Salford City 2 Carlisle United 1: We've not become a bad team overnight, said Keith Millen. He's right there. They became one at an early point in 2021, and have continued on the same consistent path ever since.
Only in fleeting moments have the Blues looked anything else in the last 12 months, and here we are once more: with worries mounting again, and an inordinate amount of hope and expectation about to be loaded onto the players they threw into their trolley on transfer deadline day.
It is true to say that everything that could have gone wrong for Carlisle did last night, but that also includes their own use of the ball, their own sense of control, composure and ideas.
They lost three players to first-half injuries against Salford City: defensive bodies, naturally, having stocked up on attackers the day before. That string of misfortune, though, doesn't explain why United were so thoughtless and inspiration-dry at the Peninsula Stadium.
Where was the passing and the purpose to match the one genuinely good move they threaded together - the one that led to Omari Patrick's goal? That gave a near 1,000-strong away support a four-minute fantasy that Carlisle were going to take a point at least from this mid-table ground.
But no. Once Matt Smith got his sizeable frame onto a cross to put Salford back in front, the game was up. Carlisle once more abandoned the basics of building play. They used the ball either slowly and pointlessly, or heavily and hastily.
There was an absence of craft and intellect, or the strategy that could have shone a light down a dark road. No pressure, then, messrs Dennis, Devitt, Windsor and Sho-Silva. All you have to do is give this team a complete attacking makeover.
United remain eight points above the drop zone, but now give away games in hand to some around them. This struggle isn’t over by a long chalk, and they will also now have to go forward without three key men. Rod McDonald, Joel Senior and Callum Guy were all forced off here, and this is not a team accustomed to performing when events are in their favour, let alone after multiple disruptions.
With four of Monday's five signings not registered in time, Keith Millen could only give selection a small spin, Lewis Alessandra and Jordan Gibson coming back in, and Carlisle were fortunate to survive a 50-second mix-up, as Mark Howard parried Brandon Thomas-Asante’s shot and Smith wasted the rebound.
The game had not passed the eight-minute point when McDonald went down with a calf problem. Morgan Feeney took the centre-half’s place and it was a good thing, given this upheaval, that Dynel Simeu had at least started the game strongly, stepping in well and showing good strength and sharpness in moments of danger on his second Blues appearance.
As Feeney settled back in, United broke a couple of times past the Salford back line. Their best foray put Alessandra down the left but when he found Patrick in central space, his finish was blocked by Jordan Turnbull.
These dashes off the shoulder seemed Carlisle’s best avenue at a time Salford were working off the flicks and spins of the diminutive Ash Hunter. Simeu saw him off on one occasion, and Howard later saved a looping header from the Salford No10.
United, bar another Jon Mellish break, could not, though, produce anything consistently themselves. Nothing resulted from hopeful aerial play, Brennan Dickenson was among those who endured a particularly futile evening, and then Senior went into a challenge and stayed down in pain. A stretcher was needed and the first of January’s nine signings joined his fellow right-back, Kelvin Mellor, on the sidelines.
Corey Whelan came on, as United’s fans sang for Joe Riley, the masses clearly feeling the latter is not getting enough of a break under Millen. Whelan was in the right place to block Thomas-Asante’s path, while Feeney valiantly denied the same player after some miscommunication at the back.
All this played out to a steady chorus of tunes from the packed away end, who then got their wish - but it took yet another injury to bring about Riley’s introduction. Guy limped off, and Riley’s arrival and indeed his every touch from here was cheered loudly.
After a couple of promising moves early in the second half, though, Salford got their latest break when Liam Shephard’s bobbling shot struck Mellish’s arm. Ref Simon Mather pointed to the spot and Ryan Watson fired the penalty firmly past Carlisle’s keeper.
Their injury-hit numbers now had to open up in a greater way, but the truth is they struggled dismally in this regard for the most part. Dickenson and Gibson switched to right and left, then back again, yet United fell back onto their old problem of struggling to make the ball stick and build.
Other, that is, than the moment when Alessandra slipped Gibson into space behind the defence, and Patrick kept his composure to finish under pressure.
Such was their night, though, that parity was embarrassingly brief, since Salford quickly got the benefit of a series of shoddy attempts to clear, latterly from Dickenson and Smith finally made the most of Shephard's cross.
It was enough to make you envious – and hopeful that any of United’s new centre-forwards, once they’re available, can make similar use of service. Salford almost got a spectacular third through Corrie Ndaba, before United were denied a penalty when Feeney went down.
That left the Blues with a small sense of injustice as well as all their bad luck. But let none of that deflect from all their bad play. The recovery task, on this sour evidence, remains considerable.
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