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"A good cup run can build confidence and create a fantastic buzz in the dressing room. I was lucky enough to be involved in a few good runs during my time in Scotland and those were great experiences. Doing well in the cups can definitely help your league campaign and that's what happened when I was at Livingston and Hearts.
"The one seems to feed the other because it gives the players so much confidence. We have a great chance to make it into the draw for the third round and get one of the big Premier League clubs. We all know that it could be the start of something special if we beat Carlisle.
"You only have to look at Burnley's run in the Carling Cup to see how it helped them. Beating those Premier League sides gave them a lot of confidence and had a positive effect on their performances in the Championship.
"There's no reason why we cannot do something similar and go a long way in the competition, especially as so many of the bigger clubs field weakened sides. I'd love for us to get Manchester United. We've already seen Championship clubs go out of the Carling Cup away to lower-league opposition though and the lads had a real fight on their hands at Brentford.
"To be honest, we wouldn't have fancied going all the way up to Carlisle, and a home draw makes all the difference. We'll be favourites in front of our own fans and, providing we go about our business in the right way, we should get through.
"Hopefully, our supporters will turn out in force and get behind us and we'll put in a much better performance than the one at Cardiff on Sunday. There's no way we can afford to take Carlisle lightly and we know they'll come here and try and make life difficult for us. But if we concentrate on getting our own game right, we should be OK."