Carlisle United will have nearly 2,000 travelling fans behind them when they take on Bradford City tomorrow at Valley Parade.
It’s a factor that can be a major help for the Blues as they look to improve their owly position ion League Two.
Steven Rudd, in charge of United since the departure of manager Paul Simpson, alongside Mark Birch and Jamie Devitt has been talking to CUTV about the game and the impact of strong Carlisle backing.
He said: “It could make the difference, pushing the lads all the way at Valley Parade.
“There’ll be a big crowd there, which is great. We want that. They can be our 12th man and we want them to be. It can have a massive effect and it can really help us.
“The most important thing is at five o’clock on Saturday night, we’ve got three points. It might not be pretty. We hope it is, but it might not be.
“We grind it out, we get three points and the crowd can have a massive, massive impact on the game. We want them right behind us.”
On the make-up of the team to face City, Rudd had this to say.
“Lads are now back from injury, which helps. The squad numbers are big. We’ve just had a meeting there. We are going to have to leave lads out of the 18-man squad, I’m not sure when that’ll have last happened.
“From the Academy side, Aran, Jake and Sam and people like that have been involved, which is fantastic for us. But, you know, there’s going to be first team senior players not in the squad on Saturday. So it’s a great headache to have.
“It’s going to be difficult. There’s conversations to be had and we’ll see how training goes. We’ll then get our 11 nailed down, get our game finishers and subs organised, ready to see how the game might go and go from there.”
