Anthony Gerrard says he wants to stay at Carlisle United - rather than “bounce from club to club”.

The experienced centre-half confirmed the Blues have offered him the chance to extend his short-term deal, which is up at the turn of the year.

Gerrard now says it will come down to the finer detail of a new deal before he commits to the Cumbrians.

But he says he has indicated to the club that he is happy at Brunton Park and hopes an agreement can be reached.

Gerrard said: “The club have offered me something, so it’s [now] just down to the details of what it is.

“No specifics have been mentioned but, ‘Would you like to extend your stay? Yes I would’.

“That’s all we’ve got to at present. It’s about dotting the i’s, crossing the t’s and all the other bits in between.

“Hopefully we can get something going and get something arranged.

“I don’t like bouncing from one club to another, even though people seem to think I like that. I like to get a bit of consistency in myself, so we’ll just see what happens.

“Carlisle’s been really good to me. The fans have been hospitable, really good. The city itself is a lovely city too - I didn’t quite realise how lovely it was.

“It’s all positive at present, there’s no negatives. It’s just a waiting game, seeing what comes across the table, basically.”

Gerrard added that manager John Sheridan’s hunger - and his own belief the Blues can succeed - are among the reasons he wants to stay.

“I wouldn’t verbally agree something without [believing in] what we can do,” added the 32-year-old ex-Oldham defender, who joined in August.

“The manager has an idea and a philosophy on what he wants to achieve. I don’t think he’d be here if he didn’t think we had the quality to do anything in the league.

“That’s the nature of him – he’s always been a winner.

“I personally think we’re top three contenders. I think that’s got to sink in with some players – have that belief, that confidence to say yeah, I am good, I do think I’m capable of that.”

Gerrard concedes that Carlisle, who face struggling Notts County at Meadow Lane tonight (kick-off 7.45pm), must show more consistency if they are to improve on their mid-table position.

Their 2-1 home defeat to Forest Green on Saturday came a week after they thrashed Swindon 4-0.

“Consistency is key,” he said. “You can’t go from high to low from high to low. If you stay at sixes and sevens [out of 10] throughout the league you’ll be thereabouts. You can’t be going from 10 to four to eight to three, but that’s what we seem to be doing at present.

“If we stay on a nice even keel, we’ve got the quality in the squad and team to [progress].

“You always get that one team that will string five, six, seven wins together, then they’re bang right back in it, not just for play-offs but automatic [promotion].

“The quality we’ve got in the group, there’s nothing to suggest we can’t do that. If we can get it going, get it clicking, that could be the outcome.

“I’m not saying it’s gonna happen, as everyone in the league is desperate to do it, but if you keep progressing on what we’re doing and how we’re trying to play, hopefully we can get there.”

He added: “If you could have that level of consistency, a lot of players would be playing a lot higher than League One and Two. That’s the nature of the beast - you go from absolute sublime to the ridiculous, never mind on a weekly basis, but in 90 minutes.

“You’ve just got to keep persevering, plugging and going for it.”

While United’s home form remains poor, their results on the road are among the strongest in League Two as they start a run of three away games tonight.

The Blues tonight face a Magpies side who will be under the caretaker management of Steve Chettle for the final time before newly-appointed boss Neal Ardley takes charge.

Gerrard added: “I know [Ardley] well from my time at Cardiff – he’s a lovely man, good manager and he proved what he could do with AFC Wimbledon getting them out of League Two with limited resources.

“But Notts County have got funds in abundance [relatively]. Hopefully we can give him something to build on rather than positives to look at.”

Gerrard admits he is mystified by the big difference in United’s results and home and away.

He added: “There’s nothing to it - it’s just for some reason, unbeknown to the playing staff and manager, that it’s not falling for us at present [at home].

“Look at the numerous chances that we created [on Saturday]. We keep conceding naïve goals. But we don’t dwell on it.”

On the Forest Green setback he added: “When teams play like that…I wouldn’t say free-flowing, they’re reckless in what they do. They’ve got players wandering all over the pitch, not playing in one particular area, drifting.

“If the communication isn’t right then they seem to have an overload, and that happened in the first 25 minutes.

“Once the goal went in, it kickstarted us and the second half we dominated for large portions, but got done by the sucker punch.

“We don’t get goals given to us – we seem to gift the opposition and that’s what we need to tighten up to go forward.

“The table never lies. It’s down to us now to get it going properly. We’ve shown flashes, glimpses of it - Swindon away, we scored some fantastic goals. We go from that to producing 25 minutes of helter-skelter before settling down and putting a dominant 45 minutes in. Unfortunately it went against us.”