Last updated 15:39, Friday, 05 September 2008

Orient 0 Carlisle Utd 0: Leyton Orient’s ground, which stands a short leap from the next Olympic site, was a decent place for Ben Williams to hurdle the perception that he could never replace Keiren Westwood with credibility between Carlisle United’s posts.

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Carlisle manager John Ward appears to be out of ideas during the Coca Cola League One game between Leyton Orient and Carlisle United played at the Matchroom Stadium, Leyton on Sat Aug 23, 2008

The bar of public expectation is skyscraper-high, but this was the first 90-minute package of evidence that said Williams can lever himself above the pointless but inevitable comparisons with United’s previous goalkeeper.

How Carlisle’s summer signing follows one of the finest custodians in Brunton Park history - and that’s no exaggeration on the talents displayed by Westwood, now of Coventry City - is one of the most fascinating spectator sports available as we work through the detail of this new United team.

In a perfect world, Westwood’s name would have been wiped from our mental hard drives the minute he rocketed up a division, allowing Williams the luxury of a blank canvas on which to drop his own patterns.

Since there’s more chance of London getting the 2012 show on budget than us forgetting what we saw from the chap in the gloves over the last four years, the new recruit must deal with this quite unfair burden as he sets about his weekly work.

Well, against Orient, he dealt with it quite admirably. Dealt with the most dangerous things Martin Ling’s lively players could concoct at the Matchroom Stadium (formerly Brisbane Road, for the nostalgic). And dealt convincingly with the niggling memory of his home debut a week earlier, when Williams was far from fault-free against his old club, Crewe.

“When Leyton Orient got through to my goalkeeper, he pulled us through,” enthused United’s manager, John Ward. “He made a couple of great saves and took a number of crosses and that’s really good for my back four.

“Crewe spoke very highly of him last week. They told me I’ve got a good keeper and so far I haven’t seen anything to the contrary.” In a game short on headline-consuming talking points – until Scott Dobie’s frustrating red card three minutes from time, that is - it is indeed on the best of Williams’ work we are obliged to dwell.

In the 38th minute, with the hosts scampering forward on the break, the goalkeeper plunged sharply to his right to deny Simon Dawkins after the Spurs loan striker had been put clean through (even if greater composure from the forward ought to have removed the ‘keeper from the argument).

Then, with 20 minutes left, Williams revealed splendid reflexes to palm away Adam Boyd’s blast at the near post. These were the highlights of a generally authoritative display which, added to the alert defending of Danny Livesey and friends, amounted to a deserved first clean sheet of the new league campaign for Ward’s black-shirted troops.

If that summary gives the impression that Orient asked some meaningful questions of the Cumbrian rearguard, it’s entirely accurate.

Particularly in the second half, when the home attacking grew more persistent and imaginative, United picked a good time to bin their recent defensive glitches and reach for one of the days when the back door is firmly locked and the key dispatched into the Thames.

“It was as good a 0-0 draw as you are going to get,” was Ward’s post-match verdict, which correctly implies that plenty of bright attacking play landed on our plates but lacked the garnish of cold-blooded finishing.

Carlisle, starting with confidence and the breeze of a 100 per cent record at their backs, made some neat early attacks, one of which saw Marc Bridge-Wilkinson whip a tight-angled free-kick just over, another which led to a counter-attack and an off-target Simon Hackney shot, and a third, in the 14th minute, which saw Danny Graham motor onto Evan Horwood’s fine ball down the left, only for Orient’s Danny Granville to hack away the striker’s cross as Dobie threatened to pounce. Dobie, whose mood would later descend to the colour of his kit, then headed over a simple far-post chance after the improved Horwood and Hackney linked well down the left. This reprieve was Orient’s cue to fly back at the Cumbrians, prompted by young Dawkins once he had replaced the injured Wayne Gray.

The young Spurs loanee quickly obliged David Raven to make a critical interception in the United box. Then, after Hackney had failed to beat home ‘keeper Glenn Morris following a jink into the area, Dawkins and Adam Chambers served Boyd with a headed chance which deserved better than the off-target finish.

Orient ended the half on the offensive - Williams and Livesey repelling the raw but talented Dawkins - and then bounded from the tunnel even hungrier. Raven, again, charged back to make a brilliant interception as Dawkins prepared to fire for goal, then Ryan Jarvis blasted narrowly over after good work from the bright left-winger, Jason Demetriou. Brian Saah, more of whom shortly, terminated a move of rare invention from United, when he slid in to tackle Graham after Raven’s fine through ball.

Morris then denied Graham after a tidy one-two with Dobie, before Williams again raced from his traps to bravely foil Chambers’ surge from midfield.

A brace of substitutions - Michael Bridges and Cleveland Taylor - nearly then worked the trick against United’s frustrated hosts in the closing movements. Taylor hit the bar with a hanging header, then the winger set up Bridge-Wilkinson for an off-target 20-yarder.

Then, however, came that infuriating red card for Dobie, who responded to Saah’s aggressive attention after the whistle had gone with a shove to the defender’s legs.

The United man, not the game’s most violent soul, might have had grounds for appeal against the three-match ban, depending on the authorities view of the footage of a neurotic refereeing display from Michael Jones which also saw Bridges’ name scribbled down in the notebook for a foul before the game was through. However, United have since decided not to contest Dobie’s suspension.

The shame is that Dobie’s flashpoint will be the first thing you read about in most reports today, followed swiftly by Carlisle’s failure to stretch out their 100 per cent record for another week.

A shame, because this was by no means an afternoon of strife and failure from Ward’s men, even if they did leave most of their ruthlessness back in Cumbria.

What did bounce off the coach and onto the grass was the old defensive authority, the stubbornness which steers you through demanding days like this - and a decent goalkeeper happily sprinting away from his shadow.