Defender Michael Raynes has warned his team-mates that they’re in for a battle when Accrington Stanley come to town this weekend – but insists there’s no need for Carlisle United to fear anyone as they set their sights on league success.

The 28-year-old captained United during the 3-0 defeat against Everton last weekend in the absence of the injured Danny Grainger.

But now the former Oxford centre-half is urging his team to focus on the threat posed by John Coleman’s play-off chasers, who will be United’s opponents in two of their next three League Two fixtures – though he said that the prospect of six games in a month, including three against teams above them in the table, held no fear for them.

“They’re a good side. We’ve seen this year that they’re up there on merit,” said Raynes, who could continue with the armband should Grainger’s ankle injury again force him out of Saturday’s game at Brunton Park.

“I think the old school Accy are no more – I think this team is a very, very good side. It’s going to be a difficult challenge for us on Saturday.

“I think with their games in hand they’re in a similar situation as us. We’ve got to play everyone twice and, in the first half of the season, there was no-one really that would scream fear for us.

“On our day, we can beat anybody, so we’ll take that confidence into Saturday and onwards for the rest of the season.”

He added: “It’s only a bag of leather with a bit of air in it so there’s no need to have any fear about it. You’ve just got to go, give it your all and see where you end up at the end.”

Raynes has been a mainstay in Keith Curle’s defence this season, and said he was delighted to have featured in two cup ties against Premier League opposition this season after missing out on the glamour ties throughout much of his 12-year career to date.

But he said it was time for United to forget about their cup exploits and retrain their sights on League Two’s top seven.

“We’ve got to draw a line under that now. We can look back on what we’ve achieved at the end of the season but now it’s back to the business of what pays the bills every week,” said Raynes.

“You say well done to everyone and the club got a decent whack out of it as well, but we draw a line udner that now. Our goal is what we set out at the start of the season, so we’ve got to crack on with the league and try and get as high up as we possibly can towards the end of the season.”

The hectic fixture schedule will see Carlisle face three midweek games within the next four weeks, while they currently have games in hand on some of their other rivals in the top half of the division.

Raynes though is well aware that whatever advantage can be gleaned from having games in hand is lost if they’re not converted into points.

“We need the points on the board first. It’s fine having games in hand, but we need to win games,” he said.

“We know we’ve got a hell of a challenge coming up now. We’ve got a lot of games coming up on Saturdays then Tuesdays, so we’re going to look after ourselves as best we can and give it as good a shot as we possibly can do.”