Defender Anthony Gerrard admits Carlisle United will be faced with a tough task against League Two leaders Lincoln but says it’s up to the Blues to ensure they don’t “get our bellies tickled.”

Injury-hit United face a real battle against the Imps at Sincil Bank (7.45pm kick-off) to get anything from tonight’s encounter with Jamie Devitt (shin), Danny Grainger (calf), Hallam Hope (calf), Gary Liddle (knee) and Tom Parkes (hamstring) all likely to miss out through injury.

Manager John Sheridan, who labelled Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at previously winless Macclesfield Town as “weak” and “embarrassing”, says he won’t be afraid to give more of his youth team players senior experience.

That, though, will be a stern introduction to senior football for some as they face a Lincoln team that have collected 32 points from their first 14 league fixtures. Experienced centre-back Gerrard knows the odds are stacked against Carlisle but says they will still need to work for a positive result.

“Yeah. It’s not like it’s going to be an easy place to go. Lincoln is a tough place to go,” he said.

“They have been picking points up willy-nilly and it’s down to us to show what we have got. We may go there and not get the result, but that’s football.

“It’s down to us to make sure we work for a result and don’t go there and get our bellies tickled.”

After sitting fifth in the league table five games ago, Sheridan’s side are now 11th, three points adrift of the top seven.

But 32-year-old Gerrard, captain on Saturday in the absence of Grainger and Liddle, is still unsure how to get the best out of the side.

“I don’t know, I don’t know. We have just been going through it then,” he said.

“But football is not like football of old where you can come in and give lads an absolute torrid time. Like a proper dressing down. Those days are gone, you can’t do it.

“As we have shown, we have a few weaker-minded players. I don’t think it’s unfair for me to say that.

“If you give them a bit of rollicking, they take it the wrong way. They take it personally when it’s not personal, it’s professional.

“Everybody gets constructive criticism in every job and walk of life, why not on a football pitch? I have had dressing downs off senior pros when I was 18 or 19, when the dressing down was nowhere like it is now.

“But you just take it like a man. You are in a man’s environment, so take it like a man.”

Lincoln drew with Cambridge on Saturday.