthwaite ill, Stefan Scougall also replacing Harry McKirdy in the side.

Beech was particularly pleased United scored twice and were inches from a third against a side with one of the best defensive records in the league.

He added: “I’ve got to be mindful that we were playing against one of the most possession-based teams in the league – they’ve been doing it for a good two years now and getting better at it, with better players doing it.

“I was pleased that the lads stuck at it, especially in the first 25 minutes, because [that tests] your resolve to keep pressing, keep digging in…in that fight you can start giving up, and they didn’t.

“They stuck at the task and then started wearing Forest Green down, opportunities started arising for us and the two goals we scored were really, really good.

“I’m asking the players to do new things and it’s going to take a little bit longer than three days to make sure we can take the game away from our opponents, so we can feel comfortable in the last 10 minutes – that would be a nice feeling.

“I want to get our standards higher so we can get into winning rhythms. The performance deserved to win, at the same time we showed patience and resilience, but I’ve got to show respect to Forest Green.”

Beech said he was pleased with Hayden’s display after calling up the former Wolves man and also praised Mellish for his response to being told he was being dropped.

He said: “I just felt Aaron would give us physicality, and I wanted Byron’s experience and brain with him, and it worked well.

“He will be better against teams that are less possession-based, but he was excellent. I see him growing, getting stronger, and making a real physical impact on this squad.

“I was fortunate that I came and watched Wolves [under-21s] play Carlisle [in the Leasing.com Trophy], and I saw physicality, speed and cover [from Hayden] – defensive things that are massive attributes.

“Young players today are taught possession, but he’s a defender that needs to get better at possession. [On Saturday] he was absolutely brilliant.”

Beech, appointed last Tuesday at Brunton Park, will now prepare for his first league game in charge against Morecambe.

He said: “I’m looking forward to hopefully getting a solid week with most of the squad.”