Tonight's the night – and the message is “believe”.

Carlisle United’s Blue Army marched off in their hundreds this morning on the epic 694-mile round trip from Brunton Park to Devon.

Each and every one – as well as fans watching back in Cumbria and around the country – will be hoping Keith Curle’s side run out winners in their play-off second-leg clash against Exeter.

Victory – following Sunday’s 3-3 thriller at Brunton Park – will ensure a date a Wembley on may and a step closer to League One.

Many of the loyal Blues fans had a mammoth trip in front of them.

John Ireland, from Ennerdale Bridge, is one of many Blues fans who found themselves travelling down to St James’ Park for the second time in less than two weeks.

John, 56, runs buses from west Cumbria for most of United’s games but this time will be made his way to Penrith to meet up with other supporters.

“It’s probably an extra 40 miles or so for us,” he said. “We’ve got to be in Penrith for just after 11 and we’re going down from there.

“We probably won’t be getting back until about six in the morning.”

For John, a shift worker at Sellafield, an away game played at the other end of the country on a Thursday night has not caused too many problems.

“I already had the Thursday and Friday off, so it’s worked out quite well,” he said. “But there’s a few of the lads who will be getting back and probably going straight into work.

“It’s something you’ve got to do, though.”

Curle’s side flew down to the south west, as did some other fans, but John added: “You’ve got to get to Edinburgh and then you’re sat in the airport waiting around. Then when you get there, you’re not in the middle of town. We also looked at the train but it was coming up at about £250.”

John said the long journey will not be a problem.

He said: “Once you get out of Cumbria, you get a better 4G signal as well so you can watch a bit of YouTube. Sometimes there’s a film on the bus as well.”

While anything could happen in 90 minutes – not to mention extra time and, just maybe, a penalty shootout – John is remaining cautiously optimistic.

“We’ve already got two coaches provisionally booked for Wembley,” he said. “One’s a 53-seater and the other a 49-seater and there’s only about seven spaces left between them.”