Rochdale boss Robbie Stockdale is demanding "fight" from his players in order to end their winless run against Carlisle United.

Tonight's opponents have gone seven games without victory.

Amid a three-game losing sequence, Rochdale are nine points above the drop zone and not totally out of the woods in the survival battle.

Saturday's 1-0 defeat at Crawley Town was another frustrating afternoon for the Spotland outfit and Stockdale, speaking ahead of the visit of Paul Simpson's in-form Cumbrians, says it is now a question of attitude.

“My reaction to this is that I’m going to fight,” said Stockdale in a club interview.

“I’m going to roll my sleeves up and look the players square in the eye and see who wants to do that with me. 

“When I’ve been in these situations before, and unfortunately I have as a player and a coach, the bare minimum that you can expect from a team and a manager is to fight and that’s what we’re going to do.

“I want to see a level of play and a level of competitiveness that gets us a chance to win any game.

“If we get our bits right, which we’re not doing enough at the moment, then we have a chance of winning any game.”

Rochdale's hopes of picking up their form has been hit by injuries recently.

Striker Tahvon Campbell and midfielder Jimmy Ball are set to miss the rest of the season.

Their last victory came on February 26 against Northampton Town.

That was one of just two victories in their last 16 League Two outings.

READ MORE: Teams will now raise their game against us, says Carlisle United No2 ahead of Rochdale trip