It was disappointing for Carlisle to lose at home to Cheltenham last Saturday. But when you look at the league, you’re going to have your hiccups.

Of the top seven teams before last Saturday’s games, Cheltenham were the only ones who won. It’s still very tight. Scunthorpe looked dead and buried, second from bottom. Then they win two games in four days.

The important thing is how you bounce back from defeat. Hopefully it will be similar to when Carlisle lost at Exeter then beat Newport. We made a start by beating Aston Villa’s under-21s in the EFL Trophy on Tuesday night. I’m not a lover of that competition but some of the good that came out of the match was Gavin Reilly getting his first Carlisle goal. Hopefully that will give him more confidence in the league games.

He’s had some golden chances. As well as you can practice in training, it’s never the same in a match. When chances come, a lot of them are there in a split second. It becomes psychological, like a lot of things in football.

Chris Beech will be trying to instil his forwards with confidence. You can advise but you can’t just make it happen verbally. Even the top strikers can go through dry spells.

Jon Mellish is on an unbelievable run but he could have a spell where the goals dry up. It’s up to not just the forwards but the other midfielders to chip in with goals. And it was good to see Gime Touré back against Villa after his suspension. Hopefully he’ll use his magic to create chances.

There’s a couple of away games coming up, at Crawley tomorrow and Tranmere next Tuesday. Crawley are ninth, two points behind Carlisle. Tranmere are mid-table. It would be nice to get four points. Beech will be looking for a minimum of two.

I was pleased to see Scotland qualify for next year’s European Championships, their first major tournament since 1998. We always have a bit of banter with the Scots in this part of the world. When I was playing for Carlisle, Scotland was a hotbed for the club. Hughie Neil, god love him, when he was chief scout that was the first place he’d look for players. He found a lot of good ones who were on the fringe of sides in the Scottish First Division, as it was before the SPL.

The Scotland national team has amazing support. I’ve been to a few Home Internationals and the atmosphere at the old Hampden was intense. If fans are allowed it should be some atmosphere, hopefully in the right spirit, when England play Scotland in the Euros at Wembley in June.

I was very sad to hear about the death of Ray Clemence. I never knew the lad but I played against him a few times. For him to win 61 England caps in an era when we were blessed with many great goalkeepers shows how good he was.

You just have to look at the trophies he won and some of the statistics. One season with Liverpool he conceded 16 goals in 42 league games, including only four at Anfield. Incredible. It’s sad when you see the lack of top-class English keepers in the Premier League over the last few years.