United’s three points on Tuesday night took them to within touching distance of the automatic promotion places, but gaffer Paul Simpson still insists that a measured approach is required.
“You’ve just got to keep calm about it,” he told us. “It can change very quickly and, as I’ve already said, this run of games will give us an idea of where we are.
“Teams will slip up, there’ll be draws and defeats along the way for everybody, so all you can do is keep trying to do your job properly. We’ve done that in this game, and we have to go again at Rochdale.
“That won’t be easy, they nearly did us up here and we had have a big fightback to get just a point. We don’t want that again. We need to make sure we go about it properly.
“This one is done, it’s gone, it’s all about Saturday now. I’ll review it, highlight anything we need to improve, and we’ll try to take that into the weekend. We’ll just keep ticking them off and let’s see where we go with it.
“A challenge we still have is that we haven’t won three consecutive games and I want us to do that. If you’re going to do anything you have to be winning games consistently, you have to go on runs.
“I think I heard last weekend that Man United had reached ten straight wins. Wow, that would be nice. I want three, and at the moment we’ve had Newport and this one.
“Let’s keep going, let’s get three, then four, and then let’s take it further again. If we push each other on we can start to understand what’s at the end of it if we do it properly.”
“At the moment we’re hunting those top three down,” he continued. “We’ve got to make sure we handle that properly and thrive on that, not get screwed up and concerned about it.
“We just have to keep ticking those games off. If we keep going with the attitude and belief we’ve shown already, we give ourselves a hell of a chance.
“I think you’ve got to say it’s the players gathering momentum for us. I can only pick the team, set them up and send them out, they’re the ones who have to do it.
“The players have to keep it going now. We’ll keep driving it, talking about standards, wanting to keep improving, it’s up to them to keep going.
“We’ve got three or so months left of the season, and 20 games, and there’s so much to play for. This is where you want to be playing, up this end of the table, and hoping to try and hunt down those top three.”
Whilst being cautious, he also acknowledged that it’s there to be enjoyed.
“You have to enjoy it,” he told us. “I’ve been involved many times when we’re losing more than winning – Carlisle fans have definitely experienced that as well.
“Yes, you do have to have to make sure you enjoy it to a level where you’re still preparing for the next game. You need to have done it properly over the 46 games.
“And look at how the young players who have come in have bought into that. I realised that last season with Dynel Simeu, who was telling me he hadn’t experienced it before, he’d never won a senior game of football, which is incredible for them.
“JK has come in and he’s been thrown into starting for us. He’s learning. Another thing that’s pleasing me about him, we’ve put him into a house, him and Alfie together.
“I spoke to him the other day, and he’s learning to cook, he’s doing a bit of cooking, he’s learning to look after himself.
“My challenge is not only to give him football experience, I want him to go back a better bloke, a better person, somebody with some life skills, and he’s certainly doing it, he’s got a smile on his face and I hope there’s more to come from him.”
