Steve Evans says he needs no reminding how “tough” it will be for his Stevenage side at Carlisle United despite the Blues’ struggles.

The play-off chasing visiting boss says he has huge respect for Paul Simpson and his team regardless of their lowly League One position.

Stevenage are seeking a win that would put them back in the play-off places as they continue pushing for a second straight promotion.

They will aim to do so against a bottom-placed United side in dire form with 12 defeats from 13 games.

But Evans says Carlisle could easily have picked up more points in that recent spell.

“I’ve got a lot of respect for Paul and for his recruitment in January,” said Evans.

“I’ve got as much respect for his players. If you look at their results, they’ve only lost by more than one goal on the odd occasion – [there was one goal in it] at Charlton recently, and they should have beaten Barnsley but lost by the odd goal.

“From our point of view no-one has to educate me how tough going to Carlisle will be and taking on Simmo and his guys up there – it will be really tough.

“But on our day we are good enough to go up there and get a positive result.”

Stevenage are winless in four but remain very much in the play-off picture ahead of a game in hand this weekend.

They are looking to leapfrog in-form Lincoln City and Oxford United, neither of whom have games on Saturday.

International weekend has also cost Stevenage their top scorer in Jamie Reid, who is with Northern Ireland.

But Evans says he’s excited by the prospect of keeping their promotion chances alive.

“It’s going to be tough but we know what the prize is for coming down the road with three points – we’re in the play-off group,” he added.

“If we don’t, we’re still in the mix with seven to go.

“There are five or six teams competing for one spot. I’ve always said, if we can get in the play-off group we can win them.

“We’re looking forward to going up there [to Carlisle] – eighth last game of the season, we’d love it to be 11, and we’re fighting for the play-offs.”

Evans is also without suspended captain Carl Piergianni, while the Boro boss is assessing goalkeeper Taye Ashby-Hammond, who injured his groin in the warm-up before last weekend’s defeat to Leyton Orient.

Should he again miss out, Craig MacGillivray – a man who was linked with Carlisle in January – will again start in goal.