Carlisle United boss Chris Beech says “selfless” Jon Mellish is the kind of individual every team needs.

The midfielder grabbed his first goal of the season last weekend, following 2020/21’s 16-goal haul.

But Beech said it’s just as important that 23-year-old Mellish goes about his work in the way that he does for the good of the side.

“Above his goals, an important factor about Jon is his honesty, personality, work-rate and, as I’ve mentioned before, Jon’s somebody who’s prepared to sacrifice himself for the benefit of others,” the Blues head coach said.

“I relate that to being a domestique in cycling where you’re very good but understand the team and team’s ethos, and put that above your personal selfish outcome.

“If you’ve got players doing that within your team and have more than one or two of them you’ve got a very good chance of being successful, and that’s what we encourage.”

Beech, ahead of tomorrow’s trip to Crawley, says Mellish could easily be sitting on more goals than the one he has to his name so far in 2021/22.

The former Gateshead man notched the winner against Salford last Saturday, and tomorrow plays at the ground where the converted defender made his first first-team appearance as a midfielder back in the 2019/20 campaign.

“I think [the goal] is vital, because that’s one of his assets,” Beech said.

“At the same part, he’s been pretty prominent in a few goals we’ve had already, and been unfortunate in early games, like Colchester, when he might have had a hat-trick of chances but they all fell on his right foot.”