KEITH Curle has ordered his players to get it right at both ends of the Brunton Park pitch tomorrow.

The Chester City manager hopes the emergency surgery he carried out on his team's defence on Tuesday will go a long way to eradicating the mistakes that have proved so costly in recent weeks.

Three new, young defenders have arrived and, with Sean Hessey back in full training, there is genuine competition for places in the back four.

But Curle is equally concerned with matters at what was once the sharp end of the Blues' team.

A return of just seven goals in the last 11 games - nine of which ended in defeat - tells its own story but the City boss says it's only a matter of time before the 'goals for' column starts ticking over again.

He wants Chester to rediscover the attacking verve that characterised their early-season performances.

'If a team scored, we'd score three against them,' said Curle. 'Now I believe we can get back into that rhythm of being an attacking threat home and away.'

One of the best examples of the Blues' attacking abilities came at the Saunders Honda Stadium on September 27 last year.

Ironically, tomorrow's opponents Carlisle were the visitors and they were sent packing 2-0 after goals from Dave Artell and Gregg Blundell.

Just 10 days later, Blundell was hurt in a collision with Rochdale keeper Matthew Gilks and ended up missing a huge chunk of the season through injury.

'I look at the game against Rochdale, when Gregg was in a fine run of form, and I think that could be a turning point,' said Curle. 'Their goalkeeper should have got sent off but he wasn't and we lost Gregg for three months.

'At the time Gregg had been scoring goals and doing well for us.'

Blundell has not scored since making his first-team comeback at Macclesfield on December 31, but Curle insisted: 'Gregg is coming back now and getting that yard of sharpness back in front of goal. All he needs now is an opportunity to take that goal.

'The lack of goals is a worry but there has only been one or two games (since Blundell was injured against Rochdale) where I've been able to field all my fit strikers.

'We went 19 games without having a full strike force.'

Carlisle have mounted a sustained push for automatic promotion since their defeat at the Saunders Honda back in September, while the Blues have dropped from the play-off zone and into the bottom half of the table.

But as the League Two summit comes into sight, Paul Simpson's men have started to stumble.

They have passed up the chance to go top of the table in their last two league games, drawing 1-1 with Cheltenham after an injury-time own goal from Kevin Gray and losing 3-0 at Macclesfield on Sunday.

Simpson blamed himself for the Moss Rose defeat and branded his side's first-half performance as 'our worst 45 minutes of the season'.

He added: 'I'm disappointed with my own team selection.

'I feel we've let down the 2000 fans that travelled with us and I'd like to make an apology to them.'

Curle said: 'They will be looking to this game to turn it around.

'They're not too dissimilar to ourselves from beginning of the season when we looked as if we could score at will.

'But we can go there, keep the back door locked and give them some problems.'