Thirlwell: We can't lose at Walsall if we want to stay in touch at top of table
Last updated 16:56, Saturday, 27 September 2008
Skipper Paul Thirlwell believes Carlisle United must stop the rot at Walsall today in order to stay in touch with the leaders in the most open League One promotion race for years.
The Cumbrians are anxious to avoid losing three games in a row after successive defeats to Scunthorpe and Leeds.
And Thirlwell said it is important they stay in close pursuit of the front-runners in a division he expects no-one to walk away with.
“I can’t see anything running away with it this season,” said the former Derby midfielder. “It is going to be tight all year round.
“If you look at the league table you can see we’re right in the thick of it.
“As long as we keep in touch up there it will stand us in good stead. That’s why we don’t want to lose three in a row – we’ve got to get back on track with something down at Walsall and with the way we’ve been playing, we’re more than capable of doing that.”
Thirlwell has led United into battle in all their games so far this season – a far cry from his previous campaign which was ruined by injuries.
And the 29-year-old is confident United can quickly re-ignite their promotion bid in the West Midlands today.
“We want to go down there and put on a good show, as we did last year,” he said.
“We played really well and should have been a few up before they came back into it in the second half.
“We will go down there with the same attitude we’ve had all season. If we play the same way, we should have enough to get a result.”
Walsall are without banned defensive duo Rhys Weston and Netan Sansara, both of whom were sent off in last weekend’s 1-0 win at Brighton.
Former United left-back Paul Boertien will replace Sansara while Chris Palmer should come in for Weston.
The Saddlers will overtake United in the table with victory today but skipper Stephen Hughes has warned his team-mates about the scale of their task against John Ward’s men.
“Carlisle will be there or thereabouts because they have a great team,” said the former Arsenal and Coventry schemer. “We know how tough it will be.”
