With thirteen League Two games left, Carlisle United manager Paul Simpson accepts there will be some unexpected results.
His philosophy on that is simple: “What we want to do is minimise the occasions when that goes against us.”
Simpson went on: “We do that by making sure we keep doing things properly. If we do we’ll give ourselves a really good chance because I think we have some good quality in our group.
“There’s a real desire to want to do things properly and we’ve just got to do it for as many of the 13 games we have left as we can.
“We’re there to be shot at and we didn’t handle that particularly well for a couple of weeks there, so we have to make sure we thrive on where we are now, second in the table.”
Carlisle are now second in the three automatic play-off places and want to stay there, although there are some dangers lurking behind them.
Simpson said: “Stockport will continue to be menacing from behind, because they’re a strong group and Mansfield are a strong group. There’s lots of good teams up and around those top places.
“We’ve earned the right to be second at the moment, albeit because we’ve played a couple more games. I’m not bothered about that, we just have to make sure we keep doing it properly and see whether we can just hang into those top places.
“I say it all the time, if you do your job properly, the rest takes care of itself. We can’t affect anybody else, what other teams are doing, we just have to do our own job right.
“We have to make sure we do it right next weekend, and again, if we do that the rest will take care of itself.
“The automatic place is there, you have to shoot for as high as you possibly can. We know it’s going to be a real challenge to finish these last 13 games properly, but we’ve given ourselves one hell of a chance.
“At the start of this season my remit was to finish in the top half of the table. That’s where I thought we’ll have done really well if we get there. These players have been outstanding. Now I want them to carry on being outstanding for the last 13.”
