Carlisle United 1 Port Vale 3: This is getting serious. Four straight defeats, a haphazard performance in keeping with so many changes, and a very definite tightening of muscles in the posterior area as Carlisle United scuffed and stumbled their way closer to League Two’s relegation zone.

Be in no doubt: the Blues are in this up to their necks, and don’t let anyone argue otherwise. On a damaging and dispiriting night at Brunton Park, a much-altered side gifted goals to Port Vale and found their own attacking ideas too short and too disordered, too often.

Joe Riley, a guilty party for Vale’s first and third goals, summed up the sense of distress by the end. The right-back looked aghast at what he’d done and seen. Team-mates rushed to console him after David Amoo had pocketed the visitors’ clincher, but it’s not sympathy that Carlisle need now.

It's anger, from whover can summon it. Anger at the state they’re in. Anger at the defeatism that is well and truly back. Anger that Oldham and Scunthorpe, previously the dead men of the division, are now right at their heels.

News and Star: United watch David Worrall's 48-second opener sail into the netUnited watch David Worrall's 48-second opener sail into the net

Anger that they're going into this hugely defining period in their history with a highly raw and makeshift team that, right now, gives you very little confidence of getting to May as winners of an especially ugly battle for EFL survival.

In Owen Windsor, who scored on his debut, there was an element of promise, but that was a tiny speck of light in the gloom. Carlisle were outplayed and outthought by opponents much cannier and more experienced. There was a gulf in quality and poise, and United looked what they are: strugglers without a handle on how to make this better.

News and Star: United's Mark Howard throws the ball forwardUnited's Mark Howard throws the ball forward

So, everyone, from Keith Millen down: please sort this, before it gets worse. Please find and isolate what you can from this beaten bunch. For goodness sake, make these signings work, whether they were ones you went for early or the cluster you grabbed from the last-minute aisle with an according lack of match fitness.

Show you're the right people for the job. Otherwise, United are going to go off the cliff edge and - let's be absolutely honest about this - get lost in a hyper-competitive National League for a long time. The greatest period of obscurity in this football club's history could be three months away.

News and Star: Owen Windsor steers home United's levellerOwen Windsor steers home United's leveller

That was the fear that informed the booing that greeted full-time. Millen had given selection a shake with seven changes but that only established a new way to fail. Carlisle’s squad has received the double upheaval of lots of signings and a glut of injuries in the last week or so. Expecting a smooth transition in the space of a week was ambitious. 

Time, though, isn’t something the Blues have in abundance, and the cold reality was rammed home when Riley gifted the ball to James Wilson and David Worrall's shot spun into the net. 48 seconds of the game had passed.

This did nothing for a raw Carlisle’s nerves, and Darrell Clarke's Vale, in their dominant periods of the half, bossed midfield and used Worrall and Chris Hussey out wide to attack an inexperienced rearguard.

News and Star: Debutant Windsor, right, turns away to celebrateDebutant Windsor, right, turns away to celebrate (Image: Barbara Abbott)

At the other end, Carlisle looked for the pace and determination of Omari Patrick, who earned a couple of opportunities down the left, but possession was a stranger for much of proceedings, as Tom Pett and Ben Garrity seized control in the middle for Vale and took things from there. 

Another United error, this time from Danny Devine in midfield, allowed the visitors to build another attack that ended with Wilson testing Howard. Later, Worrall drove a shot against a Carlisle shin.

News and Star: Windsor celebrates his debut goalWindsor celebrates his debut goal (Image: Barbara Abbott)

It looked decisively like men against boys – but then the boys hit back. It certainly felt refreshing when United suddenly put together a highly capable move and finished it off: Devine spreading to Jack Armer, Patrick driving it to Tyrese Omotoye, the Norwich loanee going past his man and Windsor arriving from the right with a nerveless low finish. 

If only Carlisle could have harnessed this better. Instead, Vale regrouped and began to hoard possession again, against a team lost to the art of doing such things and whose other debutant, Tobi Sho-Silva, was physical up front without being utilised much.

News and Star: Windsor gestures to the crowd after making it 1-1Windsor gestures to the crowd after making it 1-1

The direction of travel quickly changed back, and Vale accumulated more chances by gunning for United's under-protected wide areas and a central defence which, manned by Morgan Feeney and Dynel Simeu, certainly lacked a grizzled old head to take command. Wilson eventually found space to meet a Hussey cross, the ball popping back out from Howard’s goalline save and Wilson first to pounce. 

With relegation rivals leading elsewhere, this was a sour time for Carlisle to concede and made you fear, with good reason, that Vale’s wise owls would know exactly how to slow things down and manage their lead from here.

News and Star: Tyrese Omotoye is closed down by defendersTyrese Omotoye is closed down by defenders

Aided by passive refereeing, they did exactly that and after a hopeless start to the second half, Millen opted for change, in the form of Jamie Devitt and Jordan Gibson. 

Devitt, in the number ten shirt, slotted back into his old midfield territory, while Gibson almost went through for a chance on the left, but otherwise Carlisle lacked any punch in or around the box - let's not talk about their set-pieces again, either - and belief soon drained back away.

News and Star: David Amoo wraps up victory with Port Vale's thirdDavid Amoo wraps up victory with Port Vale's third

Vale passed up a couple of decent chances on the break and Millen's late introduction of Kristian Dennis led to nothing other than another dismal concession at the other end, Riley culpable once more as Amoo, once of this parish, cut in and shot home off the post. 

Riley looked utterly distraught. Vale’s fans were gleeful. “That’s why you’re going down,” they sang. Any chance, United, of proving them wrong before it’s too late?