I’m on holiday in Italy at the moment, there’s this weird thing that if you buy something in a shop, the people who work there instinctively know you’re English and to talk to you in your own language. 

How do they know? Is it the blotchy, pasty skin tone? A sense of obvious fear that our education system has failed us so badly we’re unable to speak any other language than our own? Is it the innate lack of style in our clothes?

It’s quite warm, yet you’ll never see an Italian in a pair of three-quarter length cargo shorts and a Slazenger singlet from Sports Direct. In Milan, men will wear girdle tight shirts with linen trousers rolled up to just above the ankle and slip on shoes. Maybe it’s just that they look like they belong here. 

A few days ago, I was walking down the Via Pallazo Reale near to the cathedral – the Duomo di Milano – looking for a proper English fry up with none of your foreign muck (I wasn’t, I was getting a coffee) when a man cycled past on a hot pink bike in an immaculate white shirt and sports jacket, mint green trousers and espadrilles. Perhaps I just needed to copy the style and I’d fit right it. Could I? Should I? 

No, of course not, even if I was to buy the same clothes from the same shop, that outfit would look like it was wearing me, not that I was wearing the outfit. 

I watched the Carlisle game on iFollow, in the opening stages we looked like Liam Manning’s system was wearing us. Some things seemed to work – Marcus Browne breaking at speed down the flank, getting balls into the box with a lightness of spirit he rarely showed last year, but some of still sat heavily – being over-committed when losing possession, not getting into the box to convert chances. 

By contrast, Carlisle looked like a team who were well versed in their manager’s philosophy and were more than capable of frustrating us to the point where they might frustrate us into securing a draw, perhaps more given the mood around the club after the first two games. You sensed that if they could get us to 70 minutes at 0-0, they could use any disquiet to snatch a win. 

It’s a brutally hard way to learn a system and style, while thousands of people keep telling you you’re doing it wrong. And, for all his affable everyman demeanour, Liam Manning is a dogmatic idealogue. You suspect that if he needs to make a quick cheese sandwich, he wouldn’t do with a couple of slices of Cathedral City extra mild on some Kingsmill, he’s be baking his own bloomers and separating the curds and whey because that’s how it’s supposed to be done.

There’s no better illustration than the goal kick routine where an outfield player passes to the goalkeeper because when we say we play from the back, WE. PLAY. FROM. THE. BACK.

Things seemed to flow better in the second half. After Nathan Cooper told us a Carlisle player was booked for ‘scissoring’ – the minimum he should expect when there are children watching – Peter Rhoades-Brown questioned whether Carlisle had reached the limits of their system. They seemed to run out of steam, whatever it was Manning had instilled into his players, we seemed to be engineering more space and movement.

Eventually the breakthrough came, Goodrham played in Harris who bore down on Carlisle’s giant of a keeper rushing from his line to narrow the angle. The ball was bouncing begging to be lobbed delicately in the net.

Harris seemed to mishit it as the ghost of a thousand failed Oxford United strikers swirled around him. It was Rob Duffy against Exeter, but instead of rolling into the hands of the keeper or hopelessly wide, it trickled into the net.

You get a sense that Harris could be a little like Paul Moody, there will be times when he looks completely inept, where easy chances are spurned or he’s found drifting ten yards behind the play during a rapid break. But, then, like Moody, all is forgiven when the ball hits the back of the net and somehow by May he’s notched eighteen goals. Perhaps, let’s see.

We’re now facing a double away day against the two teams – according to my pre-season survey – you thought would be automatically promoted this season. Frankly, taking any points from them will be an achievement. Four away games in five including three with current or recent Championship experience is a tough opening for any season, the sanity preservation that comes with securing this three points may prove critical if the new system is to bed in and become second nature.