Paul Simpson is eyeing an FA Cup run that can give Carlisle United’s season further “momentum”.

The Blues take on Tranmere Rovers in today’s first round (Brunton Park, 3pm) a week after beating them in the league.

Some £41,000 prize money is also on offer as United bid to move a step closer to the potentially lucrative third round.

Manager Simpson wants progress in the cup to go hand in hand with Carlisle’s promising efforts in the league.

“It certainly breeds confidence. It breeds momentum as well,” he said.

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“I had no idea what the prize money was until I was told it was £41,000 – that doesn’t come to me, it goes into the club pot and it all helps to strengthen us.

“We want to go as far as we can, simple as that. We going into every game trying to win and it’s certainly the case this weekend.

“I don’t want a replay, I want to get it done and dusted on the day.

“I want to put on a performance in front of our own supporters to the level we did with our magnificent away support [at Tranmere], and hope it gets us through to the next round.”

Simpson says that United ought to take a psychological advantage from beating Micky Mellon’s team so recently.

But he said they cannot take a similar outcome for granted today.

“It’s got to give us an advantage, even if it’s that we’ve had a really good week of training and a confident week of training,” he said.

“I also do think that you have to make sure you go back to doing what we did well last weekend.

“We can’t suddenly think it’s going to be ok because we did it last weekend. That counts for nothing now. It’s done and dusted, and put away.

“Now I want a performance again. Whoever is selected has to go out and make it really difficult for me to leave them out, when the other players come back fit, just like Taylor Charters and Jack Ellis did last week.

“They have an opportunity, whoever is selected, to show they deserve to stay in the team.”

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Simpson is sweating over Callum Guy’s fitness, having said that two other unnamed players are set to miss the game through injury.

Fin Back returns from illness while Sonny Hilton could be in the squad on his return from injury. Jordan Gibson is also available after suspension.

Former Blues loan favourite Dynel Simeu will return to Brunton Park with Tranmere.

Simpson said the visitors are not easy to predict even with United having faced them so recently.

“They changed their shape on Tuesday [a 0-0 draw with Stockport], and haven’t got a clue if I’m going to be honest – we’ll only know at 3pm when the game kicks off when we see how they set up.

“That’s where it’s important we focus on what we do. We think that we’ve got a good group of players who understand how we want to play and are quite flexible and adaptable.

“If we perform to the levels we achieved last week, I think we’ll give ourselves a really good chance of professing in the cup, that’s all I can focus on. I can’t really do anything about what they’re going to do.”