Last updated at 16:41, Monday, 23 November 2009

Carlsle United 0 Swindon Town 1: Carlisle’s FA Cup victory at Morecambe six days ago was a masterclass in “winning ugly”. On Saturday, only one half of that choice phrase remained.

Richard Keogh was subbed at half-time

Winning was wiped straight from the chalkboard and all that was left was a gargoyle of a performance that got the result it deserved.

Some in the high command at Brunton Park might consider that an excessively pointed summary of events.

They would be advised to run that line of thinking past their own manager before training their guns on a critical media, such is their occasional habit.

Here, for the record, was Greg Abbott’s interpretation of his team’s 1-0 defeat, their second successive league loss which lowered them a place to 19th in League One: “The first half was close to being the worst 45 minutes since I have been at the club. The progress we have made has been damaged.”

From the brightness that came with a handsome Halloween victory over Charlton, and an encouraging run of one defeat from six games, came this plunge back into autumn’s darkness. It was painful to hear Abbott run such a disparaging knife through his players for 10 near-unbroken minutes in his post-match briefing.

But this was no time for managerial doublespeak, for the habitual searching for “positives”.

Saturday evening required the hardest analysis of United’s failings and now they must be addressed in the most clear-headed manner before Carlisle go again at MK Dons tomorrow night.

Greater crises have hit Cumbria in recent days than the loss of a football match. Carlisle 0 Swindon 1 is a dot on the canvas of a flood-ravaged county just now.

But that doesn’t mean we are obliged to swerve the fact that 4,000 local loyalists stalked back onto Warwick Road having received shockingly limited fare for their money two days ago.

On some days, football can divert the brain from graver daily matters. It would be quite unreasonable to pin too much responsibility on a group of young men in blue shirts for lifting the public mood, but even in the narrowest context, what we saw at Brunton Park was impossible to allow through customs unchecked.

“We showed a bit of character in the second half, but I would expect that,” continued Abbott. “This is people’s livelihoods and jobs. When you go to work, you work as hard as you can. We didn’t in the first half.”

Contained in that chunk of scrutiny may have been a lingering reference to the calls for Abbott’s head which became audible shortly before full-time, as United’s toiling attempts to wipe out Charlie Austin’s third minute goal disappeared in the rain. Carlisle’s manager has piloted his team to within three games of Wembley in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy, led them on their best League Cup run for 34 years and negotiated a thorny FA Cup first round tie against Morecambe, but in the business of collecting league points the Cumbrians are nowhere near reliable enough for Abbott to sit comfortably in his chair.

We are now three games away from the nominal 20-match stage where Abbott and his colleagues believe we can start forming meaningful judgements about his team’s progress in the league. After tomorrow’s engagement in the land of the concrete cow, United need to get themselves upwardly mobile against Hartlepool and Gillingham if those irritable supporters are to hold further fire.

On an impressively smooth pitch here – testament to the fine efforts of David Mitchell and his groundstaff for clearing it of flood water in double-quick time – the Blues began combat with a couple of testing corners but then regressed appallingly and allowed Swindon to take their goal.

‘Allowed’ is the key word, too, since there was an air of complicity in the way Jon-Paul McGovern was allowed to feed Billy Paynter in space down the right, before the striker was granted excessive space to cross for Austin, who spun away from Tom Taiwo and shot across Lenny Pidgeley before Danny Livesey could intervene.

From a normally steady back four, it was troubling to witness such neglect. That said, Carlisle had 87 minutes to take a rectifying goal on their home ground. What follows is an account of their tortuous attempts to do so. In the 10th minute, Taiwo had a deflected attempt comfortably saved by David Lucas, the visiting goalkeeper.

Soon after, Livesey headed a Graham Kavanagh free-kick across goal and wide. Seconds later, Joe Anyinsah successfully beat Lecsinel Jean-Francois to a high Matty Robson ball but poked the resulting chance wastefully wide. From a rare burst of silky passing there was another deflected drive from Robson which Lucas gathered, and then Kavanagh sneaked into space to test the visiting keeper with a volley.

The familiar accusation of over-friendliness behind enemy lines was reappearing. At the other end, a chaotic attempt to trap Swindon offside led to Kevin Amankwaah advancing undetected down the right, with only Livesey’s interception preventing the right-back’s cross reaching the lurking Paynter in the area.

United were not without territorial advantage but inspiration repeatedly turned on its heel at the moment of truth. On the half-hour, Anyinsah steamed past Jean-Francois but couldn’t find a blue body with his cross. Then the winger linked nicely with Kavanagh but Swindon again dealt with his centre. In the second half, with the ailing Keogh and Taiwo substituted (and Tony Kane and Scott Dobie introduced, with a due tactical shift back to an orthodox 4-4-2), Carlisle pressed again and forced a free-kick down the right from which Harte drew the save of the day from Lucas.

Abbott’s team had by now jerked up their pedestrian tempo, but clear chances remained sporadic. A Kavanagh corner was headed down Lucas’ throat by Livesey. Swindon’s Anthony McNamee then drew a save from Pidgeley from distance, then the visitors flunked a good chance to kill the contest when McGovern sped down the right on the counter-attack but failed to pick out Paynter in the Blues area.

Fortune again deserted the persistent Harte when he bent another free-kick against the outside of the post. With it went any plausible hopes of a Carlisle leveller, such were the struggles of their frontmen and midfielders to crack open the doughty Robins rearguard, marshalled steadily by Gordon Greer and protected effectively by Jonathan Douglas, a refugee from Leeds’ play-off team who thwarted United on this ground a couple of seasons back.

The visitors, a likely top-half team but plainly not the division’s most potent force, could even afford an appalling miss by substitute Alex Revell after a Livesey misjudgement four minutes from time. Revell’s wastefulness never looked likely to cost Danny Wilson’s team their triumphant afternoon.

Wilson was later heard describing Carlisle’s groundsman as “our man of the match” for getting the game on amid the local deluge. It was precisely the sort of cheery speech a manager can make in the glow of victory. Abbott is denied such a luxury as he goes about the unpromising business of holding his single-striker system up to the light, and determining whether certain under-performing individuals need to be jettisoned from the starting XI tomorrow night.

United’s boss may have assumed he was beyond such fundamental tinkering. The league table, the unsettled faithful and the many unsightly things we saw against Swindon say he is not.

LENNY PIDGELEY Blameless for Swindon’s winner, made a couple of decent saves, not always authoritative at crosses.

RICHARD KEOGH Struggling with illness and beaten a couple of times down the right, put in couple of important tackles.

EVAN HORWOOD One of United’s better players and certainly one of the few who looked up for the contest.

DANNY LIVESEY Battled throughout and was a threat at set-pieces but couldn’t shut down Swindon’s crucial third-minute attack.

IAN HARTE Could have done more to prevent Paynter’s crucial cross, almost brought Blues level with free-kicks.

TOM TAIWO Beaten too easily in the box for Swindon’s winner, couple of trademark tackles but illness forced him off.

ADAM CLAYTON Man City loanee improved as game went on but not in it enough and was unable to make anything happen for Blues.

MATTY ROBSON Can’t be faulted for effort but struggled to break free of Swindon’s defensive shackles.

JOE ANYINSAH Missed United’s best chance and didn’t have enough influence down right for all his endeavour.

GRAHAM KAVANAGH Not among the Blues’ worst players and put in some dangerous deliveries which deserved better.

VINCENT PERICARD Some good early touches but struggled to make impact with limited service and support.

Subs: Scott Dobie (for Taiwo 46) – Lively start but limited impact; Tony Kane (for Keogh 46) – Didn’t let the side down; Richard Offiong (for Pericard 86) – No late heroics. Not used: Adam Collin, Peter Murphy, Michael Burns, Kevan Hurst

Swindon: Lucas, Amankwaah, Jean-Francois, Cuthbert, Greer, Douglas, Austin (Revell 68), McNamee (Timlin 86), McGovern, Paynter, Ferry. Not used: Easton, Hutchinson, Smith, Kennedy, Peacock.

Goals: Austin 3

Ref: Colin Webster (Tyne & Wear)

Crowd: 4,339

First published at 11:23, Monday, 23 November 2009
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk