MANAGER: I think we're creating more and better chances

The goals keep coming for Kristian Dennis, with four in four pulling him level with Billy Stark, who achieved the same feat way back in 1962 when he also started his season in a rich vein of form.

In terms of league games, Alan Ashman had a habit of kicking seasons off at a canter, with seven in just three games at the start of the 1951/52 campaign.

He blew that out of the water in 1953/54 with a whopping 13 from the first 15 league games, which included six in the opening run of fixtures against Rochdale, Grimsby (A), Wrexham, Grimsby (H) and Mansfield (2).

No player has yet scored in the first six games of a season for the Blues. 

“It was a brilliant finish from Kris on Saturday and overall a really good goal,” Carlisle boss Paul Simpson said. “We played some good football again, but Denno is really doing well at the moment. Long may that continue.

“Firstly, credit to Callum Guy, because anybody who was at the game will know he should have probably cleared his lines for their goal. He got caught out, he had two opportunities to pop it over the top and turn them round, it didn’t happen, it got stuck on the pitch where it dried up.

“But he kept going, his reaction was brilliant, he’s threaded a great ball through for Gibbo, then he he gets it through. Denno, he’s calm as you like.

“That’s a difficult chance when you’ve got all that time to think. I’m really pleased with what he’s doing for us at the moment, he’s banging goals in left, right and centre, it’s good to see.

“I think he’s taken confidence because of the way he’s come back for the start of pre-season. He must have done the programme he was given over the summer, he’s come back in and worked really hard, even though during the running he’s certainly not up at the front of the runs, but he gives it everything he’s got.

“He’s now getting the rewards because he’s running in behind. It’s a really strange one, because sometimes when players are going through on goal you think, nah, don’t fancy it. I didn’t have any doubt with him.

“I just felt he was calm as you like, the ball ran smoothly for him and he slotted it away perfectly. As soon as we can get other players in that vein of form, I think the goals will keep flowing and start to flow even more.”

And he revealed that the first thing the striker did when he got back into the dressing room was apologise for the late miss, which had seen the ball scream over the bar as the Warwick Road End waited for the net to bulge.

“I’ll be honest, I hadn’t got a clue who it was who struck that, and it was only because Denno apologised to everybody in the dressing room at the end that I knew,” he told us.

“There were two or three players, without me even saying anything, who jumped in and told him he’s got nothing to apologise for. He has won us points this season and his work rate is phenomenal.

“We’ve just got to keep him right. We’ve got to hang in there for the next few weeks while we’ve got this really bad run of injuries. Hopefully we’ll get the players we’re missing back sooner rather than later and we hope that these lads can carry on doing what they’re doing right now.

“I think we’re creating more and better chances than we did last season. That’s a massive plus for us. I think there are many areas in our transition, when we’re in possession, we can be better on. That’s what we need to tighten up on and be more clinical, more decisive.

“Sometimes be more selfish and finish ourselves, other times be more for the team when we’re picking the right pass to go and get an easier finish.

“There are things we need to work on, but let’s be honest, this is League Two, this is where we are. We have to accept we’re going to have mistakes, and we just have to minimise those mistakes as much as we can.”

The reaction from the stands and terraces at the end of the game suggests that the supporters are seeing enough to suggest an enjoyable season lies ahead.

“They’re reaction means they must think we’re doing something right, and let me tell you so are they,” he commented. “They were brilliant again for us.

“Credit to them because I’m sure on a hot sunny day like that there were many other things they could have done which would have been a lot cooler than being in a football ground. The players are giving them something to hang onto and it’s really important we keep doing it.

“I think all the players deserve a massive amount of credit for that. I think they gave us a really good game of football. You watch games on TV from abroad where there’s real heat like this is and it always affects the tempo.

“The players didn’t allow that, there was a proper tempo to this. It was a good League Two game where both teams were going for it.

"We were maybe going a little bit too gung-ho towards the end, which was frustrating us on the sidelines and giving us a few kittens, but credit to the players from both teams for going out there in those conditions and putting that on for us.”

Read Time: 5 mins