Bowyer's operation bounce-back at Blackpool

It’s three weeks since Pool’s last home game in League Two, a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Plymouth which stretched their winless run to five games.

However, Pool responded with back-to-back victories – against Cheltenham in the Checkatrade Trophy and a 3-0 rout of Yeovil – and Bowyer is hoping for a similar reaction tomorrow after the defeat in Essex.

The Pool boss said: “Whenever we have suffered a disappointment this season we’ve always bounced back.

“We have a full week of work with no midweek game, which allow us to prepare and we’ll go at it.

“We haven’t always got the results we’ve deserved so far this season, though I have been disappointed with some of the goals we’ve been conceding.”

Like tomorrow’s opponents Carlisle, Pool have scored nine and conceded seven in their opening seven League Two games.

The difference is that whereas the Cumbrians are unbeaten, Pool’s defeat at Colchester was their third.

Carlisle’s only defeat this season came in a dramatic 15-14 penalty shoot-out at Derby County in the EFL Cup and they have not been beaten over 90 minutes in a competitive fixture since April.

However, Keith Curle’s men have drawn five of their seven games so far and have made a habit of coming from behind to save points.

Striker Shaun Miller, who is yet to score his first league goal for the Cumbrians following his summer move from League Two rivals Morecambe, said: “Obviously we don’t want to draw for the rest of the season. We know we need to turn those draws into wins now.”

“We feel that if we can get that early goal we could really put a team away. We haven’t been able to do that because we’ve gone behind in games, but we’ve shown great character to come back. There are goals in the team.”

They will be roared on by a boisterous away following at Bloomfield Road, having sold their allocated 2,700 tickets. It means that home supporters are most likely to find themselves in the minority tomorrow afternoon

This is the first time the sides will have faced each other since 2006-07, when they were in League One.

Blackpool won the home fixture 2-1 on Boxing Day and went up via the play-offs.

However, Carlisle have played at Bloomfield Road this year – Pool hosted their FA Cup third-round tie with Yeovil in January, when flooding at Brunton Park forced Curle’s side to play home games on the road.