United’s mean defence has seen them win three of their last four league fixtures with a nil inserted in the goals against column, and manager Chris Beech confirmed after the game at Vale Park that it’s becoming a very encouraging trend.
“It is very encouraging and if you’re serious about doing anything you look to try to get up towards the 20 mark for clean sheets,” he said. “You’ve also got to look at winning half your games, and if you get those two situations correct then you have a chance of success.
“We work towards that, but we don’t feel that it’s always how it works for you because finance tends to dictate where you are in the table. That means we’ve got to flip that up, and that’s obviously what we’re trying to achieve.”
“In every game you start with a point and a clean sheet, and you’ve got to look after it,” he continued. “From there you try to go on and get all three.
“At Port Vale on Saturday I honestly thought in the first half that some of our flashes across goal from wide deserved something. Lewi Alessandra did an unreal thing where he took three players out of the game with a flick over his head, and for us to not finish off that kind of thing when it’s an away game, and you’re playing quite well, you tend to find you get stung.
“The penalty then comes against the run of play, and I honestly don’t believe it was a pen, but it felt like it was going to be that sting. Paul Farman stood up and saved it and we’ve cracked on and won the game.
“A lot of it comes from not making errors. If you avoid them it allows you to grow because you’re giving less away. From there you make it easier for yourselves to get a reward.
“We want more, of course we do, but we won’t always get it our own way. We’ll keep working hard and if we stick to the traits that represent our fans and the Carlisle people we’ll find that those rewards will keep coming.”
