THE nature of today’s victory over Hyde United proved the level of character within the Warrington Town squad, manager Paul Carden said.

Jake Kirby struck five minutes from time to ensure a 2-1 victory at Cantilever Park to lift Yellows back into the Evo-Stik Premier Division play-off places.

READ > How Warrington Town beat Hyde United thanks to late drama

Tony Gray’s early opener had been cancelled out by Nicky Platt as Town looked set to drop more points at home before on-loan Stockport frontman Kirby’s late intervention.

“It was hard-fought. Hyde were never going to come here and roll over, we saw that with their line-up,” he said.

“We had them penned back for such long periods in the first half, but they have plenty of players with experience and will capitalise on mistakes.

“We knew they would be about set pieces and that’s where their equaliser came from. It showed good character to keep going and we deserved the win.

“We tweaked the shape a little bit and I thought we were better for it.

“It came through work rate and a bit of quality when it was needed.”

It was Kirby’s first goal for Yellows since his debut back in September, and Carden says it was just reward for an “outstanding” display.

He also hailed the impact of substitutes Josh Amis and Jack Dunn, whose corner set up Kirby’s winner.

“It hasn’t happened or dropped for Jake,” he said.

“At times he’s too honest and he runs in the wrong areas.

“I thought he was very good today. He was outstanding in the first half.

“Josh will feel hard done by to be left out after putting a shift in last week.

“Knowing how they would do things, I thought it would be more suited to having two wide runners off Tony Gray.

“They wouldn’t want to go into deep waters, and I just felt Josh would have been somebody they would have enjoyed playing against.

“It was always my intentions to get him on, because I knew bringing on a fit, strong Josh Amis with 20 minutes left would beat them up. Thankfully, it’s paid off.

“When we put Jack on, we said go on the right for a few minutes and then switch. I thought he did really well as well.

“He’s been a bit unfortunate but he can help himself a bit more at times.

“In the past week in training, we’ve seen what he’s about. He’s gone on with a purpose and he’s made a big impact.”