PAUL Reid wants to score against his old club today, and celebrate in front of his Dad, Brian, who is a Carlisle United fan!Colchester United defender Reid, who was born and brought up in Carlisle, began his career at Brunton Park and even returned for a loan spell with the Cumbrians last season.

Carl Marston

By Carl Marston

PAUL Reid wants to score against his old club today, and celebrate in front of his Dad, Brian, who is a Carlisle United fan!

Colchester United defender Reid, who was born and brought up in Carlisle, began his career at Brunton Park and even returned for a loan spell with the Cumbrians last season.

But now the 26-year-old is hoping to plot their downfall this afternoon, and at the same time continue the U's unlikely surge towards the play-offs.

“My Dad is a big Carlisle fan. He's a season ticket holder, and still goes to every home game,” revealed Reid.

“I chat with him most weekends, so I'm kept informed about how Carlisle are doing. They are always the first result that I look out for on a Saturday.

“I'm not quite sure who my Dad will be supporting this weekend, though I guess he'd be happy with me scoring in a 1-1 draw.

“Often, players tend to score against their old clubs. It happened to me against Northampton this season, and also to Clive Platt at his old club MK Dons (1-1 draw) recently.

“If I do score, then I don't know how I'd celebrate. I guess I'd find where my Dad was sitting and celebrate in front of him. That would really wind him up!

“I'll also have a lot of friends and a lot of family at the game, and most of them are also Carlisle fans.

“I was born and bred in Carlisle, and basically stayed there until I was 18 years old, before I signed for Rangers (for �200,000 in 2000). So I obviously have some very happy memories of my time there.

“I also went back there on loan (from Barnsley) for six weeks last season. That felt a bit weird, going back to my home club eight years on.

“It was high and a low time for me. Carlisle were looking for promotion and I wanted to help them achieve it. But I signed when I was half-injured, and when I finally did get fit, I ended up getting injured within half-an-hour of my first game.

“That ended my season and Carlisle ended up losing in the pay-offs,” recalled Reid.

Reid has formed a regular partnership at the heart of defence alongside Pat Baldwin over the last five games, which have yielded three wins and two draws.

He hopes that manager Paul Lambert will persist with this pairing, although he knows that the pressure is on to retain his place.

“Pat and me playing together has coincided with a good run of results,” continued Reid.

“I think we are a decent pairing and we're playing pretty well at the moment. However, I know that Matt Heath is waiting in the wings, and that Chris Coyne is starting to come back from injury.

“The gaffer has also been looking to bring in a centre-half, even two of them! That will keep us all on our toes. That's all part of football

“But I've got the shirt at the moment, and whoever comes in, it's up to them to try and get it off me.”

The U's have lost just one of their last 11 league matches, to sit just outside the top 10. They are still nine points adrift of the play-offs, but Reid is not perturbed.

He insisted: “We want to keep our unbeaten run going, to get where we want to be.

“And by that I mean the top six. At the start of the season our aim was to bounce back into the Championship, and that's still our goal.”

Lambert will be without both his front-line strikers this afternoon. Platt serves a one-match suspension, for accruing five bookings, while Steven Gillespie is expected to be out of action for a fortnight with a calf muscle injury.

Scott Vernon, who netted the winner in the 2-1 success over Northampton Town on Tuesday night, looks certain to start.

Lambert has hinted that he will continue to operate with two strikers, so that could mean a first U's start of the season for Jamie Guy. Another option is for Mark Yeates to move from the wing to a more central role, with Wolves loanee winger Lewis Gobern coming in for his first start.

Recent new signing Simon Hackney, recruited from Carlisle on Monday, will not feature because of a clause in his contract preventing him from playing against his former club.

Squads

CARLISLE UNITED: Williams, Raven, Livesey, Murphy, Liddell, Bridge-Wilkinson, Thirlwell, Kavanagh, Taylor, Graham, Dobie, Anyinsah, Madine, Keogh, Howarth, Horwood, Rothery.

COLCHESTER UNITED: Walker, Maybury, Baldwin, Reid, Tierney, Gobern, Hammond, Izzet, Perkins, Vernon, Yeates, Guy, White, Wordsworth, Heath, Jackson, Cousins.