This Carlisle United season, unless it finishes with a 12-game winning run and Stevenage reappointing Graham Westley just in time to be relegated at Brunton Park on April 25, will not be greatly remembered.

Reviews will be necessarily brief – the autumn collapse, the late winter improvement, all the draws – and chances are we will have forgotten about it by the time the last trophies are handed out at the end-of-term do.

It will be, with any luck, a campaign analysed in terms of averting disaster and putting a few better foundations down, as well as stumbling across a handy centre-half (Aaron Hayden) midway through.

There shall not, though, be cause for many gongs and medals – except, maybe, for those capable of staying the full course. Seasons like this are always at the mercy of churn and to keep your head above the choppy water requires a few distinct qualities.

Which brings us to Mike Jones. The midfielder has started all 34 of United’s league games so far, and is on course to be their first outfield ever-present in the competition for nine years.

Adam Collin, in goal, might achieve the same feat, emulating Mark Gillespie’s 2016/17 season and Collin’s own ever-present run in 2011/12. It is longer, though, since an outfielder has done it: Frank Simek and James Berrett in 2010/11. Before that, you need to go back to 2005/6 and Karl Hawley, and it says different things about squad use, selection, injuries and inconsistency that nobody else has managed it in that time.

Jones might not be leaving a trail of goals, assists and man-of-the-match performances in his wake but he would not be there all the time without a basis of reliability: something United have been groping for, with different degrees of success, in many departments since last August.

You know, by now, what you are going to get with Jones. You could put a hood over each United player and he is one of the first you would identify, with his changes of midfield direction and willingness to be the main cog in whatever it is Carlisle are trying to do, as well as run until he can hide his exhaustion no more.

This is something managers clearly value when trying to build and then reassemble teams. We are talking here about a low-maintenance individual who, however well he plays, blatantly cares about his job, and puts the sort of effort in we all would, if only we were good enough to wear the blue or after-eight-mint-green shirt ourselves.

It often feels like we’re living in a world of no-context statistics these days but one particular cluster caught the eye this week. From D3D4, they showed the League Two players who have won possession back the most in the opposition half. Exeter’s Pierce Sweeney was first, then came Port Vale’s Luke Joyce, and in third place was Joyce’s old Carlisle midfield buddy. Seeing them back together on the page prompted me to call Joyce and ask how Jones, in a volatile world, keeps going as he does.

“First and foremost he’s a good person and a good man,” Joyce said. “He’s a lad who takes his career very seriously. He’ll be in the gym doing extras constantly and is always trying to improve himself.

“That dedication to his profession is probably worth its weight in gold to a manager. Especially around League Two level, there won’t be many as dedicated as Jonesy.”

When Jones signed in 2016 it was with promotion in mind. It did not quite work out that way and in this lower term he has needed to be United's port in a storm. Joyce, meanwhile, recalls his place being taken by Jones at the start of 16/17 but they were soon paired, and the younger man (by a month) thinks of that subsequent period as one of the most enjoyable of his career.

“At first people thought they couldn’t play me and Jonesy together, but we bounced off each other,” he said. “He always wants to get on the ball whatever the situation, regardless of whether he’s made a couple of mistakes. He will keep going back, trying to get the team playing.

“I learned from him in terms of how dedicated he was. He’s always thinking about training, and how things outside football might affect his football, and he’s demanding of himself and also of team-mates. We were good mates, still are, but if you made a mistake he’d tell you. That’s a value in itself.”

Jones, in occasional interviews, has given glimpses at the man behind the pro. It was amusing to hear him chastise himself for eating chicken on Good Friday last year, while Joyce also points to the father. “Not everything’s gone perfectly for him in terms of family life, but I see first-hand the dedication he shows to his little lad, Oscar,” he said.

“You might not find that with many footballers who ply their trade so far from home. He must do countless miles to make sure he sees him on his days off and weekends, travelling to Sheffield where his little boy lives with his mum. He’s also a down-to-earth guy who is always up for a laugh. We used to travel in with Nicky Adams, so we were never short of that…”

This might be the last year of Jones at Carlisle, or it might not. Whenever and however he goes it won’t be as a shimmering entertainer who packed stands, but there should always be merit in being a touchstone in good and harder times. His sheer commitment alone means he’ll be remembered kindly.