John Ward wants his players to treat the League Cup seriously.

Carlisle United manager John Ward has warned his players to take Shrewsbury Town seriously when they travel to the New Meadow on Tuesday night.

Paul Simpson's Shrews opened with a 4-0 win against Macclesfield on Saturday and Ward believes their Carling Cup clash will be a closely fought affair.

"It's a cup tie against a team that will be challenging at the top of League Two," said Ward.

"It'll be a really difficult game for us," he told BBC Radio Cumbria.

The Cumbrians, beaten 3-2 on aggregate by losing finalists Leeds United in last season's League One play-off semi-finals, got off to a winning start this time round with a 3-2 win at Bristol Rovers on Saturday. And Ward admitted that the manner of the victory was an encouraging sign for the rest of the campaign.

"It is a relief because you look at your fixtures and three of the first four are away from home, and we're on the way now," he said.

"Any concerns about a hangover from last season are out of the window and we're off and running now.

"We talked about the points at the beginning being as vital as those at the end. We've got to keep pushing on and see if we can accumulate more points than we did last year.

"That's going to be exceptionally tough, but we're three points closer to it already."