Paul Simpson hopes Carlisle United can catch MK Dons at the right time – but is warning the Blues not to be deceived by their early-season struggles.

Mike Williamson’s side, among the bookies’ favourites for League Two promotion, have lost their first three games in league and cup.

Carlisle will hope to extend the hosts’ poor start at Stadium MK tomorrow but manager Simpson says some of their early games could easily have gone differently.

“I’m hoping we catch them while they're in a bit of indifferent form, but I've watched their games, and they're actually playing well,” he said.

“They're playing some good football.

“Last week against Colchester they missed a chance at 0-0 that could have made it totally different – the goalkeeper made a save and then they give a couple of goals away.

“But they've got a set style and I think Willo, who I worked with at Newcastle, has done a brilliant job there.

“I think he's got them playing a real good style of football, but obviously everybody just looks at results and they'll think that they're having a dreadful time, so we've got to make sure that they're not able to cause problems against us and hopefully they'll have another tough weekend.”

Simpson believes that, because of the possession-heavy style of MK, United will have to show patience in spells of Saturday’s game when they don’t have the ball.

MK Dons have lost to Bradford (pictured) and Colchester in the league, plus Watford in the Carabao CupMK Dons have lost to Bradford (pictured) and Colchester in the league, plus Watford in the Carabao Cup (Image: PA)

But he also said the Blues will have to be poised to take advantage if any of the hosts' passing ‘risks’ backfire.

“It might be a little bit different from the Gillingham game, because they were a different style, but we expected Barrow to want to play and they tried to build out from the back – they were probably a little bit more direct from Paul Farman than we thought, but certainly once it dropped into midfield with their midfield players, they wanted to be patient and wanted to keep it.

“These lot [MK] will build out from the back and they will take risks.

 “We've just got to be ready to go and capitalise on those risks if there's anything loose, and go and break on them.”

United will also face one of the EFL’s oldest and longest-serving players on Saturday in MK’s 40-year-old defender Dean Lewington.

He started his career with Wimbledon before their controversial move to Milton Keynes, and in total has made 1,002 appearances (92 for Wimbledon, 910 for MK Dons).

Simpson says he has plenty of respect for the veteran campaigner, whose long service earned him a merit award at the Professional Footballers' Association awards this week.

“He didn't start the first game but then the left-sided centre-back got injured, so Dean's come into it - but he still holds his own and credit to him for being able to play to that age,” United’s boss said.

“I know what it was like – I was suffering at that point when I got to 39 and my legs started to go on me, so I probably know what he's going through. But I've got to say when I've watched the games, he looks more fit than I was at that age anyway, so he's done really well…”