Carlisle United: Chesterfield could deliver Mike Williamson some timely Brunton Park relief | OneFootball

It's surprising that the head coach hasn't managed this yet.

Carlisle United head coach Mike Williamson has certainly ridden out the storm that initially faced him.

October is the month of Halloween, but the nightmare spanned the whole month for the newly appointed Blues boss.

A frustrating defeat against Notts County sparked a poor run of form in which they picked up just two points across the 31 days of the tenth month of the year.

The lowest point during that stretch was at home to Cheltenham Town, when Harry Lewis made a goalkeeping clanger to give the visitors the lead at Brunton Park, and Carlisle struggled to put anything effective together in order to level the scores.

In the aftermath of the match, some supporters were calling for him to go, just a month into his reign. The tide has changed since then, though. The following match, against Wigan Athletic in the FA Cup, brought with it another defeat, but it was the turning point at which supporters really started to get behind the boss and his team.

Carlisle went undefeated in November in the league, picking up six points from four games. Had things gone slightly differently, they could easily have found themselves with four victories in the penultimate month of 2024 and out of the bottom two.

They didn't, unfortunately, and it has left Williamson still chasing one thing that he has yet to achieve since arriving from MK Dons: a home victory.

Chesterfield offers Mike Williamson a chance to break Brunton Park streak

Because of how much better the Blues have been in the past five weeks or so, it is a surprise that the head coach, who has been nominated for the division's Manager of the Month award for November, hasn't been able to tick that off of his to-do list.

He's got a few chances left to get it done before the close of the year, with the next opportunity, versus Chesterfield on Saturday, being arguably the hardest.

The Spireites have come up from the National League and look a threat to challenge for the play-offs. This doesn't come as much of a surprise, given their 10x-point season last time out and the recent record of National League winners once they have got to the fourth tier.

Paul Cook's side has a lot of firepower in it. Former Blue Paddy Madden, Will Grigg, Dilan Markanday, Armando Dobra, John Fleck, Liam Mandeville; there's a lot of quality in there.

They've been hard to beat too, only falling to defeat five times in 19 league games since their promotion. They have had some away-game wobbles of late though, losing their last three matches on their travels in all competitions.

This factor should give Williamson some encouragement about notching his first Brunton Park win as Carlisle's head coach, despite the large discrepancy in league position between the two clubs.

Carlisle need to put attacking woes right to beat Chesterfield

With 33 goals scored, the Spireites are only behind Walsall (34) when it comes to the best attacking records in League Two. Carlisle's defence has been much better as of late, having not conceded from open play in the league since that loss to Cheltenham, but it will be mightily tested on Saturday.

United's best chance of getting something out of the game will be if they find their shooting boots. They have squandered a lot of good opportunities in their recent matches, which can't happen against Town if they want a victory.

Chesterfield have conceded ten goals in their last six games. They can be got at, but good finishing will be required if the Blues are going to capitalise on it.