IF anyone thought it was going to be easy for us in the Nationwide League Third Division then they certainly got the message loud and clear on Saturday when Carlisle beat us 1-0 at Aggborough.

And, believe me, they are going to get the message again over the next five games or so because we have got some very, very tough matches coming up.

One of them, of course, is tonight's home Worthington Cup first round second leg clash against Second Division table-toppers Walsall.

But, just reflecting on last Saturday's match for a minute or so, it goes without saying that our players were desperately disappointed by the outcome.

We lost the game and our impressive unbeaten home league record and that hurt.

But I don't think it will have any long-term effect on us because we had the majority of the ball.

I know we didn't do a lot with it but we knocked it around again as we like to, so I don't think the confidence will have suffered that greatly.

I think it was just one of those days. Carlisle did extremely well in terms of defending and they hit us on the break.

They didn't have an awful lot of chances, but to be fair they took the goal well.

It just needed something extra special from our lads to penetrate their defence.

We almost got a goal when Paul Webb hit the post with a header, but really it started from the word 'go' that the tempo wasn't really there and we didn't pump it up at any time during the match.

But, let's be fair, if somebody said before the season started that we would begin with three wins in our first five games then we'd have been happy with that.

People sometimes ask me what the main differences are between Football League and non-league soccer and one of them is tactics.

We have gained a couple of good results by changing our system and Carlisle did that on Saturday.

They set their stall out and, as a result, they have secured two good away wins inside a week.

I don't really know whether they deserved to win on Saturday, probably a 0-0 would have been a fairer result, but they pinched the points.

And tactics in the Third Division do play a bigger part than in non-league because the players are slightly better and certainly fitter.

We had Conference teams who came here last season and tried to set their stall out, but the players aren't good enough to contain and they aren't fit enough to last the full 90 minutes. It's then that you'll have problems whatever system you adopt.

But teams in the Third Division don't have those sort of problems.

The players are better and fitter, so the job they set out to do they can maintain for 90 minutes.

In non-league you'll find a lot of teams get tired after around 70 to 75 minutes.

Anyway, I must say we were delighted with the crowd on Saturday.

Carlisle brought a few and it was nice to break 4,000 again.

I know some of them will have gone home disappointed but we cannot win them all.

We just can't expect to do that but, of course, we're obviously delighted when we do win!

I know some people are wondering if I'm likely to be adding to the squad, but the chances of that are very slim because we have a budget to work to and at the moment we've spent that.

So, the quick answer to that is there's no room now really to bring in anyone else.

If we can start getting one or two players fit then I think we'll be okay.

But we were down to the last 16 on Saturday and it will be the same tonight when we meet Walsall.

Hope to see you there -- it should be a cracking match!