U’s will be looking for a fourth consecutive home win and would move above Carlisle in the League Two table should that be achieved. The Cumbrians, who finished tenth last season, currently lie two points above Sutton having played a game more. Unbeaten at home, they have won one of their four games on their travels, at Swindon, while they drew at Port Vale and lost at Crawley and Hartlepool, and they come to the VBS Community Stadium with one win from their last six league games.

Included in the Carlisle squad could be Gime Toure, who spent the second half of the 2018-19 season at Sutton, scoring three times, before moving to Hartlepool, scoring against U’s on his debut and then moving to Carlisle at the start of last season. So far this term he has been confined to two substitutes’ appearances.

On the other side Richie Bennett spent his first two years as a Football League player with Carlisle between 2017 and 2019, and Dean Bouzanis had a very brief spell at Brunton Park in 2014.

U’s are likely to be without Tobi Sho-Silva and Jon Barden as they recover from injury, but there may be a first appearance in the squad since his return for Isaac Olaofe, who rejoined on loan from Millwall at the end of August.

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One player who won’t feature for U’s on Saturday is striker Kylian Kouassi (above), who has joined Hampton & Richmond Borough on a month’s loan. Assistant manager Jason Goodliffe spoke about the decision to allow Kylian to go on loan in his interview which will be on line later today or early on Friday.

The referee on Saturday is Simon Mather, in his first EFL season and having officiated in both games last season that saw sides confirm promotion from the National League, taking charge of the Sutton v Hartlepool game and then the play-off final at Ashton Gate.

Tickets for home supporters are on sale on line here, and will also be on sale from the Club Shop on Friday morning between 10am and 12 noon. We would ask supporters to buy in advance if possible to avoid any congestion at the ticket office on Saturday afternoon, when only ground admission tickets will be available. We also ask that supporters arrive in good time, again to avoid congestion around the entrances to the ground.

The club bars will be open after the game with all home supporters welcome.

If you can’t get to the game you can follow it by audio commentary through our iFollow service, price £2.50, and passes can be bought here. You can also order a copy of the match programme to be delivered to your door after the game. Click here for further details. For those at the game, the programme will be on sale at the ground.