Carlisle v County: Match Thread (18/04/2023)

So what can we say about Carlisle then? Well they are clearly one of the top sides in the division at P 42 W 19 D 14 L 9 F 60 (only Mansfield on 65 and Salford on 66 have scored more) A 37 - which puts them in 5th behind County on GD (Orient are top of that category on 29, the County 24 and Carlisle on 23, then Bratfut on 19 and Mansfield and Salford both on 15).

Their H record is 3rd best in the league at P 21 W 11 D 7 L 3 F 30 A 16. The Ws are Crawley 1-0, Gillingham 1-0, AFC Wombledon 2-1, Donny 3-0, Bratfut 1-0, Newport 2-0, Hartlepool 3-1, Barrow 5-1, Colchester 1-0, Grimsby 2-0 and Tranmere 2-0. The Ds are Swindon 1-1, Rochdale 3-3, Crewe 0-0, Walsall 0-0, Sutton 1-1, Stevenage 0-0 and Northampton 0-0. The Ls are Orient 2-3, Harrogate Town 0-1 (the game in which Harrogate had just 3 shots and not one on target!), Mansfield 0-4.

All very respectable but I find it striking that the only side out of the top 7 that they have beaten at H is Bratfut: they D with Stevenage and Northampton and L to Orient and Mansfield which could be read as implying that they are better than most L2 sides but perhaps a trifle lacking against the best L2 sides.... hmmmm... discuss...

When it comes to goals Kristian Dennis, formerly of this parish, is the main man with 20 of their 60 goals. The next highest scorer is Ryan Edmondson on 6 then MF, and import from the Land of the Men in Skirts, Owen Moxon and Jon Mellish on 5 apiece (Moxon is also their top assist man with 14, the next highest being Jordan Gibson with 7). Then comes Omari Patrick with 4, then a further 13 players with 25 goals between them which suggests a fair degree of turnover within the squad.

Their form this year is more mixed W 9 D 5 L 5 the Ls being Donny 2-1 A in Jan, Harrogate 0-1 in Feb, Mansfield 0-4 also in Feb, Gillingham 1-0 A in March and Orient 1-0 A at the start of April. They also D with AFC Wombles 0-0 A in Feb and then with Stevenage 0-0 H and Bratfut 0-0 A in March and Walsall 0-0 A and Northampton 0-0 H in April so quite mixed.

Hmmm, I quite fancy County to pull out a W here, not sure quite why, and I suspect Ben Barclay will be sitting this one out, in fact he's only made 10 apps in his season long loan, spending much time on the treatment table. As ever, fingers crossed....

3 changes as Hussey comes in for Byrne (on the bench), and Camps and Stretton come in for the injured Ryan Rydel (I assume Hippolyte goes to LWB) and Kyle Wootton - hope that's not too serious......boy would we miss him if he was out for a while.

His son Jake works for County