Hartlepool United 1 Carlisle United 3: The 83rd minute at Victoria Park, and the earth begins to shake. Concrete cracks, people take cover, animals take fright. Something awesome and irresistible has appeared on the horizon.
Don’t worry, it’s just Tomas Holy. Omari Patrick has just scored Carlisle United’s points-clinching third goal, and the Blues’ goalkeeper is having none of this stay-in-your-area business.
So he sets off, not with lumbering pace but with surprising speed and grace – good feet for a big man – until he has reached his maroon-shirted team-mates in front of a churning, swarming away end.
Think Dynel Simeu and his gallops from the bench last season, except in a…well, larger way. A 6ft 9in way, in bright green kit. A way that throws just another dollop of fun onto a victory and season that is threatening to get just a little more interesting yet.
The serious side of Holy’s morphing into a Czech Usain Bolt is that it speaks to the team spirit being generated by Carlisle’s form and their tantalising climb into the play-off places.
Paul Simpson recently said togetherness isn’t fostered on nights out or team-bonding days, but by winning together. No wonder United, right now, look like what their keeper is: a unit. This was a mighty communal occasion in the north east and it left you thinking that its force could propel this side into some fascinating places here in 2022/23.
READ MORE: Brilliant photos of Carlisle United's win at Hartlepool
Unbeaten in eight, two away wins on the spin, an initially awkward but eventually dominant display against a spirited but limited Hartlepool – this underlined in thick ink why the Blues are where they are and why they deserve to be regarded as possibles, as fair-wind contenders, at the right end of their division.
The injury thing that still follows them around like a curse threatens to keep them just outside the real race. Then again – they’ve got this far despite losing players nearly every game (Fin Back and Patrick went off here), so who’s to say it’s going to hobble them when the mood is otherwise this good?
Hopefully Patrick, who looked very much like his old self with two dynamic goals, won’t be held back for long by the hamstring niggle than forced him off in injury-time. Hopefully, too, any vultures interested in the name Owen Moxon have given up reading this article before we finally mentioned him in the ninth paragraph.
The midfielder’s form, his burgeoning quality at this level of football, is going to put that name on many more lips at this rate, to the point many supporters were beckoning the Blues to greet him at training on Monday morning with a pen and an improved contract.
This, against Keith Curle’s side, was undoubtedly his finest performance to date: a midfield showing of strength, emphasis and another of those goals he is making his trademark. It is shaping up to be one of the best stories of this season that Moxon, only a few months ago, was a delivery driver, striving to make good on his chance in part-time football with Annan Athletic.
“You need to take him” were Peter Murphy’s words to Paul Simpson. “Before someone else does” was the unspoken addition. Moxon’s world must be a very sunny one right now: scoring and shaping games for the Blues, his name sung by hundreds of travelling fans from his home city. Long may this extremely heartening journey go on.
Saturday’s game was another away-day epic of sorts, one in which United had to reach behind the sofa once more for the rewards within their reach. They had the better of the first half without making good on it, and were then dragged into an unwanted place by Curle’s side.
On grass which lacked zip, and seemed longish in length, early skirmishes saw Hartlepool’s tricky Wes McDonald examine Back down the home left, while Carlisle tried to construct chances out wide. Those moves were promising but their finishing wasn’t on point.
Their best early chance, falling to Jordan Gibson, was saved close-in by Ben Killip while Kristian Dennis aimed a rusty volley wide. Curle was never going to allow his team to die wondering, and the manager even involved himself in this cause: nuisancing Jon Mellish by standing in his way at a throw-in.
Follow my lead, the Pools boss seemed to be saying. Yet United remained the better side, and had Jack Stretton gone down when pulled by Reghan Tumilty, ref Tom Reeves might have been persuaded to make a decision (a red card could have come into the equation).
Instead, it remained goalless until the 43rd minute, when one of several testing David Ferguson deliveries came in and Carlisle’s defending came loose. Alex Lacey turned to fire Hartlepool ahead.
The mysterious one (Curle) at it again, versus his old club? Yes, but…no. In the second half, United upped their efforts – and Moxon cruised up a level. In the 53rd minute, he powered through the middle, rode a McDonald challenge and practically passed the ball into the net from outside the box. Very smooth.
This ignited the Blues and their followers. Mellish went on the rampage, Stretton went close, Patrick replaced Back, Carlisle forced a flurry of corners. Then Moxon pinged one left to Patrick, who took on his man, looked for a gap, looked again and looked again, a man fiddling with a Rubik's cube. He kept going, and finally found the solution, slotting it low past Killip. Smooth again.
Then – the merry third. Gibson, who had endured some frustrating touches, adapted well to a move to the right after that earlier substitution, and duly aimed a telling ball down the centre. Patrick’s pace, touch and stretching finish did the rest, Holy heard the starter’s pistol, and limbs went here and there behind the goal.
If any of those limbs did undue damage to some of the away-end seats, as is being alleged, it is once again a depressing outcome from this fixture. On the pitch, things remained entirely wholesome, as Paul Huntington extended a long leg to deny Josh Umerah: one last demonstration of where Carlisle were, mentally and physically, in their convincing rise to superiority.
If they keep advancing at their keeper's speed, goodness knows where it’ll take them.
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