THE LATE defeat at Tranmere in our last game was cruel. The lads dug in and withstood some pressure during the second half without ever looking in too much danger. In the end we made some bad decisions right at the death and once more were made to pay.

Hopefully we will learn from our experiences and prevent this kind of thing from happening again.

We begin 2009 with a long trip up to Carlisle United. They spent a fair bit of money during the summer to build a strong squad that started the season by challenging at the top of the table.

They currently find themselves in the bottom half of the table, but in Greg Abbott they have a manager who knows the club well and in the on-loan Graham Kavanagh they have a quality player in the engine room of the side

On their day, Carlisle are a very good side and we will have to roll our sleeves up and work hard to get anything out of the game.

We still find ourselves with a number of injury concerns going into the game, but if need be I have no fear of throwing the youngsters in. It is a good opportunity for them to get the experience of being in and around the senior squad, which will stand them in  good stead for the future.

Obviously it is a big ask to put so many of them in at the same time and we have to strike a balance, but it's a case of going with what we'v got right now and getting on with it.

I would like to thank those supporters who will be making the trip up to Brunton Park.

JIMMY MULLEN