Carlisle United will be eyeing up second place in League Two after a fantastic run of form in 2023 now sees them in third and narrowly ahead of Stockport County with the Cumbrians set to head on the road to meet with Crawley Town.
Despite Carlisle climbing into third this year, form has been quite poor from the club in February. A home loss to Harrogate Town was coupled with a 0-0 draw against Wimbledon, as Carlisle then went on to register arguably their worst result of the season in a 4-0 loss to Mansfield Town at home. Paul Simpson's men did return to the win column against Colchester United last weekend, as Alfie McCalmont scored after four minutes in a 1-0 win.
Simpson's side are behind Stevenage in second by two points now, but they have still played two games extra. Carlisle have so far won 15 games from their 32 outings and lost only seven. This keeps them above Stockport County in fourth by one point, but their 49 goals scored is so far the most in the league alongside Mansfield. They have also let in 32 goals, which is only bettered by four other clubs.
As for Crawley, they narrowly lost to Leyton Orient last time out and were defeated by Stockport County a week prior to that. It now means the club are down in 23rd and staring in the face of the National League once more. Crawley's terrible run of form is one of the worst in the Football League right now, and it has also seen them drop six places in the table in just two months. Scott Lindsay sees his side with just 26 points from 29 games and with them also losing 15 times and winning just six games.
On the other hand, they do have many games in hand to play, as they boast of four games extra to play over Hartlepool United just above them, while the club also have two games in hand over Harrogate Town in the safe spot of 20th. On the other hand, their recent form doesn't exactly suggest that they will be able rocket themselves out of the drop zone.