Carlisle United Football Club

“Accrington are playing with a lot of confidence and belief,” he said. “That happens when you change the manager and especially when somebody goes back to a football club. He'll be instilling his beliefs and the way he wants to play onto the players. They're bright, energetic and playing with belief, which isn't too dissimilar to where we are.

“The actual foundations of the football club within their community are fantastic although it hasn't got a glamorous ring to it. I think they will probably make a few changes in personnel from the FA Cup game. They had a few cup tied and some injured lads we would expect to come back into the team.”

“They'll try and nullify us, quieten the crowd and catch us on the counter attack,” he added. “We need to put them on the back foot and try to get an early goal so they have to use their plan B well before they would like to. 

“I've met John [Coleman] a couple of times and he's obviously a manager who fits the club. He's a football man who likes enthusiastic players with ability. They've got good technical ability in their team and they can catch you on the break if you aren’t careful. We’ll work hard to make sure they can’t do what they want to do and we’ll do everything we can to get the three points.”

“We aren't expecting any new arrivals ahead of the game but with Steven Rigg, Billy Paynter and Danny Kearns all returning, and Alex Marrow and Paul Thirlwell not being far away, that strengthens our squad again,” he told us. “I'm still waiting to have 24 or 25 players to choose from. That would be a nice headache to have because we can then look at formations and the best way to try and win points. 

“We played well against Peterborough last week and I think the important thing was that we didn't have any lingering disappointment. We physically and mentally challenged the players on Monday which was different to what they're used to.

 

“Mondays have been seen as part of the recovery from the previous match but we had a longer, harder session this week. The intensity levels on the heart rate monitors were off the scale and we did the same on Tuesday. We need to take the levels of application and work we’ve seen this week into the game on Saturday and, if we do that, we’ll give ourselves a real chance.”