Can the Blues go one better than season?

Last updated 12:54, Tuesday, 05 August 2008

It's the million dollar question – can Carlisle United go one better than last season’s heroics and finally reach The Championship?

Welcome: Michael Bridges is welcomed back to Brunton Park by manager John Ward. The ex-Leeds striker is a terrace idol

It’s going to be tough, but The Blues are capable of at least reaching the League One play-offs again.

They have lost their two most influential players – goalkeeper Kieren Westwood and young striker Joe Garner, however the acquisition of Ben Williams, Josh Gowling and terrace idol Michael Bridges should give the squad greater depth.

It would be an astonishing achievement if United were to emulate their outstanding home record last season. It is extremely unlikely that they will be able to match such an incredible feat, however, I expect them to perform better on their travels in the new season.

I anticipate that the Cumbrians will not concede as many goals but I fear the team could find it more difficult to hit the back of the net.

League One will probably be more competitive, primarily because the teams coming down and going up into League One are stronger than last season.

Obviously Leeds and Leicester are the two biggest clubs, and the hot favourites for automatic promotion, but Swansea succeeded superbly last season when they clinched the title ahead of Nottingham Forest.

Huddersfield, Millwall and Oldham should be in the mix but I’m not sute they can threaten at the top of the table.

Others clubs likely to be in the promotion shake-up are Brighton, Colchester, Peterborough and Southend.

MK Dons and Scunthorpe represent good outside bets, but they may fall short.

I forecast that Bristol Rovers, Northampton, Stockport, Swindon and Tranmere will be mid-table.

My guess is that Cheltenham, Crewe, Hartlepool, Hereford, Leyton Orient, Walsall and Yeovil will be the strugglers battling to avoid the drop.

United kick-off the season at Bristol Rovers on Saturday and it is important that we don’t lose our first game so I suspect manager John Ward will play it fairly cagey.

If I was the boss, I would stick with the formation and tactics that served us so well at Leeds in the play-off in May. We played 4-5-1 when we were defending and 4-3-3 when we counter- attacking.

There are plenty of options to change the plan from the bench if it isn’t working and we could easily revert to a more conventional 4-4-2 if necessary.

My team would be:- Howarth, Raven, Livesey, Murphy, Horwood, Dobie, Joyce, Bridge-Wilkinson, Thirlwell, Hackney, Graham.

On the bench, I would select Williams, Gowling, Taylor, Bridges and Carlton.

There isn’t much to choose between the two goalkeepers or the three centre halves either. Bridges doesn’t appear match fit yet while Carlton’s rich vein of form has propelled him into contention.

It underlines the increased depth in the squad when the likes of the Grant Smith, Jeff Smith, Darren Campion, Gary Madine and the sidelined Chris Lumsdon aren’t even in that 16.