Manager Paul Simpson spoke to us ahead of tomorrow’s trip to Cheltenham.
“We want to go and continue what we did on Tuesday at Barnsley, but be even better,” he said. “We all know we can be better in front of goal and in the final third with our decision making when it comes to the final pass, cross or shot. We’re going there with a determination to get ourselves started.
“We know there’s more ability in there than we’ve shown. The league table doesn’t lie, I’m not going to stand here and say we don’t deserve to be second bottom because we absolutely do.
“When you’ve only got 20 points after 28 games it’s a problem, we all know that. We also know there’s enough games to change it. We aren’t going to hide away from it, we’ve let ourselves down and we let ourselves down on Tuesday in certain areas of the pitch.
“There is a real desire and a belief that came from the way we played on Tuesday. The truth of it is, there’s no point doing it at Barnsley on Tuesday if we don’t back it up at Cheltenham. We have a great opportunity, if we go and perform like we did then we’ll take whatever comes. It’s when we have performances like we did against Cheltenham at home which makes it really difficult to take.”
“It’s a must win for me in my mind because it’s the next game for us,” he said. “I keep saying it, we will run out of games. We’ve got 18 to go and if we can get the three points it takes us level with them. We have still played more games than them but when you’re at the bottom games in hand don’t always count for anything because you have to win them.
“The truth of it is, we know that over this last run of games, we have to win more games. We need to be collecting a hell of a lot of points, but there are enough points available to go for. We know we need to be at least doubling our points in the next 18 games.
“What a brilliant challenge to have, I’m still not going to stand here and say I wish we weren’t promoted, because I’m delighted to be in League One, as tough as this is. This has probably been one of my toughest seasons I’ve had to deal with, certainly as Carlisle manager.
“I think this is tougher than the season we got relegated down to the conference, but I’m loving the challenge. It’s making me go grey and balder, but I’m really enjoying the challenge. I want us to stand up to the challenge and improve even more than we did on Tuesday night. The first opportunity comes on Saturday for us to do that.”
“There’s been some changes in the month since we played Cheltenham for us and there’s possibly some changes for them with the talk that Goodwin is going to be leaving to go to Oxford,” he continued. “I’ll be honest, I don’t think we can play as badly again as we did in the Cheltenham home game and I really don’t think we can concede a goal as bad as the goal we conceded in that game.
“You look at that game, it was two teams who were struggling and probably should have been a 0-0 draw. It was a horrible game in horrible conditions, and I’ve watched it back in the last 24 hours to remind myself. I had forgotten how bad it was, but we’ve got to go there with a clear mind and a clear belief that we can go and get three points. If we perform anywhere close to Tuesday, we’ll give ourselves a real good chance.
“I think we’re taking close to 500 fans again which is brilliant. It’s time for us to do something now. We’re getting the support and the backing home and away, now it’s time for us to stand up and do something that gives the fans something to smile about. I thought the fans on Tuesday were magnificent with the way they applauded the players off and encouraged them. I want them to be celebrating three points on Saturday and I want the players to get that feeling of three points. Let me tell you, I also want it for myself as well.”