Carlisle United boss Paul Simpson has picked-out two members of his squad for special mention ahead of their trip to Swindon Town.
Striker Joe Garner and on-loan midfielder Alfie McCalmont have been key figures in recent successes as the Blues have reached second place.
Garner picked-up his second man-of-the-match award against Grimsby on Saturday and Simpson said: “Joe was excellent, doing the things that I thought he would do. He’s showing real nouse in terms of how to play that role.
“I said this a few weeks ago, I don’t know what Joe needs to do to get fouls given when he’s clearly being impeded. He gets battered from pillar to post and he just gets up and gets on with it.
“I thought he was excellent and unfortunately for Kris Dennis he’s going to have to be patient and wait. I know what he can do, I know he’s a goalscorer, and I know what JK [Gordon] can do as well.
“The amount of work he puts in and the extra edge he brings to the team is excellent. It’s what I thought I would get from him and what I wanted to bring into the club.
“Unfortunately for Kris Dennis, who has scored a load of goals for us, Joe has earned the right to be in the team. Denno will now have to be patient, and his chance will come. He will get more goals but as long as the team is winning that’s all that ever really matters.”
Leeds loanee McCalmont scored for the second successive home game and Simpson said: “Alfie is a really good footballer and a really good character as well.
“I like him as a lad and the goals he’s been bringing are really valuable. It was such a calm finish, a great execution, and it shows what technical ability he has.
“It’s his work ethic as well. He has a real desire to get about the pitch and we saw a couple of times that he wants to break forward, like he did last week at Crawley.
“He’s getting forward but just not finding that extra little pass. One of the things I’ve criticised the group about is that we weren’t ruthless enough when we got into good areas.
“That’s something we have to be better at. The transitions are giving us good overloads and if we get the finishing them off part of it right, we could end up with a proper bag full of goals.”
