Leyton Orient 0 Carlisle United 1: A few minutes before kick-off, Paul Simpson appeared from the Leyton Orient tunnel in such obscure fashion you had to check it was really him. After all the upheaval and Simmo-mania of the previous few days, the man himself slowly strolled towards his dugout, sat down and chatted to the person next to him.
A few dozen yards opposite, seven hundred Cumbrians were amassing, finally with an outlet for all the fears, hopes and nostalgic emotions they’d been building since Wednesday.
Eventually Simpson stood up and moved into his coaching area. The game was, by then, under way. There had not yet been an opportunity for the huge embrace we were all expecting. Business first.
Simpson was never really one for cheap acclaim anyway, but the manner of his re-introduction on his first Saturday in charge of Carlisle since 2006 still emphasised how this second coming might well play out.
It will not be excitable before its time. Simpson’s return has been the most popular card Carlisle’s owners have played for a long time, but the 55-year-old is a vastly experienced figure these days and is clearly not about to start milking moments too soon.
In this vein, there was also something measured in his movements an hour-and-a-half later. In the hour of this vital victory, with all those fans in the best mood they’ve known for weeks, Simpson first gestured to his players with a few economical hand motions. He pulled them into a huddle for some straight and sober words. When they broke, and people cheered, he applauded those supporters, and then, in his dark coat, turned. He was just about the first one back to the other side of the pitch.
“It’s gone,” he said of this game a few minutes later. “The first 31 [games] had gone, 32 has gone, and now we’ve got to get ready for 33.” This was not the place to come for Churchillian address. Yet this, for all the relief of Saturday, is how it has to be.
There is Tuesday ahead. Then another Saturday. United and Simpson must chalk them off, one at a time, until survival is achieved.
Simpson did not deny that he enjoyed the feeling of this result, or the defensive appetite that safeguarded it, or the fact that when those supporters asked him to "give us a wave" he did so, but, in the main, the true emotional release belonged to those fans and the players.
Omari Patrick, for instance. This week must have felt like an eon to the attacker, who on Monday was apologising for his involvement in a late-night skirmish, and on Saturday was back doing what he does best: putting his pace and persistence against opponents, and showing why he’s one player that gives this Blues team more of a chance than most.
His fifth-minute goal also rewarded one of several first tweaks of Simmo 2.0. It involved the experience of Jamie Devitt and Kristian Dennis – two players called into the starting line-up after bench roles under Keith Millen.
Those two, in their way, helped Carlisle look after the ball better, in the opening stages, than they have. There was a little assurance when they had it. After Patrick had run onto Dennis’s nudge, back-footed Orient’s defence and scudded a shot past Lawrence Vigouroux, this calming aspect of United’s game was key.
It did not, naturally, produce a scintillating victory that pushed all the buttons. After eight games without, and all the bloodletting in the meantime, that was never on the agenda. We did, though, see a new doggedness and general competitiveness against opponents with their own problems.
That will do for now. Simpson’s other major reshuffle, sending Jon Mellish into a five-man defence, was also a success. The manager generously said afterwards that predecessor Millen had been planning that move himself.
The game, though, rewards those who do, not those who find the major moments out of reach. Mellish, in at least his third position of the season, had a fine game.
United needed his committed qualities to prevent a shaky Orient spoiling their day. The hosts, under interim boss Matt Harrold, worked the ball wide but Harry Smith failed to convert chances, while at the other end, Dennis worked to give Carlisle some sort of platform alongside Patrick.
There were occasional moments of miscommunication in United’s rejigged defence, but also 90-minute character from such as Dynel Simeu and Morgan Feeney. Patrick was a dangerous outlet while Jack Armer needed a cleaner finish from one good back-post chance.
Orient’s sense of stress showed when Theo Archibald lunged at Jordan Gibson early in the second half and then fouled Mellish a moment later. It was an entirely needless red card and a more penetrative United would have killed Orient in the next spell.
They are not that yet. Counter-attacks offered promise, but Vigouroux’s save from Gibson was the best of it. Then Carlisle had to delve deep to protect what they had.
In goal, Mark Howard was watchful, and Orient sub Frank Nouble set their defence a canny examination. The closest shave came in the 94th minute, when Orient sent a header goalwards, only for Tobi Sho-Silva to nod it from the line.
Simpson later put the praise for that onto Gavin Skelton, the assistant who had proposed sending on Sho-Silva for his set-piece size. It was another telling comment. Carlisle may feel refreshed, their supporters noisily invigorated and even a little drunk on this fresh Simmo start, but things from here must remain diligent, decent, staged and collective. The man in the dark coat will have it no other way.
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