Carlisle United
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The countdown to Carlisle
Tuesday
The referee for Saturday's match is Alan Young who has issued 43 yellow cards and two reds in 11 games this season. He was last in charge of an Argyle game in November last season for the FA Cup First Round win against Stevenage at Home Park.
He will be assisted by Simon Shaw and Sam Ogles while the fourth official is Justin Amey.
Carlisle currently sit in 20th place in League Two on 14 points, winning two and losing four of the six away games played so far; keeping just one clean sheet away from home in the league this season.
Former Argyle winger Nathan Thomas, on-loan at Carlisle from Sheffield United, refused to do extra training on Thursday last week and was subsequently left out of the matchday squad to face Crewe Alexandra at the weekend .... News and Star
Argyle have a home record of winning 14 games of 20 played against Carlisle at Home Park, drawing two games and losing four.
Wednesday
According to Sky Bet Argyle are favourites to win at 5/6, a Carlisle win has odds of 3/1 and the draw is on offer at 5/2.
Carlisle Director of Football David Holdsworth talked about the pressure on manager Steven Pressley ...
News and Star“Any manager, when they’re not getting results, they’re under pressure. That’s at every club.
“He will be angry, he will be annoyed. Only Steven can say whether he feels let down by some of his players. I have my thoughts that they are letting him down, because I know how hard he works.
Carlisle beat Blackpool 2-1 in an EFL Trophy game at Brunton Park on Tuesday evening in front of 911, the sixth lowest attendance in Carlisle's history.
The local Carlisle newspaper published a damning article about the EFL Trophy and a match report .... News and Star
Match Sponsors
Injury problems for Carlisle..... News and Star
Thursday
Former Argyle striker Paul McGregor will be the half-time guest ... club website
Visitor Guide to Home Park
Carlisle fans at The Cumbrians.Net website have kindly agreed to give Pasoti users an insight into their club with a Q&A.
Q: What are your thoughts on Carlisle's season so far?
A: Indifferent. Massive overhaul of personnel in the Summer, that hasn’t clicked yet. There’s been glimpses, but not enough, defensively in particular. Our flair players have been very hit and miss too, and our strikers not firing all cyclinders. Frustrating basically!
Q: What are your views on manager Steven Pressley?
A: I’d says he’s akin to Marmite. Some like, others don’t. He has ideas, but some feel they’re too much for L2. The defeat to Crewe on Saturday saw a noticeable change in feeling though with some chants of ‘Pressley Out’ being aired. A big couple of weeks coming up for him.
Q: Given the recent financial problems and ownership issues of lower league clubs are Carlisle in a stable state at the moment?
A: Yes and no. We’re owned by 3 local businessmen and our Supporters Trust. Only one of the four has any money though, which has lead to Edinburgh Woollen Mill ‘loaning’ the Club upwards of £1m at the last accounts (They’re owned by a local done well - Philip Day, a billionaire - but he has no interest in football much!). If he ever called the debt in, we’d be up poo creek, but having moved their head office to Carlisle recently, it’s highly unlikely this would happen. Change is needed though.
Q: What are your expectations and predicted finishing position for Carlisle in League Two for this season?
A: We’re not good enough to bother the promotion race, and we’ve enough about us to keep out of the relegation mix, so a dull 14th is likely!
Q: Without giving too much away what style of football and formation are Carlisle likely to use against Argyle?
A: We’ve adapted a 3-5-2 in the last couple of weeks, after beginning the season with a 4-3-3. We try to play out from the back (One of SP’s philosophies) but we’re not very good at it!
Q:: Looking from afar what are your views on Plymouth Argyle?
A: Similar to us in terms of the location issue, but definitely a Club who could be higher up the League’s, with a good sized catchment area. With your ground nearing completion from redevelopment there’s no reason why the Championship shouldn’t be an aim?
Q: And finally do you have a prediction for the game?
A: We’d take a 0-0 and run now!
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Matchday Mascots
Inside Carlisle
Friday
Carlisle's season so far.... club website
Jon Colman of Carlisle's News and Star gives his insiders view of the Cumbrians .... Plymouth Live
Joe Riley talks about Saturday's game ... club website
Carlisle manager Steven Pressley talks about Argyle ....
“I’ve watched Plymouth’s game from last weekend and they played some great stuff, but I’ve got great confidence in us.
“If we go about the game in the way we did on Tuesday and at Newport then I think we’ve got a real chance.
“They’re a very good side with some real match winners in their team. They’re a team who are expected to be challenging in the top three in the league, so it’s another really tough game.
“They’ve been hard to beat at home but I’m sure they would have liked to have turned some of the draws they’ve had into wins. They have good threats but we know we can be a match for them.
“We’ll have fans making the journey expecting us to win and that’s certainly what we’ll try to do for them.”
Saturday
Carlisle Stats
Carlisle manager Steven Pressley looks ahead to the game ... News and Star
Joe Riley talks about playing at Home Park ....
“I’ve been in the situation when I came here with Bury a few years ago and you know it’s one of the best grounds in the league.
“You do raise your game for it. You look forward to coming out here and playing in front of 10,000 fans because you don’t always get that in League Two.
“The Green Army have been terrific. They got a lot of praise for last week and rightly so, it was outstanding to make those numbers, especially at our level of football.
“It shows what a great group of fans they are. They’ve been great this season and I’m sure they will be again on Saturday.”
Ryan Lowe talks about the game ... Club website
Graham Little will be in the club superstore before the game signing copies of his book 'Little on the Inside'.
Complete info on the game ... Carlisle Ready Reckoner
Carlisle manager Steven Pressley talks about the chances of former Argyle winger Nathan Thomas playing against his former club.... News and Star