The first thing to say about the defeat to MK Dons is that any team who loses a player as influential and pivotal as Jamie Devitt, and then Danny Grainger and Tom Parkes on top of that, is going to struggle.

Three players who have been part of your better form ruled out, and then facing an MK Dons side who have been up there all season: it is very hard not to find yourselves up against it in those circumstances.

Before the game, it was disappointing to realise United were going to be short of their best XI, especially given the great crowd that was there.

Saying that, Carlisle still showed in first-half spells they had enough to win it. Had they gone a goal ahead I think they could well have done it.

But you have to say fair play to MK Dons. They realised what sort of away performance was needed, by shutting up shop in the first half and, having recognised one or two weaknesses in Carlisle, they then put an extra man up front for the second half, and that made all the difference.

United huffed and puffed in the second half but it was nowhere near what we’ve been used to seeing on their recent great run.

Sometimes there are just too many adjustments for you to make. I felt Gary Miller did very well at left-back in Grainger’s absence, but having any player in that position that always has to switch back onto the right foot can risk slowing the game down.

In other departments, Carlisle have a number of new players in the side and are still trying to find the right blend.

After three winless games, some people might be questioning whether it was a successful January transfer window after all. I still maintain that it was. We are used to seeing Carlisle sign one or two players, tops, at this time of year; players you have barely heard of.

This time they brought players in with pedigree, and in all of them you can see they have something about them individually. Knitting them together is the more challenging part and you do see other clubs not quite hitting the heights as they adjust after January’s business.

The pressure is on to get that understanding and a system that works. It may be that the 4-3-3 formation that helped Carlisle into the play-off places might not work the same for these new players.

This is for Steven Pressley and his staff to figure out. A lot of people are arguing that we are lacking an out-and-out striker in the team, but don’t forget Carlisle have won games this season with Devitt as a false nine, and while Jerry Yates hit some great goalscoring form in December, he wasn’t always what you’d describe as an out-and-out centre-forward. He would interchange with Ashley Nadesan and Hallam Hope and it worked well that way.

Nathan Thomas, one of the new boys, perhaps hasn’t produced what he had hoped for yet, but you can still see the ability he has. He can drift past people so easily, has gone close with a couple of shots, and he will surely get better.

Stefan Scougall has already shown what he can do, and Callum O’Hare has been very busy, never stops, clearly wants to be here and that great attitude should see him get stronger the more this team gets used to one another.

The near 80 minutes with 10 men at Crewe will have taken its toll, too, so this week will be a good one to rest, refresh, recuperate and get ready for another massive game at Colchester.

That game might suit Carlisle, in terms of going there and putting on one of those away performances. Colchester having to come out and attack might play into United’s hands.

It is clear Carlisle are also hoping Mark Cullen will be fully up to speed soon. You have to take into account what Pressley said on Saturday, when he stressed that to have started him might have subjected him to the risk of putting him out for even longer.

Hopefully a good run-out for the reserves today will get him much closer to being ready to start.

With any new signing, whether coming back from injury or not, it can take six or seven games to feel like you are at full sharpness. Adrenaline gets you through the first couple but you still might not be into your stride by that stage.

It’s important Carlisle stay in the mix until they all reach that point and, with Devitt back from suspension after the Newport game a week on Saturday, hopefully we will then see a team primed and ready for the run-in.

You can’t avoid the fact that the pressure is raised this weekend, given that Carlisle haven’t taken as many points as they would have liked in their last three outings.

Better results against Crewe and MK Dons might have taken some of that pressure away, but now Carlisle seriously have to be looking at winning one of these next two away games.

When they battered Colchester 4-0 in December, I really didn’t see the Essex side being capable of a promotion challenge, but to their credit they have kept churning out results. With Newport, you just don’t know what to expect: you could go there and win 3-0, or just as easily get turned over.

Pressley and the players will know how high the stakes are. It has been a while since Carlisle lost a series of games on the bounce at this level and I do feel the team has enough about it to avoid that and get back on a more positive run.

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For years many of us have been banging the drum that there was real potential out there in terms of crowds at Carlisle.

For a long time there seems to have been a reluctance to try certain promotions, with the sense that they’ve all been done before and not much has changed.

So credit to the people at the club who made sure the #8kforMK initiative happened.

I will be the first to admit that I doubted whether an 8,000 crowd could be achieved. I felt we would see around the 7,000 mark but maybe not much more.

They proved me wrong by not just hitting their target but going past it by more than 2,000.

In the media when we go to many clubs around League Two we see first-hand how they market and promote various things.

It is great that, at Carlisle, the media department now seem to have been given free rein, and also that the club have gone out into the city and the community and really pushed the boat out.

They have got more people involved than we’ve seen before and the players also did their bit.

When MK Dons’ third goal went in you did see some people disperse; probably those who turned up for this game and this game only.

I still felt, though, that there was a decent atmosphere in Brunton Park and I think there will be some who will come back.

Unfortunately you can’t put on an offer like that every game, but if Carlisle can keep the optimism going, pick up a couple of positive results and keep plugging away off the pitch – contacting the people who came on Saturday, emailing them, continuing to promote things in a bright and positive way around the city – then, whatever happens, those involved can say they have done all they can.