As United look to end the season on a high, their opposition, Joe Dunne’s Colchester, are looking to fend off the threat of relegation. It has been a bumpy ride for them, too. Their task couldn’t be any simpler. Win or draw and the result of fellow strugglers Scunthorpe’s game against Swindon will be completely irrelevant. A defeat, though, and things start to get a little more complicated, as shown below:

                             GF    GA    GD   Pts

 19. Oldham         45      58    -13     50

 20. Colchester     45      68    -23     48

———————————————————-

   21. Scunthorpe    46     72      -26    45

Their superior goal difference means that should they lose 1-0 and, equally, Scunthorpe win by the same margin, they will still be safe. However, a defeat at Brunton Park by two goals or more and a victory of any kind for the Iron would, again, complicate things further. In fact, a 4-2 win for United and a 1-0 victory for Scunthorpe would leave them on the same number of points, with the same goal difference, same number of goals scored and the same number of goals conceded. This would mean that the games between the two sides this season would be the deciding factor – Scunthorpe have won both, meaning that they would remain in the division for another season. Anyway, that’s enough maths for now.

All these complicated scenarios and dependence on the result at Glanford Park will be avoided if they do the job required of them. Eight-goal top scorer Jabo Ibehre said this week that the U’s will “rip Carlisle’s heads off” on Saturday as the season comes to a close. Three points for the home United would do much to lift the collective spirits heading into a busy summer of comings and goings at Brunton Park, something which Greg Abbott will be desperate to do as he looks ahead to next season.

United Team News

With contracts running out and futures still up in the air, it could the last time many of United’s stars pull on a blue shirt. No fewer than twelve players could leave in the coming weeks, meaning that they will be keen to end the season with a bang. The Scottish trio of Rory Loy, Lee Miller and Jon-Paul McGovern, along with Matty Robson, Paul Thirlwell and Danny Livesey are all likely to feature, with Mathieu Manset, Andy Welsh and Wigan loanee Jordan Mustoe also unsure where they’ll be playing football next season.

Predicted United XI

Gillespie

Potts / Livesey / O’Hanlon / Mustoe

Noble / Thirlwell / Berrett

McGovern / Miller / Robson

Opposition View

Fellow CUFC fan, albeit of the Essex variety, Dave Burch spoke to me on Tuesday ahead of his side’s big game. Onwards we go…

JP: Even though you are in a relatively strong position with a superior goal difference, going into the last game of the season with the threat of relegation hanging over you is far from ideal. Why do you think you have struggled this year?

DB: It is a difficult one to answer as looking back on the season there have been a number of issues. Colchester fans didn’t realise just how much we were going to miss Ben Williams, who we signed from Carlisle coincidently. He was a massive influence to our back line. Mark Cousins, a local lad who has come through the ranks became the number one. It soon became clear that he was a weak link and also Magnus Okuonghae, our hugely influential centre back, had an absolute nightmare start of the season. We didn’t win in eight games at the start of the season and a hugely controversial penalty cost us the game at Scunthorpe away, and saw Ward sacked. Joe Dunne has tried to pick up the pieces and started well, but a run of nine straight defeats crippled us. We only have ourselves to blame from throwing away games in winning positions and atrocious form both at home and away.

JP: Joe Dunne has been in charge since John Ward was dismissed back in September. Is he to blame for the way things have panned out?

DB: John Ward has a lot to answer for. The squad was full of egos and players who were happy to just seemingly pick up their payslips. Ward did a lot of decent work in terms of stabilising the club, but he is a footballing dinosaur and just did not seem to instil pride or passion into the team.

Dunne got off to a great start winning his first couple of games. A draw against Shrewsbury away started a rot of the hideous losing streak. A loss away in the FA Cup in the original Essex derby v lowly Chelmsford City really just slapped us. We lost loanee Sanchez Watt to injury and it just turned horrendously bad after that. We looked doomed for a while and another loss to Scunny saw Dunne offer his resignation.

Dunne is a huge fans favourite having devoted most of his playing and ten years of his coaching career to the U’s. He turned it round well, but we have not picked up points when we should.

JP: I remember quite a few of your fans being optimistic about this season back in August after you’d brought in the likes of Freddie Sears and Clinton Morrison. How much flak do you think the players need to take for your league standing? 

DB: We have had problems all over the park. Cousins in goal cost us a few goals and our marking at set pieces was pathetic and saw us concede so many goals. The team just seemed to roll over. The midfield stopped working and it was just killing us. Since Wordsworth and Henderson left the club, it seems a much happier place. They were two big egos and they seemed to drag some others down. The trouble with Morrison is that he has had to play as a lone front man most of the season and that is just not his game, which is frustrating. Sears is hit and miss, but we have found a position for him where he should be thriving and hopefully he will be a big player this weekend.

JP: If you were to stay in League One, which areas do you feel need addressing the most? What would you like to see happen over the summer? 

DB: The midfield is full of plodders and is completely bereft of any sort of style, guile or quality – just a few grafters. It sounds harsh but it’s true, this area definitely needs someone to control the game and get their foot on the ball. We had Martin Rowlands who scored against Carlisle at the WHCS last season, but Ward released him and it was a huge error. 

I reckon we will see a couple of wingers come in as we are looking to play with speed on the flanks, but most of the business will be loans. Hopefully we can retain some of the loanees we have had this season. Sam Walker has come in from Chelsea on loan and has been a real revelation in goal. His performances in the draw at Hartlepool and win at Bury were key to us being able to survive still. We are not a bad side, we just have not had great luck and have shot ourselves in the foot too many times with calamitous defensive capitulations [JP – sounds familiar].

JP: In the reverse fixture earlier on in the campaign it was Sanchez Watt who caused us all sorts of problems and despite there being plenty of chances for both sides, it was a pretty routine victory for you in the end. Who should we watch out for this time?

DB: Sanchez Watt, Craig Eastmond and Ibehre came to the club at the same time and hit the ground running. Watt was hugely influential for us and we’d not be in the same position now if we had him for the duration of his loan. Unfortunately he had a season ending injury in the humiliation at Chelmsford.

We like to break with pace and wingers Gavin Massey and George Porter will probably start on the flanks. They are both quick, but Porter is the one who will produce more with the ball. He is a skilful player with half decent delivery. In midfield there is not one to write home about. Freddie Sears will be a danger man if he turns up. He was dreadful against Shrewsbury, but sometimes he shows just why he was one of the hottest prospects in the country when he burst onto the scene as an 18 year old at West Ham. Jabo Ibehre is a mountain of a man up front, but is not the best when it comes to finishing chances. His hold up play is fantastic.

JP: Are you confident that your players will be good enough to get a result up at Brunton Park?What will Joe Dunne’s message to them be?

DB:Do not lose by more than one! A draw is good enough and to be perfectly honest we seem to play better away from home. But we have not had much luck this season. After Saturday’s dire draw, we will hopefully see the team more fired up. It is a really important game and hopefully the team can show its mettle and what it is capable of. It is in our own hands still, so we have to produce the best of our ability.

JP: Lastly, to end the season with, what is the final score going to be?

DB: I am praying for a score draw to keep us safe and to see a goal, around 500 travelling die hards will make the trip with many deciding they had to be there after Saturday’s borefest. It is a hugely important game for us, but we have not been too clever at Brunton Park in recent seasons. Ward always seemed to make the team play really uselessly against you, but saying that we only lost 1-0 last season. I have a horrible feeling it will be 1-0 to you. I do not want to contemplate relegation, but with Scunny at home and Swindon having nothing to play for, I can see the worst scenario of them winning by two and you beating us 1-0 to send us down.

Whatever happens there are quite a few of us staying down for the weekend and hopefully celebrating last day survival. If you want to give us a Jimmy Glass-esque moment in the dying seconds to keep us safe I’d be appreciative!

So, when the rejuvenated Liam Noble smashed in his third in two games against champions elect Doncaster on Tuesday, we were given a reminder of the old United, the quality United, the one that has been hidden away for the past eight months. It goes without saying that we shouldn’t have had to have waited for this long to finally start enjoying games again. Things have been tough, there’s no getting away from that fact, but you have to give credit where credit is due. They have finally got their mojo back.

United’s opponents, not-so-local rivals Preston North End, have similarly suffered from a dose of underachievement. Argued by some to be one of the division’s bigger sides, their inability to capitalise on their comparatively sizeable bank of resources has seen them struggle to pick up points consistently and make a charge on the play-offs. Many point the finger, perhaps fairly, at former manager Graham Westley for their plight. Despite bringing in undoubted quality to the club last summer – Nicky Wroe, Stuart Beavon and Lee Holmes, just to name a few – his unconventional approach to management and rumoured poor rapport with the players mean that he never had the desired impact at Deepdale.

In the weeks leading up to his departure, he became increasingly desperate.  Results worsened and, in the end, the pressure from the large sections of their supporters made it an inevitability he would have to be relieved of his duties – as he was, after just 13 months in charge. Since then, former club Stevenage (probably the only side in English football willing to take him on) have come calling. Simon Grayson, sacked by Huddersfield in January, has continued his footballing tour of Northern England by bringing his slowly imploding face and ‘Northern Partridge in Training’ book of blustery cliches to Deepdale, and results have improved. The negative connotations that Westley attached to the club have, on the whole disappeared. The gamesmanship, the late-night text messages, the over-physical approach to the game, all the negative things we came to consider part of the North End blueprint have waned. Rumours that they have been replaced by lectures on dealing with laser-pens behind the goal remain unconfirmed.

At this stage, things may not be perfect and not everything from the Westley era will have ceased to exist (Dino Maamria, for instance, is a regular feature of the Editor’s night terrors), but it is an ongoing process. There is certainly more good than bad happening at the club, they are going in the right direction. Two defeats in eleven and the best defensive record in the division last month goes some way to illustrating that.

It goes without saying that they will provide a much sterner test to the one at Deepdale earlier in the season. If Greg Abbott wants to finally crack the three-games-in-a-row nut and make Joe Garner’s return to Brunton Park a miserable one, Carlisle will have to be at the top of their game, as they have been recently. Games between the two sides are traditionally exciting and, faux rivalry aside, there is no better game to finally try and win over stay-away supporters. A grandstand finish such as that reserved for Grayson’s last visit to Brunton, as Lee Miller clambered, back-peddling on to a Danny Livesey high bomb whilst Huddersfield keeper Alex Smithies struggled to fathom how the ball wasn’t actually orbiting the sun, would be ideal.  It’s finally something to look forward to, let’s hope we can bring the season to a close with an echo of that day of Paddock delirium.

United Team News

Greg Abbott may have to shuffle the pack following news that new father (and Captain of all fans’ hearts - ed.) Paul Thirlwell is unlikely to feature again this season. He joins Matty Robson and Frank Simek in the medical room after it was announced that they too have only a slim chance of playing any part in the remaining three games. With Brad Potts excelling at right-back and out-of-favour youngster Josh Todd – whose days at Brunton Park are seemingly numbered – being the only available central midfielder, it appears almost certain that a return to 4-4-2 is the route that Abbott will go down. This will mean that celebrity tweeter Danny Cadamarteri, celebrity retweeter Mathieu Manset and lesser spotted celebrity twitter hashtag Rory ‘#promotion4loyman’ Loy will compete for a place alongside Lee Miller.

Predicted United XI

Gillespie

Potts / Livesey / O’Hanlon / Mustoe

McGovern / Berrett / Noble / Welsh

Miller / Cadamarteri

 Opposition View

North End fan, Olly Dawes, joins us this week to tell us everything we need to know ahead of the weekend. He discusses Graham Westley, Simon Grayson, Joe Garner and the future at Deepdale.

JP: Before the season began, a lot of your fans were very confident you’d make the play-offs with Graham Westley at the helm. It didn’t work out and there was a lot of dismay in the weeks leading up to his departure after a poor string of results. Do you think it was the correct decision?

OD: Yes, I do think it was the correct decision. Westley has actually brought some pretty good players to the club, but his demeanour and style completely sapped them of confidence and energy. His attitude towards the press (conducting press conferences hours after the final whistle) dragged the club’s name through the dirt, and as much as you can maybe tolerate that when you’re winning, it’s hard to justify when you’re losing. It’s also been apparent that the players are happier now too, as they’re praising Grayson’s training regime as a welcome change from Westley’s methods.

JP: Simon Grayson, Westley’s successor, came in with a pretty impressive record at this level. Does that fill you with confidence that he is the right man to take the club forward?

OD: It does – three promotions from the division is pretty impressive (even though I’m uneasy giving him all the credit for Huddersfield’s promotion). Even in his short time here, he’s stabilised the team and restored the confidence around the club. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that under Westley, the team had only won one league game in 2013, but under Grayson they’ve only lost two. Players being used in their correct positions, no longer haemorrhaging goals, no bonkers promises of winning trophies…the ship has been steadied. He’s done a great job with the same group of players so far, so there’s a lot of optimism regarding next season.

JP: What are your hopes and expectations going into summer and onwards into next season?

OD: Well as much as there are some good players here like John Welsh (Errr, okay then – ed.), Lee Holmes and Stuart Beavon, the team still needs some more quality. I’d anticipate 5 or 6 players in and maybe the same out, with Westley hopefully taking some of his disciples with him to Stevenage. With regards to the season, we’ve got to be pushing on to a playoff place at the least. I dislike the “we’re a big club” talk that you see plastered all over Twitter, as we have no divine right to win games and we are where we are because we deserve to be, but we’ve scraped survival in our two seasons here, and should be doing better with our budget.

JP: It was a strange transfer window for us in January because we seemingly focused all our attention on Joe Garner, let League One’s top scorer leave for very little and then ultimately lost Joe to you. Since his move he hasn’t played very often… Why do you think that is? Has he performed poorly?

OD: Well under Westley, he said that he couldn’t play Garner and Beavon together as they’re too similar, which begs the question…why sign Garner then? Beavon was Westley’s big money signing, so you’d think he’d bring someone in to compliment him. Beavon has been out injured recently so Garner has had a couple of games…he’s missed a few really good chances and has yet to score for us, so there’s a little bit of pressure on him to open his account. The fans have criticised him lately for going to ground too easily but I still think he can be an asset for the club. In fact, who better to score his first Preston goal against?

JP: During your time in League One you’ve had a reputation for being a strong, direct, powerful side but, on the flip side of that, not averse to gaining an advantage through means other than your football. Has this ethos changed since Westley’s departure? What should we expect from you this time?

OD: As much as we tried to defend it, we all knew that we were deploying underhand tactics under Westley. The time wasting, occasional feigned injury…again, easy to defend when you’re winning, but when you start to lose games it becomes irritating. Under Grayson I think the style of football is fairly similar in that we’re fairly rigid and powerful, but without the duplicity. I would have said to expect a lot of our play to go through Lee Holmes, but he’s going to be out injured. Grayson went with Nicky Wroe out wide against Oldham with John Welsh and Keith Keane in the centre, so I’d expect us to be fairly disciplined on Saturday. We don’t really concede many goals – under Grayson, we’ve yet to concede more than one goal in a game, and currently have three clean sheets in the last five games.

JP: Player-wise, Joe Garner (if he plays) will be an obvious man to watch as he’s one of those players everybody loves to hate – perhaps why Westley brought him in. Who else should we keep an eye on?

OD: As stated, Lee Holmes is out injured which is a blow for us. The defence is playing well and looking like a solid unit now – Paul Huntington was just nominated for Player of the Month and his partner in the centre, Bailey Wright, is also turning in good performances. Going forward, there’s left midfielder Will Hayhurst who has scored a few goals since having an extended run in the team. John Welsh has been excellent this season in the centre and the team looks so much better when he plays. Up front we’ll go with Jack King, a player who was playing part-time at Woking before coming to Preston – he’s a big, physical unit but wildly inconsistent too. Stuart Beavon is arguably the best player in the team, so it will be crucial to give him good service. Keith Keane is scheduled for surgery on a hernia injury and now we’re safe from relegation, I’d be surprised if he played on Saturday, which will be another blow.

Predicted line-up:

Rudd

Connolly / Huntington / Wright / Buchanan

Monakana / Wroe / Welsh / Hayhurst

King

Beavon

JP: Lastly, on this week of huge derby games, what will the final score be?

OD: Our away games have been a bit cagey under Grayson, so I’ll go with a 1-1 draw. Late season game, neither team with much to play for, but it would be great to give the fans who are travelling up a win, especially after the disappointment at Crewe on Easter Monday.

The hosts have endured a similar season to Carlisle and currently find themselves seven points behind United having played two games fewer. Although a win on Saturday could prove vital when the season draws to a close later this month, points on the board are undoubtedly better at this stage in the season than games in hand. Manager Lee Johnson, son of Yeovil’s Gary, has now gone unbeaten in three since taking over the reins at Boundary Park after Paul Dickov walked away at the start of February. This belief will prove key to any chance they have of first beating a Carlisle side with just one defeat in six (positivity, eh, Greg?) and securing a place in the same division next season.

Their spectacular cup run, which ultimately ended at the hands of Everton, helped generate much-welcomed funds, allowing them to bring in proven talent such as Lee Barnard, Chris Iwelumo and the recently-departed Jordan Obita, who turned down a move to Brunton Park on-loan last summer. Despite having not yet reached the upper limits of their potential, this firepower in attack would be the envy of many sides higher in the league and should, on paper, be enough to drag them over the line. Inconsistency and unpredictability has been the bane of both sides’ seasons, something which they will both have to try and put to one sides as they lock horns on Saturday.

On the same ground where United’s play-off dream was ultimately ended last season, it would be a sweet way to banish all fears of relegation and finally look forward to the summer break, if they could walk away victorious.

United Team News

Greg Abbott will field a largely unchanged team, with only Peter Murphy coming into the side in place of the suspended Sean O’Hanlon. He will complete his one-match ban after seeing red against Sheffield United on Monday.

Predicted United XI

Gillespie

Simek / Livesey / Murphy / Mustoe

Noble / Thirlwell / Berrett

McGovern / Miller / Welsh

Opposition View

Latics fan John Mellor joins us this week to discuss his side. He talks in-depth about their cup run, new manager Lee Johnson, old manager Paul Dickov and why they have struggled this season.

JP: It appears that three of the relegation places have all but been decided, leaving four sides still in danger of the drop. Do you think you’ll have enough to stay in the division?

JM: I think it will be close this season and may go down to the wire for that last spot.  A few matches ago before our new manager was appointed, my belief was that we were certainties for the drop, as we’d seemingly gone into a rut; a knock on effect from the fabulous cup run and the players’ body language had seemingly changed for the worse.  However, a new manager is now at the helm, with new ideas and genuine substance and philosophy behind his playing ethos.  Hopefully this means that there will be fresh hope around the corridors of Boundary Park.

On balance, with our first XI, we should not be ensconced in a relegation battle but we are where we are and I believe the players now know the severity of the situation.  I think we may just escape but I’d hate to be going to the last game of the season needing to win to stay up, as then I wouldn’t be confident. Put simply, our destiny is in our own hands – we have games in hand on all the other teams, so we gain points out of these and pick up a couple more wins and this should see us safe.

JP: Why do you think you have struggled this year?

JM: There are few factors that have contributed to our struggles this year. One is our tactics or lack of a plan B.  Under the tutelage of Paul Dickov we mainly seemed to sit back a lot with two deep lying midfielders who were reluctant to plough forward and were thus stymied in attacking flair or indeed inclination to attack the opposition and support the strikers. Our playing style changed under Dickov’s tenure from one of a high pressing game when he was first appointed to a more negative defensive approach to try and catch teams on the break.  Of course there have been league matches where we have seemingly had a game plan and have played well but I can count these on one hand.  Take away our fantastic cup run and it’s been a season to forget.

We also haven’t scored enough goals through different outfield players and have relied on Jose Baxter too much to carry us through the season.  Lee Johnson has only had three games and I think he has already realised that we haven’t been fit enough and has put in plans to rectify this.  We look fitter already and able to last the 90 minutes, although it’s early days.  Time is needed for the new broom to bed in but more important things first.  It’s now a seven game shootout for us – the old cliché of every game is our cup final springs to mind.

JP: All the sides in the bottom seven, Carlisle aside, have replaced their manager at some point over the course of the season. Was it a surprise when Paul Dickov resigned or had the writing been on the wall for a long time?

JM: In the end, it wasn’t a surprise that Dickov left the club.  He had a boat but no paddle to steer it, having had his backroom staff put on gardening leave on New Year’s Eve.  In a strange way, I thought the decision to dispense of the backroom staff was the right one but I wanted an old head to come in and support Paul (like what has happened at Yeovil).

I was always a Paul Dickov fan, he said the right things, had passion and seemed to love the club but ultimately results went against him and our tactics on occasions lacked any substance.  I think deep down he lasted longer than most other managers would have done due to his popularity and most probably the cup run which brought in much needed revenue and probably made the chairman’s decision more difficult.

Opinion was seemingly split at the start of the season with some fans undecided as to whether he could take us forward. As the season progressed and results started to go against us, the tide turned.  He will always have a place in our history as a manager who tried his best and he goes with most fans’ best wishes but ultimately he failed. I don’t think this failure was solely down to him, partly it was the cards he was dealt but also it was his shortcomings as manager – the old pals act with the players and his stubbornness to change a formation that clearly wasn’t working.  Players being used in the wrong positions also blighted his managerial career at Oldham, although I bet fans at most clubs say the same thing!

JP: Lee Johnson, son of Gary, reportedly beat 120 applicants to the job even though he was a relative unknown. What do you think the reasons were for that? What will he bring to the club?

JM: When news of Johnson’s appointment was leaked on the social media networks a day before the announcement, I like many was shocked that a 31 year old rookie with no management experience would be given the reins at Boundary Park for the ensuing relegation scrap.  I like many wanted experience, someone like Iain Dowie who could steer us clear of relegation, motivate the players and put fire in their bellies.

Now, after hearing the man speak, I can understand why he won the race to become our next manager.  As touched upon earlier, there seems to be more depth and understanding to his thinking – he has clearly researched the club thoroughly, is erudite and has offered a blueprint as to how the club can move forward.  I know fans that have been able to meet him up close and all have intimated that the guy knows his stuff and you can see why he’s been chosen.

During his breaks from his long playing career, he has gone round the world looking at other management practices and is learning like a sponge.  This keenness to learn, research and have clear objectives as well as favoured playing styles is a positive trait that fills me with confidence that he has a long term strategy rather than simply hoping for the best.  I am fully behind him as it’s counter-productive to be vitriolic, particularly in the predicament the Latics currently find themselves in.

JP: Putting the league to one side for a moment, you had that amazing cup run, beating Nottingham Forest, Liverpool, drawing to Everton and then just falling short at Goodison Park. How important was that for the club going forward?

JM: The cup run was massive for the club. For me, I would hope it means a season where we don’t make a loss.  The chairman has been plugging the gaps for some time although I have heard him say we are relatively well run and are certainly not in the financial position like other clubs such as Portsmouth.  Our budget is said to be relatively small but you only have to look at the likes of Yeovil, Walsall, Tranmere and Crewe to see that a small budget does not mean a season of struggle.

I would hope some of the money we’ve earned from the run will be put to good use and not put towards paying off debt and also not to give players big bonuses for progression through each round. Progression off the park as well as on it surely must be an objective like it is every year.  We need to develop and build a new stand and try and increase the fan base.  Of course, success on the pitch often breeds this progression with more fans and potential sponsors coming on board if the club are doing well.

The cup games themselves were thrilling and we fully deserved to get through each tie, bar the Everton one where we pushed them close and were credit to League 1.  If only we could have replicated our cup run in the league…. Anyway, I’ll always remember this season with fondness for the 7 minute spell in the second half at Forest and the win over Liverpool alone.

JP: Some of the money generated by those successes was put back into the playing squad to bring in the likes of Lee Barnard and Chris Iwelumo on loan. Who should we watch out for in particular on Saturday?

JM: Lee Barnard is certainly a threat and will be the work horse if he starts on Saturday.  Big Chris hasn’t really featured in Lee Johnson’s plans too much so doubt he will start.  The jury is out on him really, he has obvious experience and can pass on tons of knowledge to the young players but think the fans believe he is what we call workshy. Any player who wears the Latics shirt will get the support from me but I personally think he doesn’t look fully fit when I have seen him play.  Still has the potential to be an impact sub if played the right way. Other players to watch out for are Jose Baxter for his all round ability and a rejuvenated Lee Croft who has many assists this season.

JP: Lastly, how will the match finish? Needless to say it’s a huge game for both sides.

JM: I believe the game will be a tight affair with few clear cut chances, in other words not one for the purist!  We just need to capitalise on any sights of goal that we get but that is easier said than done.  One of our main problems this season has been lack of goals scored from chances created.  The players need to realise they are in a scrap out there and fight for the cause as relegation would be disastrous for all involved at the club.

I see Carlisle as a similar team to ourselves in terms of inconsistency, achieving up and down results with similar resources and budget.  A win for us would obviously pull us closer to you and give us a fillip for the games in hand we’ve yet to play.  We need the three points desperately so heart says a win but head says a 1-1 score draw, with Oldham scoring first and Carlisle equalising midway through the second half.  In the last half dozen of games or so our luck hasn’t been great so hoping for a nice rub of the green on Saturday.