Much has been made of Carlisle’s goal drought with six blanks in their last seven games.
But on the other side of the coin are the clean sheets registered by the Brunton Park side, a fact not lost on manager Paul Simpson.
He said: “Nineteen clean sheets is huge. You don’t achieve that by being a poor side, you don’t score 60 goals by being a poor side. We’re not a bad side, we’re a good side, we’ve just got to get back to showing what we’re really capable of.
“I said to the players after the game on Saturday that there were only two teams who have scored more goals than us and only two teams who have got more clean sheets than us, so we’re a good side.
“We just have to get back to believing we’re a good side and showing we’re a good side. If it’s not going to happen, let’s give it everything we’ve got and have a right good go at teams, not just let it trickle away.
“I’m delighted with the way we’re defending. I thought Tomas Holy made a couple of brilliant saves at the weekend, the one on one, and the one where he stretched out with his right arm.
“He’s played really well, we defended well, we’ve shown we can be a really hard team to beat at the moment. The big thing for me, I just want us to take the shackles off and be a bit more free-flowing and more positive about our in-possession stuff.
“If we do that and marry that up with the desire we’re showing to keep a clean sheet, we can get back to winning ways. There are a lot of good things there, and maybe we need to look at shape.
“Maybe we’ve gone away from being that front foot attacking team because of that shape. That’s something I’ll need to have a look at because my head at the moment is saying we were still aggressive in our front play with the shape we’ve got now, but we may need to look at something different to try and force us to get results.
“It’s definitely all on us. The supporters gave us the backing at the start of the game, I thought they went a bit quiet after the first 15 minutes but they came back to life towards the end of the game and we’ve all got to stick together.
“The fans can play a massive part, and we’ve got to make sure we play a massive part as well. For me, that is going and grabbing the bull by the horns and doing something about it, not just sitting back and waiting.”
That all continues tonight with the visit of Stockport who have come fast up the rails to make inroads to the automatic promotion play-off places.
This is a massive game for both clubs when Carlisle, in particular, will be determined to end their goal drought – while maintaining their run of clean sheets.
