Paul Simpson has spelled out the tally of goals and clean sheets he feels Carlisle United need to stay in the promotion race.

The Blues have already equalled last season's league goals total of 39 after just 25 games.

They have also reached double figures in terms of clean sheets, after last weekend’s shut-out against Newport County.

Simpson believes the Blues need to at least double their goals return, and do almost the same in terms of clean sheets, over their remaining 21 League Two matches.

“We’ve got a really good tally of goals, we’re sharing them around, and we’ve got to keep going that way,” he said.

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“We’re on 39 goals, we need a minimum of 39-40, maybe 50 goals again, in this last half of the season if we’re going to expect to go anywhere.”

At the other end, the manager wants Carlisle to keep totting up the clean sheets.

The Blues have kept ten ahead of this weekend’s trip to Bradford City.

“Against Newport we had a real desire to keep a clean sheet,” the Blues manager said.

“We’ve got ten clean sheets so far. To be successful you need to be looking at 16-17-18 clean sheets.

“We’ve got a long way to go to achieve that.

“We’ll keep doing that, and hope we keep getting goals at the other end.

“If everybody’s on song and doing the job we and they want them to do, that’s how we’ll keep our momentum.”