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"The dressing room after Saturday was probably at it's lowest point in our two-year stint. The players pride has been wounded and the best way to take it on the chin and do something about it is the next game and that is Carlisle. They are an excellent footballing team with some superb players and you hope that our players raise their game and raise their mental state and put in the type of perfromance that we all know they are capable of.
" The squad players wait in the wings and have done every session that we have asked them to do. Maybe the time is right to look at them but unfortunately though they are getting there Jon Shaw and Mark Jones won't be ready in time for this one. We do healthy competition and players only stay out of the team whilst it is doing well and winning matches.
"When it isn't they have every right to stake their claim and hopefully the game will give them that. The players that haven't been fully involved have been fully professional in everything that they have done and they have enough hits and sessions under their belts to warrant a place.
"In fainess I don't think that the result from Saturday has changed our thinking, it would have been something that we would have done anyway with a game coming up on Friday evening at Lincoln City. It is a great chance for the players that have been in the background to step forward and say 'here I am'"
"I have seen many Monday mornings during my 15 year time in the game and have seen managers moping around and not doing the right things. Nothing changes at this football club. One poor perfromance in 79 is something that we have to deal with.
"We understand the expectation and the players have set the standards. If they fall below those standards then people have the right to have a go and for the players it is always sink or swim time. They have to get stronger from it and that is why we have to be mentally tough and really come out fighting on Tuesday and again on Friday. "
In team news for the home side tonight they will be missing defender Simon Ramsden (calf). Also watching from the sidelines will be centre-forward Jon Shaw and midfielder Mark Jones (both hamstring), meanwhile striker Kallum Higginbotham may also miss out with a foot injury. Like Carlisle's Paul Thirlwell, 'Dale midfielder Clark Keltie picked up a fifth booking of the season on Saturday, but he, like Thirlwell, will not serve his one-match suspension this evening.
Carlisle have played at Rochdale a mammoth 48 times over the years, with the home side having won 24, United 13 and 11 having ended in draws. In the various named versions of the present Johnstone's Paint Trophy the sides have met twice at Rochdale, the second of those games being the 2-1 defeat, and therefore 5-3 win on aggregate for the Blues, in the two-legged 1994-95 Northern Area final.
Last time out at Spotland was another memorable match for the Cumbrians when they pretty much assured themselves, bar a goal difference disaster at Stockport, of winning the 2005-06 League Two title with a 2-0 victory at Rochdale. Danny Livesey and Peter Murphy scoring the Carlisle goals late in the first-half in front of 4,439 spectators, around half of which were from Cumbria.
The referee for tonight's match is Nigel Miller from Darlington, and he will be assisted down the lines by Kevin Mattocks from Chorley in Lancashire and Andrew Smith from Castleford in West Yorkshire. Meanwhile the fourth official is Gary Hilton from Wigan. The officials tonight overseeing a tie that will miss out extra-time and go straight to a penalty shoot-out if the scores are level after 90 minutes.