Exeter City 2-1 Carlisle United: Jon Colman's verdict

That was the case even if the Blues feel like they’ve given themselves more of a chance with their shopping in the last week. Eclipsed by an Exeter team who had the real opportunism, the desire and willingness to do the necessaries in gritty games like this, this particular afternoon reminded them of the faults they’ll be desperately trying to conceal until the very end of 2023/24.

Their two debutants gave a fair demonstration of their abilities but this is not a team in the winning groove, quite the opposite in fact, and their position (now 23rd again) reflects an ongoing fragility which appears all the clearer on days like this.

Exeter themselves had one measly win in 15 league games prior to Saturday, but none of those games had come against Carlisle, who are only denied the status of the division’s worst team by Fleetwood Town. When the moments came either to claim, kill or hold this game, United could not do what was required and on such moments will a team either float or sink.

Both Exeter goals had a similar stamp, damningly so for Carlisle. The first displayed the home team’s preparedness to attack a second ball when it broke through United’s penalty area. The second exhibited exactly the same trait, only closer in.

Harrison Neal on the ball during his debut (Image: Barbara Abbott)

Gary Caldwell’s team, then, deserve credit for this optimism, this appetite to sniff out chances just in case they might materialise. United did not just lack proactivity in these moments; they were not even reactive enough. Reece Cole’s opener was a particularly sorry sight in terms of the dull but essential basics of tracking runners, going with your man.

Having failed to object to that and to Sonny Cox’s later second, Carlisle left their own best efforts far too late in an energetic gesture of a closing 15-minute spell. Dan Butterworth’s goalscoring cameo was a fair application for a starting place in the circumstances, but United had lacked too much substance before then.

Luke Armstrong, across the piece, gave a serviceable line-leading performance and Harrison Neal was combative in midfield, but it was not a United team performance of control. They also passed up useful moments in the first half – Josh Emmanuel the main culprit from their best opportunity – and they struggled to fashion more in the key second half spell.

Overall they did not have, for instance, the pace and zip of Exeter's Dion Rankine, even if his end product was mixed. They did not have the elusive running of Jack Aitchison or the sharp, lurking threat of the teenage debutant, Luke Harris. They had…sort-of moments. Nearly things. And those won’t get them anywhere near another season in League One.

Sean Maguire takes on Cheick Diabate (Image: Richard Parkes)

So on they go, the campaign to sign more players, and to mould something more credible from those in the ranks, continuing for another week, without the kind of psychological lift beating one of your rivals can offer. Instead it’s another standing start, physically and mentally.

This chilly day reflected the urgent requirements of both teams in a hectic start, though it was mainly Exeter’s that surfaced. Their first-minute raid would have led to an instant goal were it not for Corey Whelan and Sam Lavelle’s determination in the block.

A minute later, up the other end, Emmanuel broke against Zak Jules, went down – no penalty. And no let-up in the pace of things. Harris pulled a shot wide when spinning into space and the game, initially, looked too open in United’s territory.

The hosts’ interplay was more dynamic than Carlisle’s, the Blues lacking someone to gain control of the ball and have a settling effect. Neal’s strength and capacity for putting out fires was clear, but the home side had the better of it generally, Gabe Breeze denying the roaming Aitchison, before Jack Robinson terminated a jinking Rankine run.

Dan Butterworth scored a consolation in a bright late cameo (Image: Barbara Abbott)

Carlisle’s own sporadic opportunities came from their willingness to read and cut out Exeter’s attempted ball play from the back. One such moment saw Jordan Gibson intercept and feed Sean Maguire, whose dribble ended with a shot and a save by Vil Sinisalo when a cut-back might have been the smarter option. Then Gibson fed Emmanuel, but his touch was not sharp enough as Jules got back to block.

Gibson dipped a shot past the post before the break and United simply needed a more assured touch in the final act. There had not yet been a scrap for Armstrong to pick up, though his aerial work and willingness had been good.

United’s habit of starting second halves at a slow pace then recurred. After Exeter went very close through Aitchison and Cox, respectively denied by a Breeze parry then a last-ditch touch from the keeper at the follow-up, they knifed through for the opener: Harris cutting open Carlisle’s left defensive side, and when Aitchison’s run and cross popped back out, Cole was there first, running away from the less alert Gibson to slam it low past Breeze.

Corey Whelan and Cheick Diabate exchange views (Image: Barbara Abbott)

In response, United only offered occasional things and the vague idea of a fightback. Gibson shot wide when found well by Neal but from other inroads out wide, there was not the decisiveness to unsettle Exeter in the box and, despite four changes, the second Grecians goal came when Cox was quickest to a ball that had come back off the post via Aitchison’s shot.

United did then find a degree of late gusto, largely supplied by Butterworth, who rattled a fine low shot past Sinisalo after Armstrong had earlier hit the post, but their remaining efforts came up short and, by the end, it was another case of acknowledging that a complete performance remains way out of Carlisle’s grasp, their good things just too fleeting and inconsistent, as a result their third-tier status now depending on a giant leap, the kind of which we simply haven’t seen from them after 26 games to date.