You always say that, away from home, it doesn’t matter who the opposition are, where they are or how they play, you will more often than not be happy with a point – and I’m sure that’s how Carlisle will see their efforts at Crawley.

To hear that they were the better team, the side closest to going on and winning the game, is also encouraging, and a sign of the change we have seen in the last few weeks.

It is one thing performing when everything is going well and people are flying. It’s another when you are at Crawley in horrendous conditions against a home team in decent form and you have to roll your sleeves up and show a bit of character.

The squad are showing they have more about them now, and when this wind and rain finally stops – whenever that will be – and better weather comes, they might enjoy it even more and be able to put on some really good showings.

In the meantime, it is good that they are able to pick up some results in different circumstances. The last few games have all been played in poor conditions and I feel sorry for the players in all honesty.

I remember, I think it was in my third season at Carlisle, when we had a period like this. You wait all week for your game, then you are woken up on Saturday morning by the wind rattling the windows.

You don’t particularly mind rain, or a bit of snow, or it being freezing cold. Wind, though, is a different matter and it makes your heart sink when you consider how it is going to affect the 90 minutes in front of you.

No matter how hard you try to do things right, you end up with passes that go all over the place. Attacking players, like Nathan Thomas and Harry McKirdy now, are waiting on the ball but not getting it with the sort of normal service that comes when it isn’t blowing a gale.

When we were facing this sort of thing, we knew we had players who could produce the goods - we were flying in that period and had people with quality like Michael Bridges, direct runners like Simon Hackney - but it was also about the team attitude.

We had to recognise that we would only win a game in those conditions if at least eight of us fancied it. You had to get your head around the idea that being able to play a little bit of football would be a bonus.

Above all, it was about mentally preparing, rolling those sleeves up and working harder than the man in front of you, winning enough tackles in the right area and hoping you get that break.

Even in the last couple of games when Carlisle haven’t scored, there has been the odd break in play where they have been able to get some football going. I thought the Cheltenham game last Tuesday was much better than it could have been, given how bad the weather was.

Both teams had opportunities to pass it around and try and create something.

United have been unfortunate in attack recently with Joshua Kayode’s injury but in other departments there have been clear signs of improvement. In defence, with Nick Anderton on the left, Gethin Jones the right, and Byron Webster and Aaron Hayden in the middle, it looks pretty settled and ready to play week-in, week-out.

Midfield looks better, too, and what’s just as important is to have options to change things, and Chris Beech certainly has more than he had before.

The challenges are to get the likes of McKirdy, when fit, and Thomas, on fire every week. If they are, they will get you somewhere.

Looking at Carlisle now, I see them as a mid-table team. They are 13 points clear of danger and look capable of picking up a reasonable haul between now and the end of April.

If the season started tomorrow, I’d expect this side to finish higher in the table than it is now. Let’s not get carried away and talk play-offs, but I’m confident they would be around 10th-12th.

Come the summer, you will expect a few players to be released and it will be a case of improving those areas of the squad in a bid to shape a stronger side for 2020/21.

There can be a reasonable amount of faith in them doing that, because Beech has, by and large, picked up the right quality of player since coming in – and, more importantly, the right type of character.

Whatever United need to do next, you have to be relieved they have already done what was needed since the autumn, when things were more worrying, even with just the one relegation place after the demise of Bury.

They made a change regarding Steven Pressley with enough time to rebuild, found the money to bring in new players in the transfer window after Beech had had a few weeks to assess things, and are now better distance from the likes of Stevenage, who have been making some funny decisions, the latest seeing Graham Westley gone as manager already after just a handful of games, and Alex Revell put in charge until the end of the season.

When we went to Stevenage last September, all the talk was about their new stand, new sponsorship and new progress behind the scenes, but it hasn’t worked and they might have to drop a division and start again.

Big ideas and plans can easily be shelved if you get other things badly wrong, and we can be glad Carlisle are trying to move forward from a better position now.

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Chris Beech has had his say over the challenges that have injured both Harry McKirdy and Callum Guy, and I do understand where he is coming from.

In the modern game, if your foot is up and you make that follow-through, it is frowned upon and pretty much outlawed.

There was always a case, back in my time as a player, for getting away with a bit more in Leagues One and Two.

It has been clamped down on more since then, and at those levels, and higher, there is much less leniency shown, yellow and red cards shown more readily.

Players and officials have to be aware of that.

In 2006, say, the tackles put in by Anthony Grant on McKirdy and Will Boyle on Guy would have been praised more. These things can be studied closer now, with different pictures and slower footage, and you can see more clearly how dangerous these challenges can be.

So I appreciate Beech’s point of view when he called for greater protection for players, and the fact some might be more reluctant to go quite as hard into a tackle as they might have been in the past.

Grant has been in the game a long time and I can understand the argument from combative players who feel that certain hard tackles are good tackles.

It does, though, feel like players have to modify their game and trust that referees will be consistent in how they view these things too.

Sometimes things can be missed, and nobody is perfect, but when things happen close together, as they have with Carlisle, it certainly deserves to be considered.

I would never want to be that team that complains about these things all the time. That way you can get a bit of a reputation. United can also put their foot in, too.

There was a case to complain about the two tackles mentioned, but I wouldn’t want to see headlines on the subject every week.