All this season now lacks for Luke Joyce is a goal - and doesn't he know it. "The lads are desperate for me to score, the gaffer is, and I imagine the fans are as well," says the midfielder who is otherwise an emblem of Carlisle United's progress this season.

"We had a finishing session last week which was pretty much orchestrated around me," Joyce adds, in response to captain Danny Grainger's light-hearted suggestion that he was going to give his team-mate some personal shooting tuition.

"I can remember scoring goals in the reserves in my first spell here. I got a bit of a tag for getting in the box and nicking one.

"I'll keep trying to do that, and learn off Jason [Kennedy]'s Lampard-style runs! I'm not sure I've got the overhead [kick] in my locker like him - but a little tap-in on the line will do me."

Joyce is of course bringing much more to the table than a desperation to score. He has been arguably the strongest performer of United's unbeaten season to date - which is some going, in this era of Nicky Adams, Mike Jones and several others.

The 29-year-old came first in an unofficial fans' poll for their player of September on thecumbrians.net forum. His man-of-the-match award collection swelled further after Saturday's 3-2 win against Hartlepool. At a recent fans' forum, Keith Curle ladled praise on a player he views as "the fittest at the club."

These things are all the more welcome when one considers the occasionally difficult path Joyce walked last season, and the fact Curle triggered a summer influx of new midfielders.

Yet alongside the redoubtable Jones, he has raised his game considerably. "I don't feel like I'm doing anything totally different to what I was trying to do last season," Joyce says. "But for whatever reason things are coming off a bit more. At the minute everything's rosy and everyone's happy.

"It's always nice when the people who come and watch you week-in, week-out are praising you. I've had a couple of great accolades - nice rounds of applause when I've come off at Morecambe and against Accrington.

"I was a little bit disappointed to come off, because I want to play every minute of every game, but you don't mind when you're 3-0 up at Morecambe."

Joyce, who often partnered Kennedy in central midfield last season, now forms the axis with former Bury and Oldham man Jones, with the admirable Kennedy now in a wider role. Is this the selection tweak that is bringing the best out of Joyce?

"It's hard to say, because Jason was great to play with. Jonesy is the same. He's a good player - a demanding player. He's quite similar to me in that he's quite happy to sit back, get on the ball and play, and that gives me licence to be a bit more adventurous.

"Because I know I've got that insurance behind me, I'm not worrying all the time that I've got to make sure I'm the anchor. Jonesy's happy to do that as well so we kind of swap that role between us.

"We've struck up a good relationship off the pitch too. He's a nice bloke, experienced player, knows the game...everyone will say good things about Jonesy."

Curle believes his summer recruitment set Joyce a challenge which he has accepted superbly. The player himself admits this made his task perfectly clear.

"I spoke to the gaffer at the end of last season, when we had our meetings, and he said we were going to strengthen central midfield. I knew we needed that - there was only myself, Jason and Bastien [Hery] at the time, and Bastien then left.

"They brought Jonesy, Russ Penn and Joe McKee in, so I knew I needed to make sure I came back in pre-season and hit the ground running, which I feel I did in the games and the fitness tests.

"I didn't start the game at Portsmouth, which I was disappointed about, but from then on, everything's gone well."

In his displays so far it has become clear why Joyce has sustained his now long career beyond the 350-appearance mark. Accrington Stanley is no place for a bluffer and Joyce earned the captaincy there as he built valuable experience at the Lancashire club.

That was in a six-year period after his release by Carlisle in 2009, when he had often been a fringe player in teams that won League Two and scaled League One.

He returned in summer 2015, as Curle rebuilt after fourth-tier survival. This time, promotion is a firm possibility.

"In my first spell here there were some good experienced pros, and we've got a lot of that around now - players at that 28, 29 age," Joyce says.

"It's probably the peak of your footballing time. You've got myself, Mike Jones, Nicky Adams, Jason Kennedy, Michael Raynes, Danny Grainger, Shaun Miller - he doesn't look it but he's 28. Jabo's really experienced. Mark Gillespie's been in great form. Tom Miller solid as ever. Macaulay Gillesphey looks like he's got great potential.

"So you've got lads who are in really good stages of their career."

The target for a side in third place after 13 games is fairly clear. Joyce glimpsed promotion in his first United spell but not as a central figure.

"I can remember what it was like, the celebrations on the pitch at Brunton Park when they won League Two [in 2006] - it was brilliant," he says.

"Maybe it came too early in my career, but just to be a part of it was brilliant. I was 19 at the time, coming into a club that was doing so well...it was like, 'this must be what first-team football's like all the time'.

"I kind of took it for granted and didn't take it all in. If I can get that under my belt this season, whilst being a mainstay of the team, it would be an unbelievable feeling and sense of achievement."

Asked if he has experienced any similar unbeaten runs before, Joyce says: "I can't remember, which kind of tells you the answer.

"It's something that, whilst you're on it, you're not really thinking about. You're just playing each game as it comes, as boring as it sounds. Not disrespecting the opposition, but believing in what we've got - a really good outfit with good players, solid players, and great fans travelling around the country.

"We've got everything I think we need to be successful and it's just about staying on this crest of a wave, keep going into games believing we're going to win."

After United's last win but one, at Morecambe, Curle referred to the time when Joyce was booed by some fans. The home game against Bristol Rovers last season, when his introduction from the bench brought jeering, seems the most notable case.

Some supporters maintain they were not booing Joyce but criticising the decision to bring off the former loanee Jack Stacey. Regardless, there was a debate about Joyce's contribution to the side which is no longer being had.

Does he feel he is winning people over? "Whether there were a few doubters out there who weren't sure whether it was the right move for the club, me coming back - hopefully they're all happy now because I've been doing well," he says.

"Fans are key to the club. They are massive to the players. When you're going to Morecambe and you've got more fans than them - it's great to have that behind you.

"Not only does it help the team, it can have a negative effect on the team you're playing. I remember when I was at Accrington [for Carlisle's 3-1 defeat in April 2015] - that day is famous for all the wrong reasons for Carlisle, but as an Accrington player you looked at the crowd and thought, 'wow, look at this, if we don't start this game well we could get swamped by Carlisle, just with that vocal backing'."

Support is on Joyce's mind in a further way when he clocks in for training. A father of two, his family drives him. "Our little girl Eva's three, and the little fella Ralph's one. They're keeping us busy. Eva was up at half four this morning trying to get in mummy and daddy's bed. That's not always ideal! But it's part and parcel of it and I wouldn't change it for the world.

"If I leave the house on a Thursday morning, I probably won't see them until Saturday night, if they're still up, or Sunday morning. But I'm doing it because I need to do it. It means my wife only has to work part-time, and she's at home with the kids, bringing them up in the right way.

"This is what I love doing. If that means being away from the family a couple of days to do the best for them, it's all worth it."

Stevenage on Saturday is the latest staging post on this durable journey, for player and club. "I want to keep playing until my body won't let me," Joyce says. "But first and foremost I want to keep my shirt this season, and do well for Carlisle.

"I've never had a promotion on my CV. If I can get that I'll be a happy man."