PAUL Simpson masterminded a brilliant 1-4 away win against Neil Wood's Salford City. Here are the stats behind the Blues' awayday victory.
It took Carlisle United just three minutes to take the lead against the Ammies at The Peninsula Stadium.
After Kristian Dennis' early strike, the hosts grew into the game, and when they equalised through Matt Smith just after half-time things were looking gloomy for the Blues.
However, three goals later Simpson's side were motoring back up the M6 with three points in the bag, but how did they turn a stalling performance into a dominant win?
After Dennis' early goal the hosts had 66.9% of the ball until break and with this possession the Ammies had 10 shots on Tomas Holy's goal.
Neil Wood's side were also dominating the first-half's physical game, winning 18 aerial duels to Carlisle's 14, contesting more tackles and tellingly, having a pass success rate of 74% to the Blues' worrying 54%.
During the half-time break Paul Simpson recognised the pattern of the game, which saw Salford dominating the ball and creating chances and in response tweaked his set-up to better suit his side's strengths.
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In the second-half Carlisle's possession remained low, at 38.8%, and pass success was only 49%, but out of these 60 accurate passes 7 were key.
In context, Salford City only managed 4 key passes from 119 accurate efforts.
Carlisle also recorded 11 shots to The Ammies' 5 and edged them on corner stats. These corners were pivotal for Carlisle with two of their second half goals resulting from deliveries from Taylor Charters and Owen Moxon.
In this period of the game, Paul Simpson's side were also only dispossessed on the one occassion.
Whilst the majority of the recognition will rightly go to Kristian Dennis after his clinical showing in front of goal, Taylor Charters deserves a shoutout for his tenacity and poise.
When subbed on the 82nd minute, the 21-year-old had an assist to his name from a beautiful corner and despite not having a shot on goal, had 4 key passes. The embodiment of a clinical and resolute Carlisle United performance.
In the end it was Carlisle' incisiveness and quality on the ball that secured the three points in a game that the hosts dominated.
Paul Simpson trusted his players to take their opportunties when they arose from periods of the game where they had limited time on the ball and make use of their prowess from set-pieces.
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