Chris Beech couldn’t hide his delight at the “exquisite” Omari Patrick goal that sent Carlisle United up to second in League Two.

The forward got his second of the season with a well-taken first-half strike against Mansfield.

It enabled the Blues to seal a 1-0 win – their fourth victory in a row, putting them just two points off top spot.

“It was a beautiful finish and what a ball in from Jack Armer,” Beech said.

“He actually picked him out with vision, he delivers, Omari’s first touch is exquisite and his volley is ridiculous.

“It’s a goal good enough to win any game of football and it’s managed to help us to beat Mansfield.”

It ended a 12-game wait for Patrick to add to his effort against Southend in September, and the attacker was a popular matchwinner after another dangerous display.

“He’s been getting closer and I’m really pleased for him and his family, because he’s moved into the area and he has a great personality,” Beech said.

“He had a lot of shots, some were good choices and some weren’t so clever, but you can’t criticise a player for having a go. I’d rather them do that than not because they’ll get one right, and he did.

“I know the fans like him because he’s sociable on social media and he lives in the area, he’s just a great person and so are his family. I’m really proud of Omari’s attitude, and the quality of his goal was exquisite.”

Beech was pleased with United’s display as the Cumbrians had to dig deep to make sure their positive display got the maximum reward against Nigel Clough’s side.

Carlisle could have had more goals but restricted Clough’s Stags to very few clear chances.

“I’m very happy with the standard of the performance because Mansfield are a good team,” Beech said.

“They’d lost the same amount of games as us beforehand, so it just happened to go that way for us.

“I wish we could have got another one, we didn’t, but we made sure they didn’t get one which is really good.

“I’m really proud of the lads’ performance. Mansfield have major finance with strengths to back up their starting XI. They brought on people to try and do that, and I thought one might drop to Andy Cook in the end, but Jon Mellish did well to clean it up.

“You’ve got to do these things. Hard work is the first thing you should always bring to work, then a little bit of quality. The quality of the touch and finish for the goal was of the highest standard.”

United have won their last three league games without conceding – a feat they have not performed since 2014 in the early stages of Keith Curle’s reign.

Paul Farman’s latest shut-out was his seventh in 18 league games.

Beech said: “I think Paul [Farman] tipped one effort over the bar but I don’t think that was a shot, it was a cross. He was alert to it.

“He was gutted to get a booking [for taking too long over a free-kick in the second half] because he didn’t hear the ref blow the whistle to take the kick, he hadn’t actually spotted the ball by that point.

“It was amazing that Mansfield could take a lot of time with every dead ball in the first half, but we did it once and got booked. That really miffs me because it wasn’t warranted but it happens.”

Beech felt United in general did not get much change out of ref Peter Wright but said it was important his side overcame any frustration in that respect.

“We didn’t get a lot of decisions,” he said. “I think it was after 34 minutes of the first half that we got a decision where it was a bit of a 50/50.

“At half time, I always listen to the players first and see what their mood is, and they were agitated with those decisions. I told them they were in a position of strength after scoring a quality goal, so they had to try to not do anything daft to support a bad decision.

“It’s difficult for referees, I know it’s easy to stand here and criticise, but I was speaking to the fourth official and all I was asking for was fairness.

“Ultimately, it does matter, but it doesn’t matter because we managed to beat everybody that was out there.”