Walsall 1-0 Carlisle United verdict: Blues limping to the line after grey defeat in the sun

It will have three initials. You know the ones. WTF?

So let’s get this straight, fine minds will ponder: this particular Blues vintage stank the place to high heaven from August through to February. Then they suddenly went on a ludicrous winning run. Then they reverted back to type. Seriously?

What went on in March will be the subject of baffled investigations and mass confusion. The six Ws reeled off by Paul Simpson’s team are starting to look like the most remarkable anomaly.

Jack Earing fires the Walsall winner

An impressive anomaly, sure. An anomaly that still looks to have saved United’s EFL skin. An anomaly that will always elevate Simpson in the Blues’ managerial annals.

But still an anomaly, if the last few games are to be our guide. Carlisle at Walsall were not a team that look capable of winning sporadically, never mind often. They were again below the mark attacking-wise and the sense, when watching them at the Banks’s Stadium, was that whatever United’s best side is right now, it isn’t this.

And it certainly isn’t when it comes to weighing the future. There were shortcomings in terms of controlling a game and also trying to seize it in the first place, and it now looks like this will be a limp over the line rather than a sprint.

So be it. In late February we’d have taken survival by a tiny margin. The gap remains ten points with 12 left to play for. The good initial work under Simpson will most likely render this bad Good Friday irrelevant in that context.

Tyrese Omotoye tries a shot

Yet this faulty display may also do United some sort of favour if it flashes a torch down the road to 2022/23. “Massively,” Simpson said when asked if the 1-0 defeat had underlined what needed to change this summer.

The manager went on to question his team’s “enthusiasm” for the competitive basics of the game: quite the cutting accusation. He diagnosed a lack of “leaders” in the side.

When United lost one man who certainly can answer to that description – Morgan Feeney, whose heart issues here will hopefully turn out to be minor – they looked even less like a team capable of taking command of matters.

Before then, they’d dipped in and out of this Easter game. They turned out a couple of decent chances but found themselves outpunched by a moderate Walsall side in midfield.

Jordan Gibson makes a tackle

The experiment with Tyrese Omotoye in attack did not particularly raise their levels, while one or two others did little to suggest Carlisle can build on them next season.

It was not, frankly, good enough for another excellent travelling support and perhaps this levelling off of the recent form will make it easier for us to put this season in its proper overall place: as an extremely poor one, no matter the good feelings brought about by Simpson’s return.

A sunny day in the west Midlands saw Carlisle rather grey of inspiration in a new 3-4-3 shape. Kristian Dennis might have put them in front when beetling onto a Brennan Dickenson header in the fifth minute, but from there they only came forward with occasional jabs rather than by truly building effective pressure.

Walsall gradually found a neater passing range which only lacked the swagger of a frontline more used to winning. George Miller, peeling to the left, at least gave them regular angles of attack while Emmanuel Osadebe and Brendan Kiernan offered a patient and persistent approach.

Players line up for a corner

Increasingly these raids found gaps in front of and around United’s defence, and Feeney frequently had to extend himself to make those last-ditch blocks which earn him natural popularity in the away seats.

From Carlisle, there was a creeping sense that their better line-up included, for instance, the back five arrangement of a few weeks ago, not this changed defensive line. From the Saddlers, there was more tidy football between the lines without a sharp end point. Jack Earing and Joss Labadie missed the target from outside the box, Omotoye failed to capitalise on Jon Mellish’s left-sided running at the other end...and then United conceded.

They can only blame themselves for allowing Walsall three nibbles at it, after the hosts gained a free-kick from a skirmish between Dickenson and Labadie. United then lost possession when Osadebe tackled Kelvin Mellor and burrowed to the left byline, forcing Dynel Simeu to shovel the cross towards his own goal. Mark Howard saved sharply, Feeney blocked the next attempt, but the third came from Earing and struck Gibson on its way past Howard and into the bottom corner.

A rotten time to concede, and so shabbily too. After the break United suffered the loss of Feeney to heart palpitations. Simpson reported that the defender had passed post-match tests and left Walsall in good spirits, and everything is crossed that Feeney can move on positively from such a scare.

Morgan Feeney goes off in the second half

In terms of the game, Joe Riley came on, United went to 4-3-3, and did start playing more football against a side lacking the conviction to pull clear. There was not, though, a serious threat from the Blues, unless you count a cluster of set-pieces, a bit of belated hustle from sub Tobi Sho-Silva and one last dance when Gibson’s corner found Simeu but the loanee’s header flashed wide.

In United’s inspired better run, that goes in and Simeu takes flight into the away end. Alas, this season has reverted to realism rather than fantasy. As and when survival is sorted, it might be the most instructive way for things to finish.