Regaining the team’s “clean sheet mentality” is Keith Millen’s main task as Carlisle’s survival fight intensifies.
The United manager watched his side lose for the fourth game in a row when they went down 3-1 to Port Vale as Oldham cut the deficit to two points.
Millen said: “We’ve lost that clean sheet mentality, I don’t know why, and obviously if I knew I would try and put it right.
“I have to think of a way of getting that clean sheet mentality back again, whether it’s a change of shape, a change of personnel. That’s my job in the coming days to try to put that right.”
The way that the Blues conceded last night clearly did not help the cause as they made it too easy for Port Vale to find the net.
Millen explained: “No one means to make mistakes, but we are making too many. They’re unforced errors and we’re getting punished for them. That’s a big problem.
“I think it’s more about the mindset now, we’re in a fight. We were in a fight when I first came in and when I looked at the dressing room at Northampton, I could see there was some work to do, and we’re in the same position again now.
“There has to be a realisation now. We’ve had four defeats and I’m not going to sit here and start talking about the way we played or anything like that, it’s a mindset and we were second best.
“We need to put a team out there that is going to fight and battle to keep a clean sheet. That’s the first thing we’ve got to do to turn things around, you can’t keep conceding all these goals, because it’s irrelevant what the rest of the game is like.
“You can pass the ball and create chances, but if you’re conceding goals like we are, you’re going to lose football matches. That’s the run we’re on, and I have to change that.
“It’s a mindset and a mentality, and we might need a change of shape, we’ve got to work out a way. We’ve got a lot of new players who need to bed in as quickly as possible, and we’ve got a lot of injuries.
“We had five first-team starters missing against Port Vale, but that’s not an excuse. It’s about me now getting this group to realise the position we’re in, and we’re fighting for our lives. That’s how we have to think about it.”
Millen has cancelled days-off. The players will be in today with the buzzword – mindset.
Millen said: “If we have to get angry and fight with each other then that’s what we have to do. It’s not because I dislike anyone, it’s because I want the best for them.
“I can’t keep going along saying we need to work on this or that, it’s a mindset. We need to add some anger and desire to keep a clean sheet which will give us some foundations, because at the moment the foundations have crumbled.”
Carlisle travel to Colchester on Saturday in another key game among the strugglers.
Their hosts are three points and two places better off than Carlisle with plunging Walsall in between them and looking lower in confidence than anyone.
