Carlisle United 0 Port Vale 0: If you want a vision of the future, George Orwell might have written had he been at this game, imagine a ball being headed clear by Leon Legge - forever. Or Shaun Brisley for that matter. Or Nathan Smith.

Best check the pitch, groundstaff. They might still be there, nodding random objects away from the penalty area just for fun. A stray pigeon? Up goes Legge. A rogue crisp packet? In comes Brisley.

The actual ball? That was the least of their troubles, and if there is a main frustration from this competitive, flair-light duel in the sun it is that Carlisle gave those big men too much to attack rather than to defend.

Port Vale’s back line was seldom turned towards its own goal. Rarely did Darrell Clarke’s centre-halves feel a gust at their shoulder and spot someone in blue leaving them in the dirt.

At the other end of the pitch, to be fair, it was much the same, Carlisle just as solid, and if you could argue that United tried a little more than Vale to force the attacking issue across this goalless draw, perhaps, in reality, it wasn’t force that was needed.

A game which looked a low-scorer from very early on surely required a needle and thread, not a hammer and nails. Easier said than done, by all means, considering Vale’s recent, resolute run, their winning sequence and their mastery of straightforward, deep defending.

And Carlisle did end the day closer in points to the top seven than they had started it. Even accounting for a tough-looking fixture list now, they are still in the fight, still punching. This, though, was a chance untaken, and while there were crosses and long throws aplenty there was not, Chris Beech accepted, enough that engaged goalkeeper Scott Brown.

A combined tally of three attempts on target across 94 minutes of football just about sums things up. “If we’d scored, they would have had to chase us, then they can’t play five players at the edge of their box – well, they can, but it’s unlikely they’d equalise if they did,” said Beech.

The fact is, though, that United didn’t score, seldom looked truly likely to if we are honest, and the same went for Vale, who fell short of a 128-year winning run record in the process but are clearly a much tougher and altogether more organised cookie under Clarke.

What praise is justifiable for the Blues from this second successive 0-0 is very much to do with the rear. Paul Farman was confident in his goalkeeping duties and United’s defence again safe. Five clean sheets from six unbeaten is certainly not to be sniffed at; it gives them a foundation, at least, as they consider ways of beating Bolton, Tuesday’s normally formidable opponents (who came a cropper at Grimsby in the day’s least expected result).

The other part of the equation will just require more inspiration than United found here. Hopefully it will not require a different answer to Offrande Zanzala, who limped off in the second half, but either way it is victories, not draws, that will bring the top seven into focus.

You still wouldn’t rule anything out in this most volatile of seasons and divisions, even after this stalemate, which often took place in the middle of the pitch, saw lots of head-it-and-kick-it fayre, few quarters given and nobody with enough wit and poise to drag things their way.

It was an honest skirmish that offered few chances. Callum Guy tested Brown with an early free-kick but much in open play was bitty, patchy. Carlisle tried to build down the flanks, where Jack Armer was a willing left-sided outlet and Lewis Alessandra hunted between the lines, but few deliveries met a positive conclusion.

Mainly it was much more marginal things that emerged from a tight battle. Joe Riley went close and Omari Patrick saw a shot spin wide for Carlisle, Devante Rodney miskicked a Tom Conlon corner and Brisley headed another set-piece over for Vale. Danny Devine later headed wide for the Blues amid longer periods of graft and the odd exchange involving Zanzala, under whose skin Vale sensed they could get.

United’s main frontman managed to put a lid on his frustration but could not run off a leg injury early in the second half. Joshua Kayode took his place and did give Clarke’s defenders an aerial match-up, but on the floor it remained hard going.

James Gibbons’ switch from right to left was a brief danger to United, but Vale’s best efforts were dealt with by Farman, who saved from Theo Robinson and otherwise sprang from his line to claim crosses. Smith saw one shot fly close, but beyond that it was to and fro, back and forth, Beech’s substitutions making the pitch a touch wider but not sharpening United’s tip, the dark script of a Harry McKirdy winner for Vale left mercifully unread, Carlisle going to the end, Kayode launching umpteen throws, and the Valiants’ defenders launching them all back. And that was that.