Carlisle United Football Club

“It’s a game we go into with a lot of confidence,” he said. “The players have shown this season that they can meet their challenges head on and this will be another test.

“Luton are a good side who, like us, are poised to really kick on. I think they’ll approach the game in a slightly more direct manner than what we saw against Portsmouth on Saturday, but they have good dynamics about their squad. 

“Their centre forward was sent off at the weekend so that could change their approach. I won’t be surprised if they play a 4-4-2 in possession and a 4-4-1-1 out of possession. As usual we have done our work to look at how we feel we can hurt them.

“Part of our preparation process is to do our due diligence and make the players aware of the strengths they will face, and the weaknesses they can exploit.”

“We left early on Monday morning to help us to break the journey up,” he explained. “We have to thank the club for the help they give us because we are very aware of the amount of travelling we have to do this season.

“Being able to work with the club with that has enabled us to get the players into the right frame of mind and it isn’t something we see as a problem at all.

“The links we’ve built up meant we were able to train down there on Monday and Tuesday and there is a real belief in the group that they’re going out there to compete.”

“The squad was selected on Saturday because we came out of a tough game with a clean bill of health,” he told us. “We brought 20 players with us and we think we have the options to put out a team which will get us a result. 

“It’s certainly one for us to look forward to as it will be two good sides who will be doing everything they can to get the three points.”