Carlisle United boss Steven Pressley wants his players to put Lincoln’s title charge on hold when the two teams meet at Brunton Park.

Having sealed promotion, the Imps will be crowned as League Two champions if they beat United this Friday, with nearly 2,000 away tickets having already been sold.

Pressley’s men, meanwhile, remain in eighth but are now four points outside the play-off places and will want to return to winning ways quickly, having claimed only two victories in their last 12 games, if they are to keep their hopes of a top-seven finish alive.

“We have to ensure that we are the team that doesn’t allow them to do that. There’s nothing worse than seeing another side celebrate at your stadium and I don’t want to be involved in that,” Pressley said.

United’s match against Lincoln will start an Easter double-header before they travel to Grimsby’s Blundell Park on Monday.

When asked if his side could find a much-needed return to form, the Scot said: “Hopefully. We are now four points away, it’s now going to be difficult. But we can’t give up hope.

"We have four games, four cup finals and we certainly have to believe that we can still sneak in there. We have four games and I believe, if we take the 12 points from the four games, I think we can sneak in there. I know they’ll be disappointment but need to put that behind us and make sure we are ready, come this Friday.”

Midfielder Mike Jones is one man who Carlisle should welcome back after he served his one-match ban during their 3-0 defeat at Stevenage on Saturday, while the Blues are still waiting to find out the severity of Kelvin Etuhu’s ankle injury.

Both of Kurtis Guthrie’s goals for Boro at the Lamex Stadium came from set-pieces, with the 25-year-old heading in from a corner, before Callum O’Hare was ruled to have fouled Guthrie in the penalty box after another corner, with Guthrie himself slotting the spot-kick home.

Pressley says he understands where United’s deficiencies currently lie.

“Another two moments. The goal in the early part of the second half came from a direct corner. Again, not picking up,” he said. “We go man-to-man and the players must take that responsibility on.

“The second one comes from a set play, it comes out and the second phase is when we give the penalty away. Again, they are two moments where we have to do better from set plays.

"It’s a real Achilles heel for us that at this moment in time. Part of that is I don’t think we are carrying a great deal of strength and physical presence in these areas, it’s something we definitely need to improve on.”

He added: “We never managed to carve out the opportunities that we really hoped.

"We went for quite an attacking team, a team that I thought would cause them problems. But their strength at times never allowed us to build any type of sustained attack.

"It’s really disappointing but there are many aspects I understand, and some of them are difficult to improve on because they are down to the physical presence of the player.”

The League Two play-off dates have been announced.

The first leg of the first semi-final is on Thursday, May 9, with the second semi-final first leg a day later. The second leg of the first semi-final will be on Sunday, May 12, and the second leg of the second semi-final a day later. The play-off final will then take place at Wembley on Saturday, May 25.