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The Blues prepare to welcome the Mariners to Cumbria tomorrow, with the visitors looking to keep up a good overall record against United at Brunton Park over the years.
The most recent encounter between these two sides in Carlisle was just last season, in late September 2004, the Cumbrians carving out a narrow 2-1 victory in a Football League Trophy tie. United were giantkillers that night though as Conference defeated League Two in a first round tie that attracted a healthy following of 2,580 spectators. Simon Grand was once more the LDV hero, scoring a 70th minute winner for the Blues after Colin Cramb had, bang on half-time, cancelled out Kevin Henderson's fourth minute opener for United.
The two teams have only met twice in the league before though in sixteen seasons, and that was way back in the 1997-98 League Two (third tier of the old league system as it was then) campaign. Sadly the Cumbrians lost both matches against Town, going down to a 1-0 defeat on each occasion and ended up being relegated from the division after finishing in 23rd place. The second of those defeats came at Brunton Park in the third last game of the season, and all but condemned Carlisle to the drop. Grimsby's Kevin Donovan scoring the only goal of the game from the penalty spot in the 25th minute in front of a paltry crowd reduced to just 3,956 fans by the actions of owner Michael Knighton.
For a detailed analysis of the head-to-head between the two sides, click here
| Recent encounters between the teams: | |||||
| 2005/2006 | Mon 02 Jan | Grimsby | 1 - 2 | Carlisle | LGE2 |
| 2004/2005 | Tue 28 Sep | Carlisle | 2 - 1 | Grimsby | ASSM |
| 2000/2001 | Tue 05 Sep | Carlisle | 1 - 1 | Grimsby | LGEC |
| 2000/2001 | Tue 22 Aug | Grimsby | 2 - 0 | Carlisle | LGEC |
| 1999/2000 | Tue 24 Aug | Grimsby | 6 - 0 | Carlisle | LGEC |
| 1999/2000 | Tue 10 Aug | Carlisle | 0 - 0 | Grimsby | LGEC |
| 1997/1998 | Tue 21 Apr | Carlisle | 0 - 1 | Grimsby | LGE1 |
Recent respective form guides
The Blues are unbeaten in their last six home games, winning five of them, and drawing the other one, and haven't lost at Brunton Park since a 1-0 defeat to, currently imploding promotion hopefuls, Wycombe, way back in late November. In that run of those last six matches at home the Cumbrians have rattled up an impressive 19 goals, and conceded just five.
In complete contrast to Carlisle, the Mariners are having a torrid time on their travels as of late. Town have won just one and draw two of their last six games on the road, while they have scored six goals, 12 have hit the back of the wrong net. Five of those goals conceded came in their last away game, a 5-0 Lincolnshire derby hammering at Sincil Bank against Lincoln City on the 25th of March.
Carlisle are leading the way in the League Two table at the moment, and that will still be the case even if they lose to the Mariners tomorrow, with their 39 games giving them a return of 74 points. United also have an extremely healthy goal difference of +39 which is 19 better than any of their rivals and will be worth an extra point in the automatic promotion run-in.
Grimsby are currently occupying second spot in the division and are hot on the tail of the Blues, gaining 71 points from their 40 games. Town are three points behind the Cumbrians though and have also played a game more, Carlisle's match in hand coming away to Rochdale this coming Tuesday night, so a draw would not be a disaster for United by any means.
For a detailed analysis of team form guides throughout the leagues, click here
| Current league form (home and away) | P | W | D | L | F | A | P |
| Carlisle | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 20 | 3 | 18 |
| Grimsby | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 10 | 9 | 11 |
FootyMad's prediction ...
United may be coming up against a decent side in Grimsby, but I do believe that it's going to result in a narrow home win for the Cumbrians. Home Win
| Sequence statistics: | |
| Carlisle | 12 games since last home defeat. Won six league games in a row. |
| Grimsby | Not won in previous four away matches. Eight clean sheets on the road. |