It’s fair to say that nobody really saw Carlisle United struggling as much as they have done so far this season following last season’s relegation from League One, but the start to the season has been really underwhelming.
The Blues currently sit on 13 points from their opening 16 matches and are inside the relegation zone of League Two, having only picked up three points on three occasions this season. They also have the worst defensive record in the division, conceding 29 goals so far this term.
Manager Mike Williamson has recently taken over from Paul Simpson and has seen his side score late on two occasions in recent times, with Ben Barclay’s 88th-minute winner at Salford City and Dan Adu-Adjei’s stoppage-time equaliser at Bromley helping secure four out of a possible six points in their last two league matches.
When speaking to The Carlisle News and Star, the boss highlighted the fact that whilst Saturday’s visit of Doncaster Rovers is a very challenging game, his side go into it with a spring in their step:
“Football is largely to do with feeling and emotion, and the illusory words we talk about are momentum and confidence and whatnot, but it just means you go into it with a good feeling.
“It doesn’t detract away from how hard it’s going to be and how good [Doncaster] are, and the challenges that they’re going to pose, but I just think it puts a fire in our belly, and off the back of the last few performances it brings confidence.”
Victory for Carlisle United would secure only a second home league win of the season, and a first under new manager Williamson who was full of praise for his players following the trip to Bromley in his pre-match interview: hoping that will be enough motivation to encourage them to pick up a crucial win against Doncaster:
“For the lads as well, it was brilliant.
“I thought the frustrating thing [last] weekend was we didn’t feel as though we deserved to be behind, so [the equaliser] was really just more of a release of what we felt we deserved in the game.
“The positive side was the mentality that we just wanted to keep pushing – even with limited minutes left we wanted to go forward and we wanted to recreate that feeling of Salford [with a winner], but it wasn’t meant to be.”
Writers View
With the squad that Carlisle United have, they should be nowhere near the relegation zone, and with the right morale turn of form, they can really kick on and push higher up the table.
Saturday’s visit of high-flying Doncaster Rovers could be a big chance to do so, with victory against such a well-performing team so far guaranteeing to put a smile back on players’ and supporters’ faces. Two similar squads on paper, separated by the completely different trajectories of form both sides are going through currently.
