Carlisle are regarded as the 2nd best team in the league by many managers and journos and theyr current league position backs that up.
They have won 3 on the bounce and should by no means be under estimated just because they are Carlisle.
In the away game they looked ok but beatable, we played much more of the football than them but they had more shots than us, as you would expect for a home side.
The have won 4 more games than us and lost 3 less.
they have only suffered 1 defeat in 5 games, a large 4-0 home defeat to Mansfield but since then they have beaten Colchester at home 1-0, won 5-2 at Crawley and beaten Grimsby 2-0 at home, they are a decent side.
It appears that if you keep Kristian Dennis quiet then you have a chance, he has scored 18 goals and got 4 assists so far witht he next highest scorers only on 5 apeice.
I would be happy with a draw tomorrow in front of 9,215 with 485 coming down the M6.
Here with the benefit of hindsight are some interesting comments posted after the away game at Carlisle. Some are spot on and some so very wide of the mark, its interesting reading.
Carlisle were shite.
That's what makes it more worrying. A team like that is opening us up time and time again.
More worryingly Lindsey thought they were a good team.
You can Lindsey can both get to fuck on that. You're on another planet, they're atrocious.
Come off it, we are three league games into a season.
You have no clue how good Carlisle are in relation to the rest of the division.
Get it into your thick skulls - We are going to struggle this year as we don't have the money to be competitive in the transfer or loan market.
This will be the season we expected last year. We will be battling at the bottom. Staying up will be a good result.
We also came away from a potential relegation rival with an away point.
Maybe Carlisle do deserve a bit of credit for ‘tearing us apart’ sure we probably contributed to that but let’s not forget 7 days ago we restricted Salford to absolutely fuck all with 10 men. Carlisle had plenty of chances and they couldn’t all be down to us fannying around. Maybe they are a good side? Maybe they are a decent striker away from being a top 5 team in this league?
Carlisle under Paul Simpson is a good side at this level, they like Salford will be up there.
Paul Simpson's record for Carlisle, starting last season with a team that was in relegation trouble:
18 Pl. 9W 2D 7L: ppg: 1.61 (not including today's draw)
Would suggest 72 points over a season and just outside the playoffs based on last season.
Their starting 11 wasn't that hit by injuries, so it was a decent away point against a decent side.
Interesting that tomorrow we are likely to only be playing at most 4 of the starters from the away game in Hutton, Wakeling, Brynn and Williams with the rest either injured, suspended or left the club.