Beech in pole position

Walsall 0 Carlisle 2

CHRIS BEECH insisted Carlisle going top of League Two means “absolutely nothing” at this stage of the season.

The Cumbrians took full advantage of call-offs for promotion rivals Newport and Forest Green to leapfrog the pair into pole position with goals from Omari Patrick and Josh Kayode (above).

Carlisle barely allowed the Saddlers a sight of goal as they registered an eighth clean sheet of the season, but Beech says the hard work begins now for his side.

“It’s satisfying because we’ve worked very hard to be in this position but at the same time it means absolutely nothing,” he said. “There’s two things it means – one, it’s a long time to try to stay there and two, there’s only one way from that point.

“But I just stick to simple things. We’ve got to protect our goal, play some bits in the middle and we’ve got to create goalscoring chances.

“Our players have to continue to do that and to believe and understand our strengths and attributes. If they do that over a long period, then I’m interested in the league table.”

Walsall, meanwhile, slipped four points and four places outside the play-offs after a third straight defeat without influential midfielder

Rory Holden.

Boss Darrell Clarke revealed Holden is likely to be out until the summer after knee surgery and the Saddlers struggled in attack, with Wes McDonald’s shot straight at Paul Farman their only notable effort.

Clarke said: “It was a shocking day to start the calendar year and it’s been a bad seven days – we lose three games off the back of winning four and we lose our best player for the rest of the season.

“The performance today wasn’t good enough, we were miles off it, the best team won and we were second best out there.

“We looked a mixture of players who needed a bit of a breather and players lacking a little bit of match fitness.

“And now we’ve got to reset and re-evaluate.”