Carlisle Preview

Bristol Rovers face their longest trip of the season at a time when they would have preferred to not to travel so far. Carlisle United provide the opposition for Dave Penney's second game in charge of the Gas and for the first time it will be the new manager who will decide on the starting line-up.

It is likely the Yorkshireman will employ a similar 4-4-2 system to that he used for the second half of the midweek draw with Walsall, assistant manager for-the-time-being Darren Patterson choosing to play 4-3-3. The new manager has had his first training sessions with the Rovers players over the last couple of days and has spent some time changing the defensive work ethic that Paul Trollope instilled in his team, working with the players on defending from the front and pushing the play up the pitch.

Not only has Penney identified the changes he wants to make to the way his team plays but also where he needs to strengthen the squad. The first player he wanted to bring in was a big, burly targetman to add some power to the spine of the team and following Tuesday nights game with Walsall he told bristolrovers.co.uk that he hoped to have a player in prior to this weekends Cumbrian clash. That has not happened however, but he still plans to address the issue of new signings and will continue to look at the options available.

On Wednesday it was reported by unnofficial Rovers news website Vital Gas that the club were in discussions with Charlton to loan forward Pawel Abbott, previously at player under Penney at Darlington and Oldham, but Penney has confirmed that Rovers are not interested in signing him, in his pre-match interview he spoke about Abbott, saying:

"At this moment in time Pawel will not be coming here.

"I bought him at Darlington and took him through to Oldham, but even though he is a big lad he is a similar footballer to Will Hoskins.

"He is not a target man, he is 6ft 2in but he likes to play with a bigger striker, and he had his best joy at Huddersfield when he had Andy Booth who took the pressure of being a target man off of him and let him score the goals.

"We have not spoken to Charlton or to Pawel."

Another addition that Penney would like to make is his own assistant manager. His original target for the post was unable to join the club, turning it down so his family could remain in their current area, as a result Darren Patterson will remain in the role for the time being.

But it's not only Rovers transfers in that have made the news as Scunthorpe United manager Ian Baraclough has confirmed that they have had three bids for star striker Will Hoskins rejected by the club and have now turned their attention elsewhere.

There has been good news for Carlisle fans this week as they completed the signing of Lubomir Michalik on a permanent basis. The big central defender was initially on loan at Brunton Park for the first half of the season and had his contract at Leeds cancelled so that he could join the Blues.

In their last six league games Carlisle have won just once and that came at the start of the sequence, coming courtesy of a 3-2 win over Southampton. Sprinkled into that run were two cup games, one in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy which ended in a thumping 3-1 win over Sheffield Wednesday and last weekends FA Cup defeat to League 2 side Torquay. Fans of Carlisle will be upset at the way the season has turned for them, having been sat in second place after eleven games, just one win off of pace setters Brighton. That poor run of results since the aforementioned Southampton win has seen them pick up just two points and drop from 4th to 17th in the League 1 standings.

Rovers have been similarly poor, if not even worse having failed to win a league match since mid-October's victory over Rochdale, their only win coming courtesy of a 6-3 JPT win over Wycombe. During the time between that last win and now they have also flumped out of the FA Cup at Darlington, lost 6-2 at Sheffield Wednesday and let a two goals lead at home to Plymouth slip away. On the road the Gas's last win was on October 2nd, a 1-0 victory over Huddersfield owing to a last minute Will Hoskins strike, although they have picked up points at both Brighton and Charlton since.

Top scorer for Carlisle this season is Gary Madine with 13 goals, four of those coming in an FA Cup first round tie with Midland Football Alliance side Tipton Town. Aside from his goal scoring ability it is his height that is a major assett, standing as he does at 6'5". Over the last two seasons Madine attracted attention from Championship side Coventry, who he joined on loan in October 2009, and more recently Reading, purportedly in a £1,000,000 deal, though nothing eventually came of the rumours.

The record between the two sides is tight. Having met 33 times in their history there have been 13 Bristol Rovers wins, 11 Carlisle triumphs and 9 drawn games and the more recent history has been just as tight. Since Rovers earned promotion from League 2 in 2007 the two clubs have two wins apeice out of seven games played, one of the more dramatic meetings between the two coming at the Memorial Stadium last season.

On a day otherwise remembered for Ben Swallow's first league start Ian Harte put Carlisle ahead in swirling wind and pouring rain, only to see his goal cancelled out by Jo Kuffour before the half was up. With 18 minutes to go it looked as though Rovers had thrown the game away as former Bristol City defender Richard Keogh once again put the visitors ahead. Ten minutes later, however, it was level again thanks to Jeff Hughes and with the game looking as though at had been drowned out a late Rovers corner saw Stuart Campbell swing the ball in towards Chris Lines who bundled the ball over the line to rob Carlisle of a victory that they most likely deserved.

Rovers go into the game with just one doubt in the form of Byron Anthony. The central defender has been suffering from both food poisoning and flu and could make the bench. Eliot Richards is likely to drop back to a substitute role as Dave Penney will change the starting formation from 4-3-3 to 4-4-2, Jo Kuffour the man who is likely to replace him after his impressive sub performance against Walsall in the week.

Carlisle have Lubomir Michalik back after the giant Slovak signed a permanent deal with the Blues while Liam Cooper, on loan from Hull, and Liam Noble, on loan from Sunderland, could both make their first appearances for the club. Tony Kane, Graham Kavanagh and Sean McDaid all remain long term knee injuries for Carlisle.

Dave penney knows how difficult a task Rovers face, even though Carlisle have lost their early form, he told bristolrovers.co.uk:

"They [Carlisle] started off like a house on fire, and I am not quite sure what has changed.

"They have been very hit and miss, it will be a difficult trip and a difficult game with the position we are in.

"I got a lot of positives out of the game on Tuesday night in terms of the second half when we were going forward, we looked more of a threat."

Greg Abbott, manager at Carlisle, is hoping that his team can turn around their FA Cup defeat last weekend, he talked to carlisleunited.co.uk in the build up to the match:

"This Saturday I would like to see my players go out there and impress everyone after what happened last weekend. We have to demand a response from our players and they have to get out there and perform.

"The fans will be wanting them to answer the criticisms and we're only a couple of results away from putting our season right back on track.

"We have to go into the Bristol Rovers game in a really good frame of mind and I think we have to show that we can roll our sleeves up and give a really good performance."

The former Bradford City legend knows that Rovers can threaten on their day with the players that they possess:

"I'm surprised to see Bristol Rovers where they are because it's always a tough place to go. On paper they have a really good squad but it's been a funny league this season.

"Dave Penney has gone in there and he will be keen to turn it all round. They certainly have some quality and some players to look out for."

It's a big game for Rovers, Dave Penney's first chance to show the style of football he wants to play from the off, the squad won't want to come away empty handed from a 550 mile round trip.