Carlisle are fourth from bottom of the league at the moment but that, by no stretches of the imagination, means we are in for an easy ride. In fact we don't really have to look far back to know that Carlisle are a very good side due to our game with them earlier in the season. But from that result I think we have learned some things and we hope we can put them right and maintain our impressive record at the Abbey.

Games against Carlisle are always hard. Even though, I think that we perhaps deserved to win in our last meeting, but their goalkeeper was particularly impressive and made come very good saves. They played some very good football as well and caught us on the hop last time by playing one or two diagonal balls that got in behind us. In the end, we managed to sort that out but that was a ploy they used well against us.

I think that if you look at their record anyway it is good. There is only four other teams that have conceded less goals away from home and Cardiff and ourselves are two of those. They don't give goals away from home easily so that in itself lets you know that the game is going to be a little bit tough.

Lately Nigel has made come changes bringing in a couple of players and given time, I think Nigel will do a good job and I wish him all the best.

However, the fact that we have a very good home record will boost our chances today. We have won the last nine games at the Abbey and that is very encouraging. I think that it is making teams that come here more wary of us, perhaps even fearful. It is making Cambridge as a team more confident when they go out there on the pitch.

It is also great for our supporters to see us put in these performances at our home ground. our support without doubt at the Abbey has grown and that has helped considerably. The players have enjoyed that too.

Last weekend, I was very happy with the result against Chester. I thought that it was a game we deserved to win, even though at the moment we are perhaps not firing on all cylinders. We are not producing the football that we have been producing earlier this season. As far as I am concerned, we need to be more consistent for the whole of the 90 minutes of a game. Against Chester, we came out and we had some good moments, but it was not an impressive performance overall.

The guys, however, did fit back in well to the league campaign after having the match against Swansea cancelled and then the Auto Windscreens Shield game against Exeter. I think that perhaps if we had not played that game we could have struggled a little bit against Chester.

Playing week in, week out most weekends is part of our profession, so when we have a break it can knock your rhythm. The Exeter game in my opinion got us back on track.

On the injury front we are still not doing too badly. Ian Ashbee's ankle is not as severe as we first thought. He will probably start training again at the end of next week. Alex Russell will be suspended for the Scarborough game because he has had five bookings.

We had a reserve team game against Gillingham on Wednesday afternoon and that was very encouraging for me. It was probably one of the best performances the reserve team has played all season. Michael Kyd scored two goals and that will give him a lot of confidence since his cartilage operation. Our back-up at the moment in fact is very good.

Let's hope for another good showing and enjoy the game.