Places are still up for grabs in the Carlisle United side for the start of the season with one friendly remaining, Gavin Skelton insists.

The Blues are preparing for their final pre-season game when they host FC Halifax Town tomorrow.

The new campaign is just over a week away – but Skelton said players can still force their way into Chris Beech’s thinking.

The Cumbrian assistant boss said: “There are genuinely places up for grabs.

“People in these [friendlies] give different options in different ways. Some perform really well, some perform not to the level you’d want.

“There are places up for grabs and Friday is another good game.”

Tomorrow night’s game (kick-off 7pm) against the National League side will give head coach Beech the chance to finalise preparations for the August 7 League Two opener against Colchester.

United hope to have Rod McDonald and Morgan Feeney back in action soon, but Danny Devine is out.

Skelton said the Blues expect the game against Pete Wild’s Shaymen to be a good and realistic test ahead of the return to competitive action.

Asked how United will approach the game, he said: “A bit of everything – some players need minutes, and it’s also a bit of fine turning.

“There will be certain reasons certain people are in different areas, and we’re looking at different things.

“Some lads haven’t had as many minutes but you’re obviously concentrating on the first league game. We’ve got a team in our minds and there’ll be a reason for it, and it will be productive to us for when the season starts.

“We’re really getting towards those real competitive fixtures. It is like a league game.

“Mentally pre-season is hard sometimes, because you can do stuff you don’t normally do in a league game, but we want it to be as close to a realistic game as we can, and Halifax will be a good test for that.”

Skelton says the squad is in a good place ahead of the new campaign but he said there are still things to work on – and that is a good thing.

“The pleasing thing is it wasn’t absolutely brilliant on Saturday [against Blackpool] or [against Everton Under-23s] because you can have that mid pre-season where you’re all excited and right at it at the start, but it’s hard to maintain that.

“Where we are now, we can refocus and then bang – we can’t wait for that league game to start. I’m sure the lads will be on it to step up even more.”