Carlisle a huge fan of Cobblers skipper Langmead

Carlisle and Langmead were reunited at the heart of the Cobblers defence in November when the former loan player returned to the side for a second spell that has since been made permanent.

Although they have made mistakes, their partnership has been a cornerstone of a recent run of results that has guided the team to just a point outside the npower League Two play-off places.

Langmead has been a solid performer all season and has not missed a minute of first-team action, leading to praise from all quarters of which Carlisle is the latest contributor.

“The skipper (Langmead) is a different man,” he said. “He walks ten feet tall and leads by example on the pitch and in training. He is a joy to be around.

“From an outside perspective, a couple of things have changed with him. One is his confidence levels and the other is his consistency.

“When fans rate players and they become favourites with the fans they are usually players who are quite temperamental - one week they’ll be a 10 out of 10 and the next two a four or a five.

“I would much rather have a Kelvin Langmead in my side, and he’ll be my player of the year, who is seven or eight out of ten as a minimum every week and most weeks he’s eight or nine.

“Sometimes the armband weighs people down. They almost become scared and anxious of letting their players down but it’s had the opposite effect with Kelv, he’s really stepped up to it and it’s bringing the best out of him not just mentally but as a base level of performance.”