Under-par United slip up against Morecambe
Last updated 12:57, Monday, 04 August 2008
Friendly: Morecambe 2 Carlisle United 1: The grand plan didn’t include League One’s best centre-half enduring a painful brush with farce, nor his team-mates having a pre-season of so much clean progress being checked quite dramatically.
This was the afternoon when the glitches in the machinery finally showed, when United were reminded of the potential consequences of defensive sluggishness and a dip in their normal sharpness and style.
With a week to go before meaningful combat finally begins, Morecambe obliged Carlisle to search for the hopeful cliché which suggests it is best to get errors and gaffes “out of the system” before the proper business starts.
Carlisle’s displays in their other friendlies have been positive enough to mark this down as a temporary plummet. But it still obliged John Ward to pose some searching questions of his under-par troops, who will need to snap back into their stride quickly as they prepare for this Saturday’s defining trip to Bristol Rovers.
Because Danny Livesey is so often an error-free zone, there’s no need to hammer away at the subject of his 25th minute own goal: an unchallenged defensive header which the big centre-half sent over the reach of Ben Williams and on an excruciating roll into the Cumbrian net.
Both Livesey and Williams will be anxious to purge themselves of that startling aberration before hurling themselves into league battle this coming weekend. The communications breakdown which led to Morecambe’s second goal can surely be repaired without much difficulty. But the general concerns about United’s performance, particularly in a first half derided as “abysmal” by Ward, were such that the route to Bristol can no longer be described as a clear sail.
Certainly, it was not a day completely devoid of encouraging features. Danny Carlton, who sprang from the bench to slam Carlisle’s consolation goal against his former club, could not be doing more to persuade Ward that he is at last ready to be whistled in from the fringes.
Cleveland Taylor, in perhaps his most sustained and impressive performance in a blue shirt, is another man who may be ready to start afresh, to influential effect. His forays, particularly down the left flank, were bright indeed. And the sight of Paul Thirlwell chomping into tackles in midfield remains a happy one for United fans after the captain’s previous season of pain.
And Carlisle were not without their chances here – they hit the woodwork twice – but generally it was a performance low on inspiration and, in those troubled early stages, organisation. Morecambe needed just three minutes to pounce, when Neil Wainwright’s pace earned a brace of corners, the second of which landed for David Artell in excessive space. The centre-half deftly lobbed the ball over Williams and into the net, as Matty Blinkhorn attempted to apply the final touch.
United, with Scott Dobie as their main striker, eventually attempted to find their range, but when Taylor’s persistence down the left earned a chance for Michael Bridges, the illustrious loan man scuffed wide.
Jim Bentley bravely denied the raiding Dobie, before calamity descended on United and Livesey, the own goal leaving them two adrift. Only Williams’ impressive athleticism denied the Shrimps a third, the goalkeeper saving superbly from Blinkhorn and then the dangerous Wainwright. A marginal offside call, meanwhile, terminated Carlisle’s most eyecatching move of the half as Simon Hackney released Dobie through the middle.
Hackney almost served up a scoring chance for Bridges early in the second half, but the striker was forced wide and could only achieve a corner. But it was a day when Marc Bridge-Wilkinson’s deliveries, both from set-pieces and open play, were below his normal standards. Michael Carr flashed an effort wide for Sammy McIlroy’s lively outfit, before Ward’s double substitution – Carlton and Danny Graham for Bridges and Hackney – finally brought the visitors some momentum.
Dobie, now raiding from the right, linked with Graham and bent a shot with the outside of his right foot which bashed against the left hand post. Then, after David Raven and Bridge-Wilkinson had made important defensive contributions at the other end, Taylor sped in from the left and fired narrowly off target.
Diarmiud O’Carroll sporadically threatened for the hosts, but then, after Bridge-Wilkinson tested Barry Roche with a good 25-yard drive, Carlisle finally struck. It was the fruit of a snappy passing move and a cute pass from Graham which put Carlton in at the right of Roche’s goal. His fierce near-post finish offered more evidence of the confidence which is now rising quite rapidly in the striker.
United could have closed the game with a penalty, when a home defender’s grip on Taylor’s shirt continued well into the box. But only a free-kick was awarded on the left of the area, and Bridge-Wilkinson whipped the last-minute set-piece onto the bar. Fairness obliges us to report that a Blues equaliser at this stage would have been a shade unfair on the disciplined hosts, who offered their guests a clear lesson in urgency and appetite.
Carlisle’s day ended with Evan Horwood feeling the effects of heavy concussion - and, no doubt, Ward suffering the wrong kind of headache as he examined the blueprint just a touch closer than before.
MATCH FACTS
Morecambe: Roche, Parrish (McCann 79), Adams (Yates 65), Bentley (McStay 62), Artell, Hunter, Carr (Stanley 79), McLachlan (Drummond 62), O’Carroll (Twiss 79), Blinkhorn, Wainwright (Curtis 62). Subs: Howe, Davis.
Goals: Artell 3, Livesey og 25
Carlisle: Williams, Raven, Horwood, Livesey, Murphy (Gowling 79), Bridge-Wilkinson, Thirlwell, Hackney (Carlton 62), Taylor, Bridges (Graham 62), Dobie. Subs: Joyce, Howarth, Campion, Madine, J Smith.
Goals: Carlton 84
Att: 1,465 (502 Carlisle fans)
Ref: N Miller
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