Manager Paul Simpson spoke to us this week ahead of tomorrow’s game against Portsmouth.
“There’s 43 points between us in the table so there’s a big gulf,” he said. “We know it’s going to be a tough game but it’s a fantastic challenge for us.
“It’s a great game to look forward to. From what people are telling me I think everyone has already written us off on social media, so we’ve got nothing to lose.
“We want to make it difficult for them and see if we can spoil their promotion chase, but more than anything we want to give ourselves and our supporters a lift.
“Our fans are still backing us and still turning up, but I think they’re all fearing the worst on Saturday. We have nothing to lose and nothing to fear.
“We need to show the same level of performance and commitment that we showed in the away game down at Portsmouth. We were done with a really late goal from a set play, and it wasn’t really something you could blame somebody for, I think it was a really good delivery, a great run and a powerful header. Sometimes there’s not a lot you can do.
“If we get the right performance then I’ll be happy with that, and hopefully if the performance is right then that will lead to a result.
“We have to start games right which is the big thing we’re talking about. It’s a different challenge when you’re a goal down or two goals down, there’s a freedom. There’s no reason we can’t have that freedom from the first whistle, and we’ve talked this week about going and freeing ourselves up and being better on the ball and trusting each other more.
“I’m looking forward to seeing that because I do believe that our players are better than they’re showing at the moment. We’ve got to get ourselves out of this rut, and if we can get a performance and a result then who knows what can happen.
“You look at Fleetwood, they got a win at the weekend and followed it up with another one on Tuesday. We have an opportunity on Saturday then another opportunity to follow it up on Tuesday at Burton, that’s all we’ve got to think about.”
“There are still loads of points to play for but the league table doesn’t look pleasant, we can’t hide away from that,” he continued. “That’s where we deserve to be at this point in the season but there are plenty of points to play for. Whether or not we get enough points to stay up, we have to show a real fighting spirit and an enthusiasm. If we do that then we take whatever comes.
“We have to start winning. If you’re in our position and you’re bottom or second bottom of the league, if we don’t win we know we aren’t going to climb the table. We know we can’t get any worse at the moment, we can only look up.
“We know we have to get wins and we have to start on Saturday. Whether that’s because we do enough to get that win or because we make Portsmouth have a poor performance, or we’re the better team on the day, I don’t really care.
“I want us to put up a fight and show a desire to get a result. I think we’ve done that in patches in games and done it over a consistent period in some games, but certainly not enough.
"I want the new faces to experience winning as a Carlisle player and feel what that means to our supporters. That’s a really good feeling but one that feels like a long time ago, I want to get it back as soon as we can.”