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United welcome Rushden & Diamonds to Brunton Park Stadium on Saturday afternoon for an important game for both sides, albeit for differing reasons. The Blues need to get their automatic promotion hopes back on track after some indifferent results of late while the Diamonds currently prop up the Football League and need to start winning games fast if they are to avoid the drop back into the Conference. Carlisle hammered the Northamptonshire outfit 4-0 at Nene Park way back in early December and will be confident of claiming another three points against the strongest club in the League.
The previous match played between the two in Cumbria was almost three years ago in April 2003, with Rushden inflicting a narrow 2-1 defeat on the Blues in a Division Three match. That day, in front of a crowd of 5468, Carlisle conceded two second-half goals from Stuart Wardley and Andy Edwards before bagging a late consolation through the on-loan Stuart Green. An 86th minute sending-off for ex-Middlesbrough man Mark Summerbell only compounding the misery for United on a season where we ended the campaign one place above the relegation zone once again, the Diamonds though were League champions that season on their way to Division Two.
For a detailed analysis of the head-to-head between the two sides, click here
| Recent encounters between the teams: | |||||
| 2005/2006 | Tue 06 Dec | Rushden | 0 - 4 | Carlisle | LGE2 |
| 2002/2003 | Sat 19 Apr | Carlisle | 1 - 2 | Rushden | LGE2 |
| 2002/2003 | Sat 21 Dec | Rushden | 1 - 1 | Carlisle | LGE2 |
| 2001/2002 | Tue 22 Jan | Carlisle | 3 - 0 | Rushden | LGE2 |
| 2001/2002 | Sat 22 Dec | Rushden | 3 - 1 | Carlisle | LGE2 |
Recent respective form guides
United are in decent form at home, having won four and drawn two of their last six games, although the state of the Brunton Park pitch on Saturday will likely make good football difficult. In this time the Cumbrians have rattled up an impressive 15 goals, and conceded only four.
In complete contrast to the Blues, Rushden are having a torrid time on their travels, managing a paltry two draws from the last six matches. While the Diamonds have hit four goals, 11 have hit the back of the wrong net, their last outing away from home being a 2-0 defeat at the hands of play-off chasing Wrexham on Tuesday night.
Carlisle are holding the final promotion place in the League Two table , and have accumulated 56 points from the 33 games they have played so far. The Blues though could find themselves down to fourth on Friday night if Northampton, as would be expected, beat relegation threatened Torquay in their evening encounter.
The Diamonds find themselves stuck right at the bottom of the division with their 33 games yielding only 30 points and seven wins. Rushden have found life particularly hard on the road, only picking up 14 points from a possible 51. With only 13 games left in the season the Northamptonshire outfit have to find an improvement on that if they are to avoid the drop back into the non-league wilderness.
For a detailed analysis of team form guides throughout the leagues, click here
| Current form guides: | P | W | D | L | F | A | P |
| Carlisle | 6 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 9 | 6 | 9 |
| Rushden | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 7 | 8 |
FootyMad's prediction ...
Its good news for Carlisle fans, because, with them being in such great nick at home, I just cannot see any further than an emphatic home win for the Cumbrians. Home win
| Sequence statistics: | |
| Carlisle | Unbeaten in the last eight home games. Drawn each of their last two games. |
| Rushden | Not won in previous seven away matches. |