United boss Paul Simpson asked for a positive start both on and off the field on Friday for the visit of Tranmere and he got both with just over 12,700 home fans there to see Kristian Dennis kick things off nicely with an early goal.
“I think we started right, and that’s the biggest thing to come from it,” the gaffer said. “Before the game I asked the supporters to come and set the tone, but I also asked the players to do their bit as well.
“I think it’s fair to say that we got it right all round. We got on the front foot, and we expected them to play that way, trying to come out from the back and take chances, and the players were brilliant in the way they executed the plan.
“They were winning things back high up the pitch and we got our reward with an early goal from a really good press that we had. There was calmness from Omari to roll it across for Denno, and I’m really pleased for him that he got his goals again.
“He’s waited a while and he’s been stuck on 18 for a long time. I’m delighted to see him score and I think that just settled everybody down and we were able to then go about our business properly.”
“We asked everybody to lock on,” he explained. “It was a case of not sitting back and being protective, we needed to go and be controlled with our aggression and in the way we went about things.
“I wanted the wing backs to press high and I wanted the midfielders to lock on against the outside of their diamond and see if we could win the ball back early. Thankfully we did, and we had a couple of opportunities to add to the score.
“Over the game we had some really good situations with Omari, Denno, Jack Ellis had one, and Dev had one where he got a shot off at the edge of the box, but I think the lad just got a little nudge on him to knock him off balance.
“There was some really good football that we played, which is so pleasing because we’ve struggled a little bit of late. There was a nervousness creeping in so getting that early goal settled everybody, it gave us a huge lift and then we were able to go and carry on after that.”
And it was a performance that was brimming with confidence.
“We played some decent football and I’ve got to say I thought Tranmere did as well,” he told us. “They’re a good footballing side, but they didn’t quite have the killer punch that we had.
“I haven’t seen anything back but I’m struggling to think whether Tomas had a save to make. I can’t really think of anything. It shows as a team that we’ve defended well and we’ve had some good stuff going forward as well.
“All in all it’s really pleasing, and what I’ve said to the players is that it’s another one ticked off. We now have six to go, we’ve given everybody a lift again, and we’ve got to make sure we carry it on.
“And it’s clean sheet number 17. That’s as big to get out of this game as anything. We wanted to score, we needed to get that off our backs because that’s something that everybody wants to talk about.
“The nature of football is that people will talk about the negative stuff before the positive stuff, and the amount of people who have asked me is there any chance of scoring a goal – and it’s like, do you really think we’re preparing not to score goals.
“We’re going out to do that in every game and it’s good that we got two from this one just to calm that down. We could have had more, but in a way I’m glad we didn’t because we had a bag full against Barrow and then we couldn’t score for a few.
“I’m quite calm about that. We had some good play to get into good areas and two goals is enough because we haven’t conceded any.
“I’d have loved to have got another one and finished the game completely because then you’re still a little bit nervy. But it was about the result. I asked the players to get back to winning ways, and it certainly went how I would have liked it to.
“With 17 clean sheets and six still to play, it would be nice if we can get a minimum of three more which takes us up to 20. If you can get 20 clean sheets you’ve got a chance.
“When you marry that up with the number of goals we’ve scored, if we can keep scoring over the last six, we’re going to give ourselves a great chance.”
The Easter fixture schedule brings another game at Walsall almost immediately, on Bank Holiday Monday.
“It’s funny, everybody gets a bit sort of confused about it because it’s Friday-Monday, but how many times do we play Saturday-Tuesday, it’s the exact same thing”, he said.
“Maybe Saturday-Tuesday you get a few extra hours because it’s 7.45pm kickoff, but I’m really not sure what difference it would be, four and three-quarter hours.
“They’re professional footballers, they’re fit young blokes and they’ll be ready to go, especially when we’ve got what we’ve got to play for, they’ll be ready, they’ll all want to play.
“They might feel tired but if you’ve got support behind you, if you can give yourself a lift and go and put on a performance, the tiredness soon goes. After Monday they’ve got a chance to recover, there’s plenty of time to recover.
“My big thing I’m saying is you work really hard for four weeks now, you’ve got a wonderful summer to look forward to if you can go and do this finish properly, achieve something and achieve a little bit of history for Carlisle United.
“I keep saying, we have a wonderful opportunity, and when you get opportunities in football you have to do everything to not allow it to pass you by. We’re going to do everything we possibly can.
“There’s no guarantee it’s going to be successful for us but you have to just give it everything you’ve got. I’m appealing to the players to be the best professionals they can, just to commit for this last run-in.
“Be right over the weekend to be ready for Monday, look after yourself this week to be ready for next Saturday, the turnaround is quick again for Northampton and Stockport, so much to play for. This is what you’re in football, to be involved at this end of the table.”