Mansfield Town v Carlisle United verdict: a goalscoring crisis that only signings can resolve

That is where the real truth of things lies, however hard United tried last night, however close they came on a couple of occasions, however skittish Mansfield grew in protection of their one-goal lead.

Against the Blues, we painfully know, one is far too often enough. Stephen McLaughlin had the freedom of the One Call Stadium after less than 360 seconds, as Elliott Hewitt crossed into the box.

His header rippled Mark Howard's net, and from there it was the same old tune: as drearily familiar and wantonly predictable as Michael Bublé at Christmas.

Mansfield's Stephen McLaughlin, left, is in acres of space to score the game's only goal

Carlisle, after a shoddy start, put plenty into the game. They bothered Mansfield and kept them in their own territory for spells, particularly in the second half. Sam Fishburn was a goalline clearance away from an equaliser and the crossbar also denied them a draw. 

And yet. And yet. This record has been jammed for some time now and, although they didn’t always show it, there must have been reasonable confidence among Nigel Clough’s players that they were on their way to three points the moment McLaughlin nodded home.

Carlisle’s lack of punch in attack is the main reason they come up short in games such as this. It is the reason they are up to their waist in relegation trouble, and the reason they’ll stay deep in it unless January brings dramatic transfer-window change. Simple as that. Rinse and repeat.

United keeper Mark Howard reacts to Mansfield's early goal

Try these numbers for size. United have scored 13 goals in 20 league games, the worst total in League Two. They've failed to score in more than half of those matches (11), and have taken four goals from their most recent 12.

This is not a side damned by bad luck. It is the product of a quite atrocious summer of attacking recruitment, one which now requires emergency help, emergency spending, to avert a long winter of non-league football and further distressing decline.

This big picture smothers the detail of evenings like this, dominates everything Keith Millen is trying. Watching United in pursuit of goals is a little like switching on Mrs Brown's Boys and hoping to see cutting satire.

The ball hits the bar via a Mansfield player following a Carlisle corner

You may as well stare at the wall for 90 minutes. Mansfield, with seven wins from their previous eight, sized up a Blues team which Millen has tried to "structure", and promptly sent a brick flying from the building six minutes in.

Having worked the ball around with inventive movement, they fed it to right-back Hewitt to cross from deep. He found McLaughlin unattended, and a team with United’s limitations really can’t afford to give out early festive treats like that. 

From there, until the half-hour mark, Carlisle's performance was bereft. Their touch was too often heavy, their passing short, their ideas sub-par, their team unable to get a handle on Mansfield's well-stocked and mobile midfield unit, who left United adrift with one-touch movement but lacked, it's fair to say, much more ruthlessness themselves.

Brennan Dickenson shows his frustration as a chance goes begging

Carlisle got away with one when Rod McDonald was ambushed, Howard saving George Lapslie’s shot and then McDonald then sliding in to deny George Maris, and then Millen adjusted, moving Brennan Dickenson infield and abandoning 4-4-2.

That at least gave United more substance. They began pressing Clough's team with better numbers and intent. But they couldn't score. There was the usual chasing from Brad Young and Tristan Abrahams and a spate of corners, one of which saw keeper Nathan Bishop turn a Harry Charsley header against his own bar.

Given the changed momentum in the last 10 minutes of the half, a more polished visiting side might have upset Mansfield.

Sub Sam Fishburn sees a goalbound header blocked

Except...well, you know. Little happened after the break until Millen, having lost Callum Guy to a groin injury, sent on Kelvin Mellor and Fishburn. A rumble of pressure then saw the teenager denied by a goalline block, while Dickenson failed to divert a Mellor drive under the crossbar.

You could, for a while, taste some increased anxiety in the One Call Stadium as Mansfield lost most of their poise. United’s 133 fans, shivering in the RM Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Stand after their slog through Storm Barra, began to warm up. Danny Devine for Young was Millen’s last change in pursuit of the magic key – and Gibson almost found it in five added minutes when he sent a soaring shot against the bar.

United applaud their travelling fans after the defeat

Almost. Nearly. So close. Same conclusion: failure. They don't, as the great Sideshow Bob said, give a Nobel Prize for attempted chemistry, and however fine United feel the margins are right now, there remains serious, serious work to do to put right the dire work that has led to their present position, and prevent this season having the bleakest of all endings.