Carlisle United collected another confidence-boosting 2-0 win last night – but sadly no League Two points went with it again.
The two victories have come in the FA Cup and the Papa John’s Trophy to provide much-needed lifts following six games without a single success.
It will also reignite the old debate – will they be a distraction, when the main item on the agenda is League Two survival, opposed to any win has to be a plus and you can’t get much better than a winning habit.
What can’t be denied is that Carlisle played much better in their win at Morecambe than they had overall in the victory against non-league Horsham.
Second-half goals from Jordan Gibson and Kelvin Mellor were enough to give United the points, but they were already through to the next stage and with Morecambe bottom of the group nothing would have changed in this dead rubber.
What did change was Carlisle’s threat from set-pieces. Gibson scored with a clever free-kick over the wall while Mellor was there to score from a headed-on corner.
Millen was also pleased with a more solid contribution from midfield where Corey Whelan and Danny Devine seemed to have established a strong partnership.
The bottom line for manager Keith Millen is that he has a number of options to consider for Saturday’s home clash with Barrow.
Top of the pile on his in tray, though, is the need for a second goalkeeper as recent recruit Mark Howard has no senior back-up.
On-loan keeper Lukas Jensen, 22, could be out for a while after he damaged his wrist in training.
The Dane is with Burnley and spent last season on loan with Bolton after joining from HIK in his native Denmark.
He would probably have played at Morecambe had he not been hurt and Carlisle’s other senior keeper Magnus Norman is also out of action with an injury.
