Jon Colman

Last updated at 15:25, Monday, 26 October 2009

Carlisle United 2 Southend Utd 1: Judgement Day, to borrow Dennis Booth’s tag for Saturday’s game, was about to be renamed Misjudgement Day until Joe Anyinsah appeared in the Southend box to scrub out the memory of Lenny Pidgeley’s 42nd-minute clanger.

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Carlisle United had done too many good things for this contest to be remembered chiefly for the sight of their goalkeeper misreading a long Southend throw-in and then watching the visiting midfielder Francis Laurent snaffling a painful equaliser.

So the 80th minute was a handy time for Anyinsah – without a goal since September 5, and whose involvement against the Shrimpers had been in doubt due to a midweek calf injury – to sneak a shot past Pidgeley’s counterpart Steve Mildenhall after lifting his aching bones from the subs’ bench.

The wider effect of the former Preston man’s winner was the releasing of so much steam from Brunton Park at a time when Blues fans were going down with the vapours at the club’s worsening plight. It also served to ease the crunch of pressure on Greg Abbott, the United manager, whose previous league victory had coincided with Anyinsah’s last strike seven games ago.

Booth, Abbott’s number two, had put a convenient label on the significance of Saturday’s engagement when he piped up in a team meeting a few days earlier. Now we can pass our own judgement and say the Cumbrians earned their belated triumph through the force of their first-half performance and Anyinsah’s opportunism when the match was fizzling out.

The fact Carlisle have levered themselves out of League One’s relegation zone, their points total heavier by three, is today’s headline fact by several furlongs. Inspect some of the detail of what we saw two days ago and United’s prospects of easing Abbott’s brain-ache looked curiously promising.

Few teams will lug as much misfortune up the road as Southend this season, for instance. The Essex club arrived in Cumbria without their midfielder Lee Sawyer – left behind “for disciplinary reasons” – a brace of first-choice defenders and then saw their wily frontman Dougie Freedman replaced through injury before the first half was through.

By the time one of their final attacks of this game foundered on the heel of referee Geoff Eltringham, who inadvertently deflected a midfield pass to safety, you knew a Saturday afternoon was finally spinning Abbott’s way.

Not that Carlisle’s manager or anyone in a blue shirt needed to apologise for leaping on the woes of Steve Tilson’s still-capable side (who, incidentally, could only name four substitutes due to the pile of injured bodies at Roots Hall). Nor should there be any local guilt for the way United – themselves short of key men – were obliged to tough out a victory once their early enterprise had dried up. “People will say we ended up grinding out a win,” said Abbott. “You know what? I’m ok with that.”

The need for this result to be the first step on consistency’s road could not be more obvious, but it’s an iron heart that would have denied United’s manager a weekend of contentment after so much recent strife. “I’m happy for everybody at the club and especially my family, because I’ve been an absolute pain in the backside to them,” confessed Abbott, who also revealed plans to purchase a Sunday newspaper “instead of Nuts magazine” due to that league table suddenly appearing a touch less daunting.

A pain in the posterior is a decent way of describing the effect of Abbott’s two strikers, Vincent Pericard and Scott Dobie, on Tilson’s defence on Saturday, not to mention the impact of men like Richard Keogh and Ian Harte on the visiting strikers (the latter pair swapped positions to right-back and centre-half respectively, and the switch worked a treat).

Keogh, recast as an attacking full-back, conjured the game’s first chance via a searching cross to Dobie, whose knock-down was smuggled away by Southend’s Simon Francis.

A nicely-worked Harte free-kick later – Graham Kavanagh’s shot eventually being blocked – and United were steaming their way towards an early lead.

It arrived in the 11th minute, when Dobie appeared on the right flank and outsmarted Francis with a brilliant twist, before lasering a low cross to the near post which Pericard snaffled with enviable ease. Early dividends on Abbott’s three-month punt on the big Frenchman were duly delivered on Pericard’s home debut.

From this early strike, United fizzed around Brunton Park with none of the troubles associated with a bottom-four side. Another storming Keogh run led to a free-kick which ended with Kevan Hurst dropping a cross onto Dobie’s head, the frontman missing the target by inches. Moments later, the Cumbrian striker brought down another Hurst ball and forced his way through defensive attention but delayed his shot and was dispossessed by Francis.

There were token surges from the visitors – Franck Moussa having a volley blocked, Pidgeley and Livesey successively denying Laurent – but plenty more from United, who saw the raiding Kavanagh thwarted by a last-ditch tackle, Matty Robson having a left-footed rocket beaten away by Mildenhall, and then Harte battering the Shrimpers’ bar from a testing Kavanagh set-piece.

Freedman’s enforced withdrawal for Stuart O’Keefe seemed to nudge the game further Carlisle’s way, but then the visitors struck the shock equaliser that allowed their sub to slot into midfield and frustrate United thereafter.

Pidgeley preceded his moment to forget with a save to remember – an athletic parry from Moussa’s 25-yarder – but seconds later the Blues ‘keeper misjudged Francis’ long, wind-assisted throw and could only dump the ball at Laurent’s feet, the Parisian winger doing the rest.

Exasperation swept Brunton Park, and frustration filled Abbott’s players, who toiled to retrieve their earlier inspiration in the second half. Generally, the second 45 minutes were unremarkable, save for an Alan McCormack drive which whistled wide for the visitors, an Evan Horwood cross which deserved better attention from United’s frontmen, and a tactical tweak from Abbott – later abandoned – which saw Dobie move wide in an attempt to exert aerial pressure on the diminutive visiting left-back John Herd, as Anyinsah joined the pursuit down the middle.

The fear of a scarcely-merited Southend winner was alive, especially when Moussa blasted just over from the edge of the box and Jean-Francois Christophe steamed onto a half-cleared corner and missed the target by a fraction.

So it was a sight of rare joy when United sped downfield and took the decisive goal: Pericard, who led the line strongly all afternoon, cushioning a header for Anyinsah to shoot clinically across Mildenhall from the right.

There was time for another Pidgeley error from a Shrimpers corner – Francis volleyed the resulting half-chance over – and an unsightly burst of handbags apparently triggered by the ineffective and irritated Lee Barnard, before business was closed and Abbott could prepare for a less piercing post-match inquiry than normal.

It serves little purpose to treat every piece of terrace chat as gospel, but too many voices around Brunton Park were classifying this game as pivotal to the manager’s future to be ignored.

So this victory becomes a chip with which Abbott can purchase himself more time to show he can get the Blues upwardly mobile again.

“There will still be grumbles, because I’m still grumbling about certain things,” said Carlisle’s most relieved soul. “But we have got a win, and it’s something we can try and build on.” It’s a speech he would have bargained hard to be making when Judgement Day began.

LENNY PIDGELEY - Smart saves but was shaky at crosses and will want to forge the mistake that led to Southend’s goal.

RICHARD KEOGH - Who knew that a barnstorming right-back had been masquerading as a centre-half all this time? Inspirational.

EVAN HORWOOD - Tidy defensively and always keen to support attacks down left, another encouraging afternoon.

IAN HARTE - Simply looked more comfortable at centre-half than at full-back, his composure and watchfulness in defence stood out.

DANNY LIVESEY - United’s captain did little wrong in the air or on the floor, and was always strong in the challenge.

TOM TAIWO - Committed as ever in midfield, put himself about all game long.

GRAHAM KAVANAGH - Impressed in first half, came close to making and taking a goal, quieter after break.

MATTY ROBSON - Less influential than in other games but always gets marks for willingness to run at his man and test the ‘keeper.

KEVAN HURST - Played through illness and was a consistent, urgent threat in first half before being replaced.

SCOTT DOBIE - A front-running performance full of quality and persistence. Linked well with Pericard and always troubled Southend.

VINCENT PERICARD - Clinically buried his first United goal, set up Anyinsah’s winner, led line strongly and used the ball well.

Subs: Joe Anyinsah (for Hurst, 56) - Expert finish to win it for Blues; Not used: Adam Collin, Marc Bridge-Wilkinson, Peter Murphy, Gavin Rothery, Tony Kane, Ryan Bowman.

Goals: Pericard 11, Anyinsah 80

Southend: Mildenhall, Francis, Herd, Barrett, Grant, Christophe, McCormack, Moussa, Herd, Laurent, Barnard, Freedman (O’Keefe, 39). Not used: Joyce, Asante, Whittaker.

Goal: Laurent 42

Booked: Grant, McCormack, Barnard

Ref: Geoff Eltringham (Tyne & Wear)

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First published at 11:35, Monday, 26 October 2009
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk