Finding a way to take more of the chances that come their way is the poser Carlisle United manager Keith Millen is intent on solving.
Happy with the way the United players have bought into his plans to provide a structure for the weeks ahead, the fact they are not scoring is still a major concern.
Frustrated by a shortage of goals in both his league games in charge, he was encouraged however that the team scored twice in both cup contests between the EFL clashes – and have kept three successive clean sheets.
Speaking to fans today via the club’s website, he said: “You have to simplify football – people complicate it, don’t they.
“The basic structure of the team is to keep a clean sheet, we’ve done that for the last three games and that’s the foundation for success.
“The final end product is what everyone wants. We’re lacking that at the moment, but having analysed our game on Saturday, for example, we had enough opportunities, crosses and balls in the box to have scored. We had enough chances to have won the game.
“You could say the difference between the levels is that in the Premier League you get two chances, and more often than not they take one.
“The lower you go, you need more opportunities to score a goal. You analyse the movement of our frontmen in the box, and you could say their back three or five defended well, they were big, strong lads, not easy to break down.
“We hit the crossbar, had a chance at the end, so there were definitely enough chances to win. All we can do is look at what we need to improve on and do it in training.
“We are giving ourselves a platform to do that.
“I think there is an identity there that we keep talking about. We’re not just getting out of the back and kicking long.
“There’s an understanding of giving the person options on the ball. You’re defined by a good team on players making the right decisions. You can give them a structure, but they have to make the right decisions on the right pass or cross.
“I think we’ve got a lot of options. We’ve created enough chances, and all you can do in training is keep practising and trying to help them finish.
“Forwards need to finish for their confidence. When they’re not scoring goals, it does affect them, so we’ll keep giving them the framework to work within and hopefully that will help us to get the end result we all want to see.”
Millen takes his United squad to Exeter on Saturday and ahead of their FA Cup replay tonight, the Grecians have the longest unbeaten run in English football.
