Keith Curle expects Carlisle United's pre-season to move up a level when they take on Halifax today - even though he admits their build-up programme for the new campaign hasn't been "ideal".

The Blues face a trip to face the Shaymen (kick-off 3pm) in their penultimate warm-up game ahead of the big League Two kick-off on August 5.

United have so far emerged unscathed from four games against teams from lower levels of non-league than today's National League opponents.

It is Carlisle's final away friendly, with only next Friday's visit of Blackburn remaining before the campaign gets under way.

Curle said he would have preferred to have faced more EFL opposition this summer but claimed United's involvement in the play-offs last season restricted their options.

The Carlisle manager said: "I've got to be thankful to everyone we've played in pre-season so far - they’ve all set different challenges.

"We've had the game time for the players, and we've had the competitive football edge, and now we're going up a level at Halifax before our next challenge against Blackburn at home.

"Ideally we'd like to have had at least two League One clubs before the start of the season, similar to the summer when we played Preston, Oldham and Blackburn, but we've had to be flexible.

"Because we haven't had the games, we've been able to get more training time into the players, and we're still looking for that continual upward curve."

Curle and his squad have spent much of this week on a team-bonding stay at Mottram Hall in Cheshire.

Jason Kennedy rejoined the squad after illness but Curle said this week that the midfielder needed at least another week of rehabilitation on an injury before he would be considered for selection.

Winger John O'Sullivan is close to a return from a groin problem, having taken part in some of the Cassius Camps training exercises this week, but may not be risked at the MBi Shay today.

Curle is again likely to field trialists in Yorkshire, and insists his small squad are in good shape after their work so far.

"The ideal scenario is we would have liked another 10 days. But would I have had 10 [extra] days of pre-season at risk of not making the play-offs? No," he said.

"So we've had to be creative in our approach.

"But we have had good communication to the players who were already in the building and the new players we talked to early, even though we didn't sign them until later.

"They knew the level of fitness they needed to be in. We needed to come straight back and get the footballs out."

Halifax could include former United striker Ben Tomlinson, who signed for Billy Heath's side this week, but United's hosts have lost captain Kevin Roberts to Wrexham.