Carlisle Utd's Omari Patrick on the help he's receiving from Chris Beech - and how it felt to break his duck

The frontman, who grabbed his first Blues goal against Morecambe, says he is getting more help and encouragement at Brunton Park than at previous clubs.

The 23-year-old says Beech is spending extra time trying to develop his game and feels this will boost his bid to be a success for United.

He said: “It shows you’ve got someone that believes in you, that trusts you and really wants to work with you.

“To take his spare time and pull me in, tell me to look at this, look at that, look what you can do yourself…that’s what the gaffer’s for, he’s the experienced one.

“Just as much as you know what’s best for yourself, so do other people, and it’s good to get that knowledge.

“It’s just good to be out there playing football and know I’ve got a team behind me, and staff and gaffer behind me, that’s so encouraging.

“I haven’t really had that at past teams so it’s really helping me, and I think it’s helping the team.”

Beech said he had shown Patrick footage of Liverpool’s attacking players in the build-up to Saturday’s 2-2 draw with Morecambe.

The January signing from Bradford responded with a well-taken goal to open his Carlisle account in his fourth outing.

Patrick admits it feels good to have got off the mark after his deadline-day move, the frontman having received a good diagonal ball from Byron Webster before firing in off the post.

He said: “It definitely felt good to score, but at the time we were losing so I wasn’t really concentrating on it – I was just happy to get us a goal before half-time. When I watch it back hopefully I’ll feel better about it.

“I knew it was gonna come – me and Byron spoke about it, so I thought about that switch ball and staying wide.

“As it was in the air I knew the defender was going to miss it, I was just concentrating on my first touch, and then seeing what I could do.

“I’d say it’s my favourite finish, coming off the left and trying to whip it, and it came off. I knew I struck it well, although I thought it was going wide, then I saw it bend in at the last minute.

“Now, in the next games, it’s not so much pressure off me, but it’s good to know that I can score goals for the club. It’s good to break the ice with that one.”

Patrick says United’s fighting spirit is not in doubt after comebacks such as Saturdays.

He also said they need to turn more draws into wins.

The pacy attacker said: “We knew we shouldn’t have been two goals down. It got the reaction out of us but we need to start games like that, it shouldn’t take that for us to really get going.

“I’ve been in teams where you go 2-0 down and crumble, so it’s good to know the boys have got that fight about them and we have as a team to pull back.

“We know that we can go out there and change the game around. At half-time it’s that thing of taking a breather, remembering we’re all here together, and as long as we keep fighting like we did in the last 15 minutes of that first half, when we got the goal, we’ll get something from the game.

“Once we get that next win, it will be fantastic. That’s what we need right now. Because we drew on Saturday, and we drew at Crawley before, we went into the changing room at full-time and it’s like we’ve lost.

“The boys really want to get that win out of the way. It’s very frustrating, but when it comes the team spirit will get lifted.”

Patrick, meanwhile, is enjoying settling in at Carlisle, having moved to the area and also been developing different parts of his game under Beech.

He said: “[Living here] means I can do my extras, drive five minutes round the corner and go home, instead of doing a long drive. It is very good to be locally here.

“I’m settling in fine. I’d played with some people before, like Fela [Olomola] and Gethin [Jones] but as soon as I got here everybody was so welcoming.

“It’s good to be a part of that, I felt I was a part of the team straight away. It didn’t take a week or so to feel that.

“I don’t think I’ve ever in my career played two 90 minutes in a row in the Football League. I did at Wrexham but not in the Football League. To do that now makes me confident I’ve done the right thing in coming here.

“I just have to keep going and play as much as I can.”

Patrick has already featured on the left, right and down the middle of Carlisle’s three-man attack.

He said: “When I first spoke to the gaffer and came here on deadline day, we spoke about positioning.

“When I was at Wrexham I played more of a central role but with a two; he [Beech] said could I play there by myself? I said I’m an attacker so [why not]…

“My favourite position is the left but I like to say I’m very versatile and can play on the right and the left.

“I probably need to work on it, the different positions, and more so the middle, but we spoke about that together and he said he’ll always help me as long as I’m on the pitch, and to use my versatility the best I can.”

Patrick also admitted that playing in the recent conditions, which has seen games affected by strong winds, has been a challenge, but not an excuse anyone should offer.

“It’s definitely hard, and there are advantages and disadvantages,” he said.

“Like the gaffer said, when the wind is going with you, sometimes it runs away from you, and when it’s against you it’s hard to get it up.

“It’s definitely not ideal but there’s 22 players on the pitch and everybody’s doing the same thing. You have to get on with it and try to use it as best you can.”

United are due to play their rescheduled Cumberland Cup quarter-final at Penrith tonight (Frenchfield Park, 7.30pm).