Carlisle United warned not to get left too far adrift

The joint caretaker boss believes there is plenty of time for the Blues to put together a positive season despite their poor start.

But he acknowledged that Carlisle must not waste time in building a better platform for their campaign.

Rudd, Mark Birch and Jamie Devitt remain in temporary charge as United look to finalise their new head coach appointment, with Mike Williamson poised to be named as Paul Simpson’s successor.

If that game proves the start of a new era as expected, it will see the head coach charged with bringing about significant improvement after five defeats in United’s first six games.

Their start leaves them third bottom of League Two and, on the risks of such poor initial results on the club’s aim of promotion, Rudd said: “There's no point in looking too far ahead, because what we have to do now is get enough points on the board over the coming weeks to be in a position, going into Christmas and the winter period, to be able to build on it.

“There are a lot of games left – that is a positive – but we're slowly ticking them off and we don't want to be too far off.

Steven Rudd, Jamie Devitt and Mark Birch have been in interim charge whilst the Blues have finalised their head coach process (Image: Richard Parkes)

“If you can get some points on the board now and then go on a little run it sets you up well for the back end of the season, but if you don't get enough points on the board now then the back end of the season is nothing to play for.”

Rudd, Birch and Devitt have overseen training in the early part of this week and laid out the full week’s plans to prepare for the Swindon game in the event of United’s head coach pursuit not being resolved by then.

Rudd says all involved must do even more in order to help Carlisle turn the corner.

“There is quality in the dressing room, and what it needs is for everybody within the whole club and everyone associated to go above and beyond, to work extra hard,” said the academy manager.

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“Everyone's working hard, there's no doubt about that, but we're now going to have to go out of our comfort zone and go above and beyond, go the extra mile, all those old cliches to think that, without doing the ugly, horrible side of the game, the ability we've got counts for nothing.

“It’s about the willingness to go and press, block shots, put your head in the way, go and do the ugly side of football, and then the football, the good side, will take care of itself.”

Rudd, meanwhile, has confirmed that there was no injury issue behind the decision to substitute Dominic Sadi at half-time against Fleetwood Town last weekend.

The AFC Bournemouth loanee was replaced at the break by Luke Armstrong in the 3-2 defeat.

Rudd said: “Luke's been very good for two weeks, he's chomping at the bit, raring to go and we just thought with the momentum in the game, tactically could we gain the advantage?

“We wanted to get Luke on the pitch, and the way of doing it was getting him and Charlie up the top, so that was purely tactical with Dom.”