by Jon Colman

Last updated at 11:57, Monday, 18 January 2010

Brentford 3 Carlisle United 1: Two clinical goals from Brentford’s Myles Weston, lots of pretty play from Carlisle United but only an Ian Harte penalty in the Bees’ net, and a fistful of recriminations for Greg Abbott after a 3-1 chasing.

Carlisle keeper Adam Collin looks on as Brentford players celebrate Ryan Dickson's goal

That was on August 8, the first game of this unfathomable Cumbrian season. Five months on, this duplicate defeat rolled off the presses. The only difference is that this one occurred on Griffin Park’s marshy acres rather than Brunton Park in late summer.

United’s manager stared from the dugout in west London and also saw a facsimile of previous Carlisle setbacks; the kind of avoidable losses that were supposed to have been scribbled off the agenda after his team’s autumn revival.

“I thought we were as good as Brentford, but we have talked before about being as good as teams and not coming away with anything,” Abbott said.

Indeed we have, except we thought the Blues had then sped away from those initial defeats in their 2009/10 campaign with a pleasing surge of form.

Now the pointed accusation fizzing Carlisle’s way is that the improvement was temporary, that the foundations were flimsy. Abbott, with a level of justification, can point to his troops’ winter inertia (this was only United’s second league game since December 12 due to a trio of postponements) and the lack of serious match time for other injured players who made comebacks on Brentford’s saturated surface, as he argues that one regrettable beating ought not to have the sirens blaring down Warwick Road.

Approaching games against some of League One’s stragglers, such as Stockport and Leyton Orient, give his men the chance to back up that reading of events, once Leeds have been tackled in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy tomorrow. To do so, United must lift their standards quite considerably from the flawed output we saw in the capital two days ago. The league table, which currently sees Carlisle four points above the drop zone with games in hand, will not show them much patience.

The other allegation which will sprout legs after this loss is that United, post-Vincent Pericard, have immediately regressed to the days when they didn’t have a hulking line-leader and their attacking was markedly less effective and robust as a result. In response to this, Abbott made the reasonable point that to finger his frontmen for Saturday’s result (Scott Dobie and Joe Anyinsah) would have been a sight unfair, since neither man was the bleakest performer in blue.

True: the returning strikers were certainly not to blame for the concentration shutdown that allowed Brentford to score through Weston after 30 minutes and barge their way to a victory that was certainly there to be taken by a more ruthless visiting team. But to the general question of whether Pericard had revealed something Carlisle clearly need, and must therefore be replaced with a new acquisition, the manager replied: “We’re not daft. If we think the platform to build on isn’t quite right, we will do something about it. But out of respect to the players who have come in, we shouldn’t be rushing to a judgement based on one game.”

While plenty of United fans race to question Abbott’s patience, let there be another stampede to praise Brentford’s groundstaff for getting this soggy game on in the first place. After spending most of the week shovelling snow from the pitch, Saturday’s rain left them with surface water to shift before matters could begin.

They did so admirably, and it was Carlisle who started the best on the rutted turf, which claimed its first victim after seven seconds when Ryan Dickson skidded to the floor, unopposed. The fourth minute saw the first Cumbrian surge: Richard Keogh warming the hands of Brentford’s human anagram goalkeeper, Wojciech Szczesny. Not too long after that, Tom Taiwo sped onto a half-clearance and belted a fine, low volley which the Arsenal loan custodian saved.

Later, a charging posse of blue bodies saw off a Kevin O’Connor blast, before Keogh darted back down the other end and was upended in the box by Dickson, only for referee Roger East to dismiss United’s convincing appeals.

Keogh’s irritation then lapped over into a foul on Leon Legge, for which the right-back was booked, but generally Carlisle seemed not to be troubled too much by their misfortune, as Anyinsah rumbled on and tested Szczesny with two further efforts.

Cue the collapse. Brentford’s opener came quite against this tide of United pressure, like so many of the goals the Cumbrians shipped earlier in the campaign.

First there was a heavy aerial challenge by Ian Harte on Ben Strevens, then a smart, quick free-kick by O’Connor that sent Charlie McDonald running at the backpedalling Danny Livesey. Eventually McDonald crossed, and Weston strolled between Keogh and Harte to clip home the most basic of chances.

Another plausible penalty appeal fizzed and died – Livesey claiming a grapple after a Graham Kavanagh corner – but United were almost punished again when another rapid set-piece caught them on their heels and Evan Horwood had to hurl himself in the way of John Bostock’s close-range shot.

This was Carlisle's shabbiest, most distracted spell.

“We spent too much time arguing with the referee,” Abbott noted of a period which included a ninth booking of the campaign for Kavanagh for a needless burst of dissent. Answering Brentford back after the break proved troublesome, too, and 10 minutes after Keogh prevented McDonald teeing up Weston in the second half’s opening seconds, the Blues were dispatched.

Bostock, the prodigious 17-year-old Tottenham loanee, emerged with the ball on the right of the box and drew a parry from Adam Collin, only for it to trickle past Keogh and land at Weston’s feet, allowing the winger to apply a clinical finish.

Abbott, whose side were now devoid of creative cunning or much genuine penetration either from wide or the centre, sent on the fit-again pair of Richard Offiong and Paul Thirlwell to help the salvation attempt, but chances were sparse. Harte curled a free-kick onto the roof of the net, Anyinsah failed to turn home a Keogh blast from close-range, and Offiong dithered in shooting space when a quick swing of the boot might have delivered dividends.

After a fine Collin save to deny Weston his treble, United did get their goal, when Legge slid to challenge the raiding Dobie and the poorly-positioned official, some yards behind the play, spotted a foul that was invisible to most spectators.

Harte buried the penalty, but the remaining minutes were worked down effectively by Brentford, who took their third in the fourth minute of injury-time when United surrendered possession, Dickson rushed towards an outnumbered defence, poked the ball across goal, saw it returned to him by Harte and accepted his gift with a violent flourish.

With their matching victories against Abbott’s men, last season’s League Two champs (and Weston in particular) are now as welcome a sight to Cumbrians as another January blizzard.

Another thing we don’t want to experience this winter is the sound of Carlisle’s boss making more of the same post-match speeches we got used to hearing during August and September’s dismal days, which can be summed up thus: Nice team, shame about the result.

ADAM COLLIN - Made some impressive saves and one of the few United players who can be happy with his day’s work.

RICHARD KEOGH - Unlucky not to win Carlisle a penalty, but the wholehearted right-back didn’t pick up Weston when it counted.

EVAN HORWOOD  - Probably the Blues’ tidiest outfield performer, made some crucial blocks and rarely wasted possession.

DANNY LIVESEY - Left exposed against McDonald for Brentford’s opener, battled away at the back but couldn’t keep hosts out.

IAN HARTE - Not at his most comfortable on the stodgy surface, tucked away trademark penalty but then donated Brentford’s third.

TOM TAIWO - A fine early volley aside, this was one of Taiwo’s less impressive days as United’s midfield struggled to get on top.

GRAHAM KAVANAGH - Less effective than many recent outings. Some decent set-pieces but was unable to dictate the game.

MATTY ROBSON - Always gets marks for effort and a few crosses deserved better reward, but otherwise an unremarkable day.

KEVAN HURST - Some bright early touches but quickly faded and was replaced on the hour.

JOE ANYINSAH - Heaps of effort and strength but no end product on his return to the side.

SCOTT DOBIE - Made some intelligent runs and earned United’s penalty, but rarely looked like scoring.

Subs: Richard Offiong (for Hurst 60) - Tried to find spark; Paul Thirlwell (for Taiwo 72) - Steady; Marc Bridge-Wilkinson (for Horwood 87) - Game was up. Not used: Pidgeley, Kane, Murphy, Aldred

Goals: Harte 80 pen

Booked: Keogh, Kavanagh, Offiong

Brentford: Szczesny, O’Connor, Dickson, Legge, Smith, Foster, Bostock (Wood 87), Bean, Strevens, McDonald, Weston. Subs: Price, Phillips, Bennett, Cort, Hunt, Osborne.

Goals: Weston 30, 55; Dickson 90

Booked: Legge, Szczesny

Ref: Roger East (Wiltshire)

Crowd: 5,089 (514 Carlisle fans)

First published at 11:27, Monday, 18 January 2010
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk