United are right up there with the top scorers in the division, with Northampton on 34 and Leyton Orient tied with the Blues on 30, a direct product of the excellent attack-minded football they’ve adopted as their style of play this season.
The four scored at Salford last Saturday could easily have been added to with a number of quality chances created by the rampant Blues.
Importantly as far as manager Paul Simpson is concerned is the fact that his team is now finding the back of the net from all areas of the pitch, with a number of players chipping in.
“We’re getting goals from different areas and positions and you need that,” he said. “We started the season and it was the Kristian Dennis show, and although he got a couple more last weekend we’re getting other players who are doing it for us as well.
“Mox has a few, Callum has a few, Corey now has two goals, and I always want more from as many areas of the pitch as possible.
“I’m having a go at the wing backs at the moments because they haven’t got any, and I think it’s been there for them.
“Fin should have scored on Saturday and Jack Armer has had some really good opportunities, actually on loads of occasions. They have to chip in because it’s part of the role.
“If we can keep sharing them around we’ll stay as a team that’s scoring lots of goals.”
Leading the charge is forward Kris Dennis, who now has a tidy dozen to his name.
“I think strikers set targets for themselves,” the manager told us. “I don’t do that. I’m delighted with what Denno’s work but, like I say, I want every player in every position to be helping.
“I want to see them going in from set plays and from good movement and, if we put all of it together, we’ll keep being successful.
“But Denno has done really well. My challenge to him is not to go and get more goals, but just to be as fit as he possibly can and get himself into really good shape so he’s able to carry on for the whole season.”
“The other thing about him is that he’s a chirpy character around the place,” he added. “The challenge for him is to keep it going.
“He’s got himself into double figures, he’s going really well. I read it was his 100th career goal, so it is going really well for him. He’s got to keep going.
“I keep challenging players all the time, it’s not about what’s gone, it’s what’s in front of us. I want Kristian Dennis to be getting up to 20 goals. If he’s at this point now with his goal return, he should be looking at 20, and once he gets to 20 he needs to be aiming for 25 and 30.
“I would imagine, I haven’t checked, that it’s a long time since a Carlisle United striker has had 20 goals in a season. He has to make that mark himself, create a bit of history for himself, and if he does that we’ll hopefully stay in these top places.”
Another challenge to all of the players is to keep the high standard of performances going as they look to protect their unbeaten run.
“The 35 minutes in the second half at Salford where we could have scored more is just one side of it” he explained. “The other side of it that really pleased me last weekend was the 10 minutes where we were under a little bit of pressure.
“We expected them to come out with a little bit of fire in the second half and they’d have been talking during the break about getting the next goal and being back in it.
“I read their manager’s comments afterwards and I was a little bit surprised really that he said that there was only one team going to win it. I thought that was a bit disrespectful to our players, who had absolutely rolled over them in those last 30 odd minutes.
“For five or ten minutes yes, they looked a threat, but if you don’t score you won’t win the game. Our lads picked it up, scored their goals, so that tells me that 10 minutes was a really good character building thing.
“We dealt with it, we dealt with the threat they posed, and I thought after we got our second goal we went for the jugular and ripped them to pieces. It wouldn’t have been unjust if we’d scored five or six to be honest with you.”
“I don’t think it’s a case of needing to rein them in when they’re playing like this,” he continued. “You have to let the momentum flow and try to keep it going.
“Like most managers, I don’t think I’m any different, I think you’re always demanding more. I heard Gareth Southgate after the Iran game when they’d just won 6-2 and he was saying that they’ve got to be better.
“That’s the same for us at our level. We have to be better. I didn’t want to concede a goal at Salford, so we need to nip that in the bud.
“We need to make sure we defend the set piece as well as we did, deal with the second phase, and as it was, it was from the third phase that they scored against us.
“We can always be better in my opinion. We have to strive to achieve that. The players want to keep improving because they want to be winning games.
“Look at the scenes at the end of these away games, the players want that. Those visuals of players celebrating in the crowd, those are the feelings you want. We’ve got to do everything we possibly can to get many more of them.”