Carlisle United 2 Bradford City 0: Hands up who saw this coming during Carlisle United’s bereft autumn? Speak now if you had the sort of unlikely foresight that predicted four wins from five, tight, punchy football and victories to fire fresh air right through Brunton Park?
No hands. Silence. It simply wasn’t plausible. So let us, at this still fledgling point in his reign, give due credit to Keith Millen for orchestrating timely and crucial improvement.
There are many miles still to run, but the life and vigour of the Blues against Bradford City was astonishingly different to the shoulder-sagging the manager saw in his first match at Northampton Town, little over two months ago.
Here, they came up against an uninspired mid-table opponent and quite pleasingly rolled them over. The second half in particular was as vital as United have appeared all season.
“Stating the obvious, it’s massive,” said Millen’s assistant, Gavin Skelton, after this third straight victory which lifted them six points above the trapdoor. Again: three straight wins?! From the side that might easily have conceded ten at Sutton in September and still have been flattered?
United’s improvement, then, is teaching us that a campaign is a thing of many phases and movements. It’s also showing us that the cause wasn’t necessarily as lost as many of us had long started to suspect.
Millen, since replacing Chris Beech, has introduced a clear-sighted passing game which is plainly better suited to the players he inherited. United appear in greater comfort with their style and instructions. Defensively, there is a new stubbornness.
Hell, even in attack they’re starting to look more capable. Tyrese Omotoye, the 19-year-old loan signing, gave an outstanding debut alongside the admirably relentless Jon Mellish. Then there were the poetic goals scored by the former Bradford pair, Jordan Gibson and Omari Patrick, making this a sweet day for the home side and a distinctly sour one for the visitors.
“Derek Adams, your football is ****,” the 1,200 travelling fans sang. No risk of libel or slander there: the analysis was correct of a visiting side who did not muster a shot on target. No offence to the Bantams, but how refreshing that sound was: opponents thoroughly miffed by how they’d got on against Carlisle.
Other individual performances were worthy of credit – Kelvin Mellor, Jack Armer, Morgan Feeney, and Callum Guy and Corey Whelan in a biting second-half midfield effort – and the freshness supplied by Omotoye and Patrick gives hope of a lifted tone and mood in the second half of 2021/22.
All in all, it was a grand way to launch the new year at Brunton Park. Bradford had not won here since 1985 and after an urgent opening spell had blown out, the prospect of them ending that bleak sequence began to fade.
Oscar Threlkeld clipped their best chance over the bar inside 40 seconds. After that, in the opening 10 minutes, they spread play with zip and rained crosses into the box. Carlisle took time to find their legs, but eventually settled into a better range.
Other than moments when their midfielders were caught on the ball, there were constructive things to observe even in a slow-burning first half. Mellor showed serene calm in defence and enterprise in attack, Omotoye gradually displayed a maturity of touch, and once Gibson and Brennan Dickenson had switched sides, United were able to cut inside and threaten instead of going around the outside all the time.
The reprieve, when Yann Songo’o outjumped Mark Howard to head home but was penalised, was debatable – but the rest was not. Bradford showed sometime brightness between the lines, via Alex Gilliead and Charles Vernam (a replacement for the injured Andy Cook) but nothing like the clout of Gibson shortly before half-time.
The goal of the season contest at Carlisle is not a congested race but this one would take some overhauling even in a prolific term: a tidy spread by Guy, a shrewd pass back inside by Armer and a searing finish by Gibson, who responded to away fans’ boos in the most emphatic way.
The second half, meanwhile, was in a major way about Mellish’s ferocious work-rate, up front and in the channels, supported by Omotoye’s pace and quality. Guy and Whelan dovetailed to shut Bradford down in the centre, and Carlisle invariably had Adams’ side on the back foot.
The ongoing lack of a second goal did make you wonder if United would do what United often do, but the risk of anti-climax was knocked on the head once Patrick was unleashed for his second debut. His lacerating pace had already been on show by the time he hustled his way onto a long, high ball down the left, powered away from a defender and finished across Sam Hornby with joyous ease.
Brunton Park was the happiest it had been for months as the new, old signing cruised back downfield and cupped his ears to Bradford’s support: his first goal since March at Carlisle last year, with a spell at Burton Albion in between.
“I feel like I’ve come back home,” Patrick said on Friday. Then Saturday came, and he brought the house down. That strange, fuzzy feeling – and let us pray it is not a premature one this time – is from United looking like a team again.
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