In-form Jon Mellish is eager to continue his goalscoring burst for Carlisle United.

That is the view of assistant boss Gavin Skelton after the midfielder netted three in two games for the Cumbrians.

Mellish came off the bench to score twice in the 5-3 EFL Trophy defeat at Sunderland.

That came three days after his debut goal in the 1-0 League Two win against Barrow.

It has been a positive period for Mellish, who was also awarded a new contract by the Cumbrians.

And Skelton is delighted the ex-Gateshead man, 23, is now adding goals to his game.

“Towards the end of last season Jon was getting in some really good positions without getting the finish touch to get a goal,” the Blues No2 said.

“Now that he’s scored a couple he’ll be desperate to get in those positions even more.

“For his second goal [at Sunderland] I don’t even think he’ll have thought about it, he just had the confidence to go and score.”

Mellish had been criticised after an error in United’s previous league game at Scunthorpe but has responded well since then.

Skelton, though, said United have been encouraged by his efforts in general.

“It’s one of those situations where he probably hasn’t been playing as badly as some people have said he has been, and people also get carried away the other way when he scores, or whatever,” the coach added.

“From our side, we know what we get because every day he’s at the top of the running stats, and I bet he’s ran furthest [on Tuesday night] even though he wasn’t on as long as everyone else.

“He’s honest, and you can accept mistakes when they come through honesty and effort. I think his performances have generally been quite good and thankfully he’s adding goals to that.

“He’s on a little run and hopefully he can continue that.”