Atkins and his table-topping Oxford United host the Cumbrians tomorrow with United trying to avoid losing for the 12th successive match. Carlisle have not won away from home all season while the Bulls are unbeaten at the Kassam Stadium and have lost just once in total. Bookmakers have been quoting odds of up to 13/1 that the bottom-of-the-table Cumbrians will pull off a shock victory tomorrow. Atkins however believes Carlisle could pull off the great escape, something that would dwarf even his own achievements in the 2000-01 campaign when United were six points adrift at Christmas but stayed up. "It was a similar kind of situation to what it is now when I was at the club," he said. "We got off to a bad start and won only two games before early November. But we turned it around as we had a run of promotion-like form. It can be done and while there are points on the board they have always got a chance. If the teams around them win 10 games each between now and the end of the season, Carlisle will need to win 16 of their last 26 matches. They need to go on a great run but Paul Simpson has brought in some experienced players and that might be the spark they need." However he thinks relegation to the Conference would not be the end of the world and cites his former club Shrewsbury's experience as evidence. "They've had crowds reaching 7,000 this season and if Carlisle went down but got back into the winning habit, they'd have crowds like that," he said. Atkins took over Oxford when they were lying second from bottom of the league in December 2001. He led them to safety in his first season and they just missed out on the play-offs last term. They are currently leading the Division Three table by a point from Hull and Doncaster, who beat United 1-0 at Brunton Park in their last league outing a fortnight ago. However Atkins will be acutely aware that he hasn't defeated United in three attempts since leaving Cumbria in the summer of 2001. Roddy Collins' side won 2-1 at Brunton Park in March 2002 before repeating the feat with another home win by a 1-0 margin in November last year. The last time the two sides met in March this year, Carlisle battled hard for a goalless draw at the Kassam. The 46-year-old Atkins will be showing them no mercy tomorrow, though. "We just want to get the three points and if that means it puts Carlisle further adrift, then that's tough," he said. Picture from News & Star |
