This Saturday sees Carlisle welcome newly promoted Truro City to Brunton Park, with the home side looking to build on Wednesday’s 1-0 win away to Brackley, and John Askey’s side looking to continute their turnaround after taking four points from the previous two games.
How Have Both Teams Started The Season?
Mark Hughes’ side have enjoyed a relatively strong start to their National Leaugue campaign, earning four wins and two draws from their opening seven fixtures. United responded well to last Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to Sutton United by taking a hard earned three points at Brackley in midweek thanks to the league’s top scorer Regan Linney’s second half strike.
The Blues currently sit third in the league with 14 points from 7 games.
The Tinners have had a tough start to National League life following last season’s promotion, losing their opening five league fixtures but have started building some momentum in their last couple of games, winning a convincing 3-0 victory at home to Boston United last Saturday, and being seconds away from taking another three points at home to Aldershot in a 2-2 draw on Wednesday. John Askey will be frustrated not to see his side take all three from that game however, conceding a last minute equaliser as the visitors ended the game with nine men.
Truro currently sit 22nd in the league with 4 points from 7 games.
Players To Watch
Despite some frustrations from United’s fans with some of their performances so far this season, it’s hard to argue they have a great calibre of player in their squad, and the main man to watch will almost certainly be the league’s top scorer Regan Linney, who has six goals from seven appearances so far. Linney’s excellent striking of the ball, his work rate and tenacity combined with his ability to take on his man has seen him be a lethal force from the left flank this season for the Cumbrians and he will definitely be one that Truro will be looking out for.
Another player i’ve picked out to watch is Alex Gillead. Gilliead made his debut in Wednesday’s 1-0 win over Brackley following his loan move from Shrewsbury and has already shown signs of what he’s capable of in a United shirt, the ex Bradford man has proven he’s able to use the ball intelligently, drive forward and cause opposition problems in dangerous areas and pick out some key passes when given the opportunity, his pedigree will likely be one that will catch the eye of Truro and Askey when preparing for this match.
The first player i’m picking out to watch for Truro is their talisman Tyler Harvey. Harvey has been Truro’s top scorer in the past six season for the club and has made over 200 appearances for City over two spells at the club, scoring more than 125 goals during his time there. Carlisle have struggled to deal with natural goalscorers this season such as Luke Norris and Dan Creaney, and with Harvey’s physical presence and experience up front he is likely to pose a threat to the Cumbrians’ backline.
The other Truro player i’ve picked out is Will Dean. The former Exeter City man has been one of Truro’s standouts since joining them permanently in 2021. Primarily a midfielder but also capable of being an effective presence in defence, Dean already has a couple of goals to his name this term and after a couple of strong showings against Boston and Aldershot, he will be well up for the game on Saturday and could be a tough nut to crack for Mark Hughes’ side.
My Predicted Carlisle United Starting Eleven
Breeze, Davies, Mugabi, Thomas, Harper, Ellis, Macadam, Gilliead, Wearne, Linney, Kelly.
I’m going with the age old mantra of not changing a winning side here, and although there were question marks over the performance on Wednesday, the players showed a great ability to roll their sleeves up and grind out a win at Brackley, and for that reason i can’t see Hughes making any changes. The only question marks for me are whether Thomas will keep his place after limping off late on Wednesday, and whether United will trust Georgie Kelly to start a second game in the space of four days.
Score Prediction
Carlisle United 3 – 1 Truro City
This definitely feels like it could be a bit of a stumbling block for United, as on paper it feels like what should be a routine win, but Truro’s momentum over the last couple of games could give them a bit of confidence to come and take the game to Carlisle. With that said however, Truro have also proven to be very vulnerable at the back this season, and will be disappointed in themselves for not keeping a hold of the three points in Wednesday’s draw with Aldershot.
I just about see Carlisle’s team being a little bit too much for Truro to deal with, especially with Regan Linney being in such fine form, however United will definitely have to be on their guard and look to be a little sharper on home turf this Saturday.
A Message From Paddock Perception
We are working alongside Liam and his YouTube channel Blue Army TV this season to make sure we bring you the best Carlisle United content we possibly can. You can subscribe to his channel and follow him on X, his handles are below:
X – @blue_army_tv
YouTube – @BlueArmyTVchannel
Another partnership Paddock Perception has is with Carlisle United YouTube channel CU04, they have amazing content on their channel and we are looking forward to working with them this season. You can follow them here:
X – @CU04_YOUTUBE
YouTube – @CU04
Thank you everyone for reading Paddock Perception, your support means everything! Please don’t forget you can follow Dan and Craig on X for more football content:
@dan_batemannn
@CraigWL1997
Paddock Perception 