Carlisle Campaign

CARLISLE currently sit five off the bottom in Sky Bet League Two as they make the long journey down for this weekend’s clash at Home Park.

The Cumbrians opened their campaign with a 2-1 success at home to Crawley, thanks to goals from Harry McKirdy and Stefan Scougall, following this with a battling display at Swindon that saw them unluckily go down to a 3-2 defeat.

The positive early momentum continued with an excellent 3-0 victory at Championship Barnsley in the Carabao, with McKirdy, Jack Bridge and Nathan Thomas scoring the goals on a memorable night.

It was from there that the season hit the buffers slightly, as Carlisle suffered successive 2-0 defeats to Mansfield and Cheltenham. Olufela Olomola and Scougall were on target in a 2-2 home draw with Salford but they went down 2-1 at Rochdale in the Carabao Cup.

Ryan Loft scored the only goal in an encouraging win at Scunthorpe to complete August but this was followed by a 3-1 home loss to Exeter. Fairly decent form on the road continued, however, as McKirdy struck twice and Thomas also scored in a 3-2 triumph at Stevenage.

A 0-0 draw with Forest Green was another respectable result but they went down 3-1 at Bradford, and also lost to Wolves Under-21s in the Leasing.com Trophy. Olomola scored the winner at home to Oldham in the league at the end of September but consistency has been the major problem, as this was followed by defeats to Newport and Crewe.

The Cumbrians do come to Argyle feeling a little better about the word after a fine performance in midweek saw goals from Loft and Canice Carroll earn them a 2-1 win over Blackpool in the Trophy.