The games keep coming, and it's fellow promotion hopefuls Tranmere Rovers who visit Brunton Park on Tuesday night.
Tranmere are off to Wembley for the fourth time in five seasons having booked their place this time round with an impressive Papa John's Trophy semi-final victory over Oxford United.
Kaiyne Woolery rattled a stunner into the back of the net at the Kassam Stadium to put the League One side on the back foot, and Kieron Morris sealed the deal midway through the second half.
Rovers have play-off final victories in 2018 and 2019 to look back on, and they'll need to draw on that experience when they face Sunderland underneath the arch on 14 March.
Late transfer window activity saw Rovers add real experience to the mix as striker David Nugent and midfielder Ali Crawford joined on loan deals from Preston and Bolton respectively.
Former Barrow left-back Calum MacDonald made his loan deal from Blackpool a permanent one, signing with the Prenton Park outfit until the summer of 2022.
Added to shrewd dealings earlier in the month it leaves Keith Hill with plenty of options as we head into the final two months of the season.
A run of four wins and a draw in league compeition through January signalled that things had really started to click, and the defeat against Stevenage at home 10 days ago is the only League Two blemish of an otherwise solid eight-game stint.
37 scored is fairly evenly balanced by 34 conceded, suggesting that there can be goals at either end once the action starts flowing.
They'll be disappointed by Saturday's result. They recovered from an early setback to get themselves ahead against Oldham with goals either side of the break (one of them just moments after Jombati had been sent off for the Latics) but they were hit by a late sucker punch and had to settle for a share of the spoils with the ten men.
Woolery is in a rich vein of form, and MacDonald is a real threat as he supports the attack, but the lively James Vaughan is our one to watch.
With 17 goals in 28 games and a shot accuracy of 51%, his knowledge of his art makes him a problem for every defence he comes up against.
He can score every type of goal - close in, headers, getting on the end of things or creating his own space - and he also has a knack of bringing others into play.
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These teams met at Prenton Park in November 2020 with Keith Hill newly-appointed as manager. It was a tight game, but Corey Taylor netted the only goal of the encounter just after the break.
Watch the highlights from that game here:
It was a comfortable three-goal home victory for Rovers in March 2019 when Ollie Banks broke the deadlock just before half time. Oliver Norwood and Manny Monthe completed the scoring after the break.
Watch the highlights from that game here:
Tranmere took all three points home from their trip to Cumbria in September 2018. The Blues had 15 minutes to forget at the end of the game as a penalty miss was followed by an own goal from Tom Parkes, and a killer blow from Paul Mullin just before the final whistle.
Watch the highlights from that game here:
Our last meeting prior to that was in February 2015, at Prenton Park, when a quickfire double from Charlie Wyke just after the break secured a 2-0 away victory for the Blues. It came at a price as Kyle Dempsey received his marching orders deep into time added on.
Watch the highlights from that game here:
The league meeting at Brunton Park earlier that season was a tense affair, but a nice finish from David Amoo with just 20 minutes left to play proved to be the difference as the Cumbrians battled their way to a hard-earned three points.
Watch the highlights from that game here:
The trio of meetings from that season was completed, again at Prenton Park, when the sides came together in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy. Brad Potts got on the end of a good move to cancel out a first half Max Power goal, but it was Tranmere who progressed as they got the better of the penalty shoot-out, winning by 5-4 at the end of a very long night.
Watch the highlights of that game here:
Referee - Scott Oldham
Assistant Referee 1 - Simon Clayton
Assistant Referee 2 - Paul Newhouse
Fourth Official - Adam Herczeg
The referee for this game is Mr Scott Oldham, a late replacement for Ben Speedie.
Scott has taken charge of 20 games so far this season and has shown 36 yellow cards and no reds.
He was with us in November 2020 for our FA Cup second round game against Doncaster Rovers. Ben Whiteman out the visitors two goals to the good before half time, but Jon Mellish kept things interesting when he gave United hope with 12 minutes to go. Donny saw it out to win 2-1. Josh kayode was the only booking of the afternoon.
We also met Mr Oldham in October 2019 for our home defeat at the hands of Northampton. Two second half goals left the Bkues with nothing to show from that had been a dour game, but there were no United names taken on the day.
He was also here at Brunton Park for our home game against Crawley Town during the 2018/19 season. The Blues romped to a four-goal lead courtesy of Nathan Thomas (2), Callum O'Hare and Hallam Hope, but the Red Devils pulled two back either side of the break to make things slightly more interesting. There were no Carlisle names taken on the day.
Prior to that he was our man in the middle for our 2-0 defeat at the hands of MK Dons. Early second half goals for Jordan Houghton and Kieran Agard were followed by bookings for Regan Slater and Macaulay Gillesphey.
Earlier that season he was here at Brunton Park for the game against Stevenage in September. A Ben Kennedy goal early in the second half was enough to give the Boro a one-goal victory, and Hallam Hope's was the only Carlisle name taken on the day.
He was at Brunton Park on three occasions during the 2017/18 campaign, the first in September when we drew 1-1 with Barnet. Shaun Miller scored our late equaliser, with just five minutes left to play, and it was a game where the notebook stayed firmly in the pocket.
We saw him again at the end of December when Coventry were the visitors to Carlisle. Danny Grainger and Jamie Devitt went in the book as Marc McNulty bagged a second half winner.
His last trip to see us in the last campaign was for our 2-0 victory over Grimsby. Hallam Hope and Mark Ellis scored the goals and Clint Hill was the only yellow card shown on the day.
This is a behind closed doors fixture.
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