Last updated at 11:51, Monday, 22 December 2008

Northampton 1 Carlisle United 0: Up there with any festive fairy story you might hear this week is the idea that Carlisle United will emerge from their winter freeze and make a bolt for League One’s play-offs in the early months of 2009.

Northampton score

Frankly, the concept of the Blues riding away from the dead men of the third division and then galloping towards the top six does not deserve any more air time.

It’s a notion which has been nudged forward by various members of their squad in recent weeks, but the final nail was driven through the delusion in this shoemaking town on Saturday.

So now Greg Abbott and his maddeningly erratic players can get down to the basic business of survival, beyond which no-one at Brunton Park is currently entitled to peer.

Until they appear capable of setting down a sequence of convincing performances and victories, this is United’s precise outlook. It is a way of thinking which will be dangerously dismissed as “negative” by some, but it needs to be confronted here and now, even if Abbott is right not to allow bleak thoughts to swirl around his training ground. “I am not going to talk about relegation,” said the boss. “What I am going to talk about is improved performances.”

Supporters digging into their winter savings to watch such dubious fare as this are entitled to speak their minds, just as Abbott is permitted to remind us that the stumbling squad he inherited cannot be expected to be spun into a points-grabbing machine overnight.

That much is accepted. On Saturday, however, after Jason Crowe’s clinical header had cut through the mediocrity to allow Northampton to take victory, a couple of pertinent questions had to be aimed the Carlisle manager’s way. One concerned the absence from the 16-man squad of Chris Birchall, the much-heralded loan signing who, we are informed, remains short of the required fitness to influence United’s scramble up the table.

The other related to a trio of like-for-like second-half substitutions which did little to fill Carlisle’s creativity deficit, and were certainly not accompanied by the tactical shift needed to prevent the Cumbrians from being critically outnumbered in central midfield.

Danny Jackman was the buzzing extra body fed into the middle ground by Gray, and who eventually allowed the Cobblers’ boss, Stuart Gray, to claim Saturday as a tactical triumph.

The obvious inconsistency of certain blue performers is another matter, of course - and needs to be tackled by the individuals concerned in order to discourage Abbott from keeping the door revolving during the January transfer window. From here, the screaming demand has to be for the manager to find some fresh personnel who can run some imagination through a side who went into artistic shutdown after a promising first 15 minutes here.

For it was indeed a scampering start from Abbott’s troops - a sequence of decent forays down the right and some tight ball-retention. Half-chances for Danny Graham and Marc Bridge-Wilkinson appeared to herald even better things against anxious hosts. Instead, the authority drained from Carlisle’s play, the quality vanished from their final balls, allowing Northampton to grasp an uncertain initiative.

In the 15th minute, as Gray’s side emerged, Scott McGleish lashed home Leon Constantine’s knock-down, but was flagged offside. Later, McGleish’s subtle touch delivered a fine chance for Jackman in front of goal, only for Tim Krul to intervene with an excellent block.

And the account of the first half can be parked right there, because there is little need to dwell further on the impoverished entertainment, the tentative passing from both teams, and Carlisle’s nagging failure to get the ball near Michael Bridges and Danny Graham in attack.

The second half began at a sprightlier tempo, with the sliding Jeff Smith denying Abdul Osman in the United box and then Richard Keogh spooning a Bridge-Wilkinson free-kick into orbit from beneath the Cobblers crossbar. The defender’s botched attempt went straight in at number one in the quest to find Carlisle’s most staggering miss of the season - and, more importantly, it gave Northampton a stunning reprieve.

With some predictability, they drew the full dividend from this. After Liam Davis’ barrelling run ended with a wasteful cross in the 58th minute, Gray’s men rebounded and claimed the crucial goal five minutes later. First, Bridges fouled the relentless Davis and was booked. Then Jackman bent a beauty of a free-kick into Carlisle territory, and the wily Crowe timed his scoring leap to perfection.

There, in bright colours, was another lesson on exploiting set-pieces which United are yet to transfer to their own dead-ball work. After Crowe’s goal, Abbott pitched Scott Dobie, Simon Hackney and Gary Madine into battle but saw his readjustments overshadowed by the stomping return from injury of Adebayo Akinfenwa, League One’s meatiest striker who once accounted for Carlisle in the Football League Trophy final whilst with Swansea, and who now enjoys boisterous cult status in Northampton.

Twice in his 20-minute cameo did Akinfenwa almost lift the roof from the Sixfields Stadium - first scuffing a shot fractionally wide after Kyle Walker’s ripping run, and then sending Constantine clean through only for the excellent Krul to divert his shot against the post.

United, meanwhile, remained unable to test Chris Dunn in the home goal, even if fortune deserted the lively Hackney when his clinical injury-time finish, after Dobie’s through-ball, was chalked off after a marginal offside call. To be fair, Hackney’s promising return to the colours after injury meant Carlisle did not leave town entirely without credit.

Sadly, the Cumbrian account was otherwise low, and their goals tally on their travels this term - seven from 11 trips - even more pitiful than before. To repeat a point, this team plainly cannot be transformed at a stroke.

But it needs to be much better than this if their season is to be salvaged, if the risk of relegation is to be wiped from the page.

As Abbott and his men set about that daunting duty, talk of the play-offs and other winter miracles should be suspended without delay.

First published at 11:26, Monday, 22 December 2008
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk