GARY Bowyer has hailed the impact of August signing Harry Pritchard.

The former Blackpool man, who arrived at the end of the last window when Sean Scannell went the other way, netted his third goal of the season in Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Salford.

Pritchard has made his mark with his attacking runs from midfield and Bowyer expects more of where that came from as the campaign goes on.

He said: “Harry has been massive for us already and he’s not played 20 games since signing permanently.

“He’s got six assists and three goals now and he’s only going to get better.

“He had that little blip with his back that just broke his rhythm a little bit. But he’s going to keep going.

“Double figures of assists is well within his reach with what he’s achieved so far.

“The same applies to Callum Cooke. He had that effort on Saturday that shook the foot of the post from 20 yards.

“Once his first goal goes in, then he will step forward and produce more as well.

“That’s the exciting thing for us with the way we are and where we are and knowing there’s more to come from us.”

City’s Boxing Day hosts Carlisle have only won one of their last eight games – against Forest Green in the FA Cup to set up a third-round trip to Cardiff.

The Cumbrians last won in the league on November 2 and sit five points above basement club Stevenage.

But Bowyer warned: “It’s going to be a difficult game, like every other one in this league.

“You only have to look at some of the results at the weekend.

“One or two would surprise people, not within the game, but there was probably a couple of coupon wreckers. That’s always the case.

“The most important thing is how we prepare and go about it. Our attitude and application on Saturday was fantastic. The stats were all there to see and we’ve just got to keep going.

“You look at the financial clout that Salford have got and how they’ve spent it. Then you look at the level of performance from our boys against that with the amount of players we had missing.

“It just shows you the quality we have and we need to keep supporting them. It will certainly come, that’s for sure.

“Sooner or later it will click into place and somebody’s going to take a good hiding off us.”