It was disappointing this week to hear Bury have been expelled from the English Football League.

Strangely enough, I went to Bury when I was leaving Oldham in the 1970s, and almost joined the Shakers. But I got a call from Dick Young on my way out of the ground and so, ultimately, ended up going back to Carlisle for a second spell instead.

From what I remember from that visit to Bury, there were a lot of genuine people at the club. Unfortunately, now, there seems to be a lot of people involved in football who never used to be involved back then, as well, though.

It’s a crying shame to see what has happened to Bury, really. You just need to look at clubs like Darlington to realise it’s a long way to get back into the Football League once a club is out of it sometimes.

Bolton also are still having their own financial troubles, which has put the Trotters’ own future at risk, and it does make you wonder how many clubs are in these kind of difficult financial positions!

Of course, Carlisle have had their own problems and, for me, chairman Andrew Jenkins doesn’t get the credit he deserves. He is a modest bloke who did a lot for the club in the 1990s.

On the pitch, United drew 2-2 with Salford City in a League Two game on Saturday, before they were knocked out of the Carabao Cup on Tuesday night, losing their second-round tie at Rochdale 2-1, despite midfielder Jack Bridge’s second-half penalty.

Fair play to Steven Pressley’s side for having a go after the restart in midweek. Harry McKirdy came off the bench and won a penalty and, by all accounts, it sounds like maybe there was a case for United to be awarded another spot-kick, too.

At Brunton Park at the weekend, Olufela Olomola gave United an early lead, but that lasted only 20 minutes, before Salford responded through Emmanuel Dieseruvwe and a Daniel Whitehead penalty, with Stefan Scougall completing the scoring in the four-goal game.

There are three units to a team - the defence, the midfield and the forwards. Unfortunately, until they start to complement each other, results will suffer and the defence is letting Carlisle down a bit at the moment.

But I’m sure one clean-sheet would help to boost the confidence of the Cumbrians’ backline massively.

Something I have noticed in the way that teams defend now, and I’m not just talking about Carlisle here, is very few sides use the adage: “When in doubt, kick it out”.

I can understand sides wanting to play out from the back, but some players are not capable of doing it. The high press is another key part of modern-day football and nowadays, if a defender takes a bad touch, he can find himself right in trouble because of it.

This weekend, Carlisle will visit Scunthorpe who have taken only a single point from their first five league fixtures.

Paul Hurst’s team might be bottom, but I have read the report from their 1-0 loss at Macclesfield on Saturday and, from the sounds of things, maybe they did deserve a point from the match.

As I have also mentioned before, I’m not sure it matters whether you are playing top or bottom of the league, either, in League Two. They are all tough matches.