Carlisle’s Carabao Cup victory at Barnsley may well have forced Mansfield’s hand in how they planned to approach their game at Brunton Park.

They will have noticed United’s attacking threat, the way their wingers caused havoc at Oakwell, the fact they looked a good footballing team who can create chances.

The Blues also had a big man up front who gave Barnsley’s centre-halves a really hard time.

With all that considered, Mansfield seemingly decided to try to nullify that forward play and deny those wingers the ball. To do that they had to be gritty in midfield and, at the back, look after Ryan Loft, who is a handful.

Carlisle, to begin with, were playing quite well and the Harry McKirdy chance was the big one. Then, Mansfield got their goal and it gave them something to hang onto.

When they then got a second before half-time they did what many teams will in that position. They didn’t come out in the second half and attack – they didn’t have to.

At 1-0 it might have been a bit more open but, with two, John Dempster’s team could stifle Carlisle, slow the game down and play the referee a bit.

That’s football. I’ve been in many teams who have done that, especially at the start of a season when you are still figuring things out and know the opposition have some attacking flair.

You do everything you can to stop that, and it worked for Mansfield. Carlisle couldn’t find an answer.

The way the Stags slowed the game has come in for some criticism but I don’t think it was over the top. They went down a few times, but we shouldn’t forget Carlisle were doing it themselves under Keith Curle in the season they reached the play-offs.

Often that kind of thing is down to players rather than managers. I don’t think Dempster will have had to tell players as experienced as Neal Bishop and Krystian Pearce how to go about things.

Maybe United can learn from it. If they find themselves 2-0 up at Cheltenham tonight they don’t necessarily have to go for the third and fourth; it can be about being more streetwise, someone getting a little niggle or a head injury and taking 30 seconds of treatment to kill the flow of the game.

It is frustrating for supporters but for me, as an ex-player, it’s about winning. It’s not all about entertainment. I’m sure some will disagree but without results a manager will get sacked and players won’t get contracts.

You have to get those results any way you can and I’m sure that’s why Bishop is still playing at this level at 38.

If anything, it happened more in the period when I played. The reason people were getting frustrated on Saturday is that we probably haven’t seen it for a while. Some of the dark arts have gone out of football with the emergence of under-23 teams and academies: there are more expectations of free-flowing, purer football.

But I love it when Carlisle do a few of those things to win. Not cheating, just showing a little bit of nouse.

They will have to do it over the course of this season and I’m sure experienced players like Mike Jones, Byron Webster and Nathaniel Knight-Percival will know how to do it.

United have to move on to tonight’s trip, and I feel away games might suit this team at the moment. The pitch might not be as good as Brunton Park’s but it could benefit Carlisle that Cheltenham are the home side and have to come out, and that sets it up for Steven Pressley’s team to counter-attack.

With the likes of McKirdy and Nathan Thomas in the side, that ought to suit Carlisle. Elias Sorensen will probably come into the equation at some point and hopefully the full-backs will also be able to get forward.

I know it is early in the season but I do think they need to take something from the game and make sure it is not three straight league defeats.

Sorensen’s arrival adds to Pressley’s options up front, meanwhile, and I am optimistic about this signing.

I have mates who are high up in Newcastle’s staff, and they rate him. He was expected to go on loan elsewhere – to another country, I gather – but that didn’t materialise.

Deciding on where to send him will have been a careful consideration because when he went to Blackpool last year, he barely kicked a ball.

The next move had to be the right one and Newcastle will have wanted certain assurances that Sorensen will get plenty of minutes.

Given Carlisle’s need for a striker, there is little doubt that he will figure regularly and I am pleasantly surprised he has ended up here, due to the fact he was around Newcastle’s first team in pre-season.

Since then they have spent money on forwards and Sorensen became available. I feel he could become a really good signing – he has a good scoring record at every level he has played at, and now he has to make the step up to first-team football.

I expect him to get double figures if he gets a run in the position he wants. Whenever I’ve seen him before he has looked like that fox in the box who gets on the end of things. Hopefully he will have plenty of opportunities to do that for Carlisle.

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My best memory of playing at Cheltenham was probably the occasion in the 2005/6 season when we enjoyed a very good victory there.

It was early in the League Two season and the Robins had been tipped to compete at the top end of the table.

We had just come up from the Conference yet we went to Whaddon Road and played them off the park.

We won 3-2 – a scoreline which is closer than the game actually was – and it was an afternoon that gave us plenty of confidence for the season ahead.

Zigor Aranalde scored a fantastic volley after Karl Hawley had picked up two goals, and it reinforced our belief we could compete no problem in that league.

It was a day when we thought, ‘We’ve got a squad and team here that can achieve something’. The title followed that campaign.

Another memorable day at Whaddon Road for slightly different reasons came in 2009 on the penultimate weekend of our League One relegation battle.

I’d just come back from injury and wasn’t fit at all but Greg Abbott wanted all his experience down there to try and get something.

It was almost a dream finish as the ball came across and I went for a diving header, but it wasn’t to be.

We had a couple of red cards and in the end were holding on for a 1-1 draw, but in the end that point set us up for that final day when we beat Millwall 2-0 to stay up.

It’s a decent place to play. It’s not a massive ground with a big crowd that can intimidate you, and if you have one of your good days it’s a place you can go and win.

At the same time, Cheltenham have been decent at home recently and as much as it looks winnable, Carlisle will need to be on their game tonight.