By Jon Colman

Last updated at 08:34, Wednesday, 02 September 2009

Carlisle United 0 Exeter City 1: If Carlisle United were a school pupil, they would be continually being kept back a year as their teacher tried again and again to hammer the textbook’s oldest lesson into their brain.

Matty Robson jumps for the ball

Dominate a game, squander heaps of chances, fall victim to ambush: this is a recurring theme at Brunton Park and it jars like fingernails down a blackboard.

We have been here before with such excruciating frequency that the question can no longer be withheld: how many times do the Blues need to be reminded that carelessness in the other team’s penalty box leads to the draining away of so many points?

Have no truck with those who claim Carlisle deserved to beat Exeter on Saturday. If points were awarded for territorial advantage, creativity from wide areas and blasts of pressure on their rivals’ goal, United would have been over the horizon by half-time.

But deserving to win a game involves completing football’s most critical task. Deserving to win means rippling the net at least once in a 90-minute episode. Deserving to win, therefore, is not something that had any place in a Cumbrian appraisal of what we saw two days ago.

The lecture is one we have heard umpteen times down the months: attractive approach play without an end result is art for art’s sake. Exeter’s penalty 17 minutes from time ought to have been the most trifling of consolation goals, not the moment that three points went skipping 347 miles down the country to Devon.

“Everyone is probably doubting us again, saying we are not the team we think we are,” said United’s manager, Greg Abbott. “We played enough good football to suggest we are going in the right direction. But results paint their own pictures, and we have lost the game. It is about being clinical.”

The most obvious difference between this United team and the promotion-pursuing collective of two seasons ago is that the 07/8 vintage found ways to win the tightest of duels, while this XI are hitting upon new methods of losing matches they dictate (they did it often enough last season, too).

What that tells you - other than the obvious, ongoing need for fresh goalscoring blood - is that there remains too much inconsistency in certain blue shirts. And while a first defeat in four is certainly not a statistic to have you reaching for the whisky bottle, scorelines like Saturday’s can squeeze your momentum dry unless the faults are quickly addressed.

“Now we have to go to Orient next weekend and not get beat, otherwise we’ll be looking behind us rather than at the top end, pressure will increase, confidence will get sapped and the season gets harder,” added Abbott, in a tidy summary of what avoidable defeats can do so a team’s sense of well-being.

Run the tape of Saturday’s game and the frustration keeps biting. Carlisle dominated pretty much from first minute to last; or at least from the 13th minute, when they forced their first meaningful chance out of the early squabbles (an Ian Harte free-kick and a Danny Livesey header which dropped narrowly wide at the Waterworks End).

Exeter appeared a tidy but limited team, intent on prising a point out of the game, reliant on the wiles of Alex Russell at the base of their midfield and the bulk of Barry Corr in attack. They threatened with a rare surge in the 18th minute, but the recalled Peter Murphy snuffed out the danger when he pinched the ball from Corr at the edge of Carlisle’s six-yard box.

From here on, United were the prevailing force. Joe Anyinsah’s presence and strength in attack clearly unsettled the sluggish Matt Taylor in the Exeter rearguard and provided umpteen openings, such as the 23rd minute break from the frontman, a pass to Matty Robson and an off-target header from Scott Dobie from the winger’s excellent cross.

Dobie’s pace then took him onto a Kevan Hurst clearance and drew a last-second tackle from Troy Archibald-Henville, before Graham Kavanagh and Robson linked to provide a near-post chance for Dobie which was again narrowly thwarted by the Grecians’ double-barrelled defender.

More attacks, more near misses, as United discovered the greater value of keeping the ball on the carpet after a few futile aerial raids. Another Robson cross led to Taylor heading against his own post. Then a Hurst corner was knocked back by Livesey for Dobie, whose shot was blocked on the line by Paul Jones, the visiting ‘keeper. Then a Kavanagh set-piece caused a desperate scramble from which Anyinsah was unable to profit.

After 15 minutes’ respite at half-time, off Carlisle went again. Livesey’s header from a Kavanagh corner was nodded off the line by Liam Sercombe, the otherwise-impressive Anyinsah dithered over a shooting chance on the edge of the box, then Robson fizzed away from two red-and-white shirts and drew an unconvincing save from Jones, the ball trickling just past the right-hand post.

Students of fate knew precisely where all this was heading. To the 73rd minute, and the Exeter burst which won the day. It stemmed from some sloppiness deep in the Grecians’ half from Harte, which enabled Paul Tisdale’s players to retrieve possession and push upfield.

Eventually, they poked a hole in Carlisle’s back line, Stewart scampered through the offside trap - scandalously undetected - and was eventually felled by Lenny Pidgeley, who had rushed from his line in United’s final bid to thwart the danger. Pidgeley was booked and then plunged to his right as Stewart craftily chipped the ball in from the spot. It was Exeter’s only shot on target all afternoon.

Abbott’s scheme to get United back on terms was to swap Anyinsah for Gary Madine, a decision which sparked venomous booing from supporters who rightly regarded the ex-Preston man as Carlisle’s most threatening player. Abbott’s explanation, later, was that Madine offered a greater aerial threat given the way his team were sending in cross after dangerous cross from wide positions.

A bolder tactical initiative would have seen a defender sacrificed and Anyinsah kept on the pitch against a side who were offering paltry attacking threat themselves, and had just taken the goal they required for all their men to file in behind the ball for the remaining exchanges.

But it should just as importantly be remembered that this contentious substitution did not get Carlisle into peril in the first place. It was not the principle reason this game was lost, nor was the modest flurry of half-chances which went astray during United’s closing attacks and corners.

First, second and just about everywhere else on our list of gripes has to be the way Carlisle failed to put themselves into a position of strength before those late surges; the way they were forced to chase a match that should have been parcelled up some time earlier. The way they submitted to impotence when goals were there to be taken.

Richard Offiong, the latest transfer target, might stride across the border with part of the solution, but it’s hardly fair to expect the Hamilton Academical sniper to wage a one-man war on an entire team’s wastefulness. Reporters are at risk of repetitive strain injury from typing the same story after their trips to Brunton Park. It is high time the lesson hit home.

LENNY PIDGELEY: Nothing to do until the penalty, and had little choice but to try and foil Stewart when he was through on goal.

DAVID RAVEN: The visitors scarcely threatened down the left and Raven was comfortable in his defensive duties.

IAN HARTE: Gifted the Grecians possession from which their penalty eventually came, and failed to track Stewart's decisive run.

DANNY LIVESEY: Kept things steady and simple in the middle of United’s defence, and posed plenty of aerial threat at corners.

PETER MURPHY: Looked alert and sharp on his return for the injured Keogh in the back four.

TOM TAIWO: Another snappy midfield performance from the teenager helped Carlisle keep the pressure on Exeter.

GRAHAM KAVANAGH: Tried to exert his influence but couldn’t make anything happen for the Blues.

MATTY ROBSON: Crossing was of high quality and almost broke Exeter’s resistance with an impressive second-half run.

KEVAN HURST: Home debutant did everything he could to create chances for the Blues from the right.

JOE ANYINSAH: Gave visiting defence plenty of problems and was subbed to general disbelief as United chased an equaliser.

SCOTT DOBIE: Got into some decent positions but finishing wasn’t up to the mark, and faded in second half.

Subs: Gary Madine (for Anyinsah, 77) - Added aerial presence but couldn’t nick a goal. Not used: Adam Collin, Evan Horwood, Gavin Rothery, Conor Tinnion, Michael Burns, Tony Kane.

Exeter: Jones, Tully, Taylor, Archibald-Henville, Duffy, Sercombe, Cozic (Saunders 46 ), Russell, Harley, Corr, (Logan 74 ), Stewart (Edwards 88). Not used Marriott, Seaborne, Golbourne, Norwood.

Goal: Stewart 73 (pen)

Bookings: Murphy, Pidgeley (Carlisle), Logan (Exeter)

Attendance: 5,156

Referee: M Oliver (Northumberland)

First published at 11:31, Monday, 24 August 2009
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk