On Boxing Day, we will see a League One relegation scrap play out when Carlisle United make the trip to Highbury Stadium to take on Fleetwood Town.

The hosts are currently second bottom in the league standings with 16 points after 22 games, while the visitors are just one point and one place above them, though they have played a game less.

Match preview

After narrowly avoiding the drop in 2021-22, Fleetwood bounced back to secure a solid mid-table finish last season, but they have failed to build on that performance this term.

The Cod Army have lost seven matches in succession in all competitions coming into this crucial fixture and failed to score in six of those games while conceding a whopping 18 goals in that time.

However, Lee Johnson's side did pull off an against-the-odds result over the weekend when they held league leaders Portsmouth to a 1-1 draw at Fratton Park, halting a four-match league losing streak.

Notably, the Cods came flying out the blocks in the second half of that match and had Pompey on the ropes for a while, which is something they will need to replicate across the 90 in this one if they want to stand a chance of moving out of the drop zone this weekend.

Meanwhile, after securing promotion to League One in an intense playoff battle last season, Carlisle United look destined to head back down this term unless they can turn things around in the second half of the season.

The Cumbrians have recorded just three wins, seven draws and 12 losses in the current league campaign and have not tasted victory since their 2-1 win over Burton Albion back in October.

Paul Simpson's side will need to bounce back from a costly defeat over the weekend when they were beaten 1-0 by bottom club Cheltenham Town, who pulled within one point of the Blues with a game in hand.

That result marked Carlisle's seventh consecutive league match without a win, including five losses and two draws, while they will enter this contest having lost four in a row on the road and failed to score in three of those matches.

However, they will gain some confidence from the fact that they did manage a 1-0 win over this opponent in the reverse fixture at Brunton Park back in August this year.

Team News

Will Johnson received the call-up from the development squad for the match against Portsmouth and could make his senior debut in this one, having been an unused substitute last week.

Adam Montgomery returned to the squad last week after a spell on the sideline and will be hoping to make the starting 11, though it will be difficult for him to displace Josh Earl, who scored the opener in the last match.

Carlisle are set to remain without the services of midfielder Callum Guy, who picked up a serious ACL injury against Leyton Orient and could miss the remainder of the season.

Fin Back, Paul Huntington and Taylor Charters missed last week's defeat against Cheltenham and are flagged as major injury doubts for this one as well.

Fleetwood Town possible starting lineup:
Lynch; Lawal, Teale, Heneghan, Earl; Sarpong-Wiredu; Asamoah, Johnston, Dolan, Patterson; Stockley

Carlisle United possible starting lineup:
Holy; Emmanuel, Lavelle, Mellish, Armer; McCalmont, Moxon, Robinson; Plange, Edmondson, Gibson

We say: Fleetwood Town 1-0 Carlisle United

While both these sides are carrying very poor recent records into this match, Fleetwood's draw away to league leaders Portsmouth last week would have given them a much-needed boost of confidence, which they will look to carry into this match.

With both sides averaging less than a goal a game, we are certainly not expecting a goal fest here, but we are backing the hosts to edge this one by a single goal.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.

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