Ex-Potters boss says promotion would be 'right up there' with biggest achievements

MARK Hughes claims winning promotion with Carlisle United will rank up with his best achievements as a manager.

- Peter Smith

The former Stoke City boss has won five and drawn two of the first eight games of this season after staying in charge of Carlisle by popular demand when they slipped into the National League.

He had been thrown into a near-impossible challenge at Brunton Park in February and a pickup in results, including a win over Port Vale, wasn’t enough to haul themselves to safety.

A 3-0 win over John Askey’s Truro City on Saturday means they now are third, one point behind Rochdale and three behind his old player Robbie Savage, who is in charge at Forest Green Rovers, where Hughes's old number two Mark Bowen is director of football.

Only one goes up automatically and the next six go into the playoffs.

Hughes said: “I had a great time as a Premier League manager. I got Blackburn into semifinals, FA Cup, League Cup and qualified for Europe by league position.

“At Stoke, we had three top-10 finishes. A lot of things that don’t have a trophy at the end of them, or a mark to say you achieved this.

“There were big achievements at all the clubs I was at. But to do this and get promoted - that would be right up there.”

He added in an interview for the Sunday Telegraph: