Carlisle United reaction to win over Newcastle United U21

The Blues’ 2-0 win at the Gateshead International Stadium saw a strong first-half performance before a less impressive display after the break.

Assistant boss Skelton felt it highlighted perfectly some of United’s current strengths and things they still have to work on, with less than two weeks until the league campaign gets under way.

“If it had been exactly the same both halves you’d either be really disappointed or really excited,” said Skelton.

“But this is exactly what you want – take confidence from it and realise there’s plenty of stuff to work on.”

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An own-goal put Carlisle ahead in the 20th minute before Ryan Edmondson slid home a late second.

It means United remain unbeaten in their five friendlies so far.

“In the first half we did things right,” Skelton said.

“We played some really good stuff – stuff we did last season and we want to do again this season.

“The second half was not as good. We stopped doing what had caused them problems first half, and caused our own problems at times.

Dan Butterworth made his second United appearance (Image: Barbara Abbott)

“The tempo wasn’t there. That was probably [down to] getting their legs going after half time, and probably feeling they were quite comfortable first half and should have been three or four up.

“Credit to Newcastle, they upped their energy levels and caused us problems, and at times we struggled to get our game going because of it.

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“But they never had loads of chances and to be fair their keeper has made two or three excellent saves.

“You give them credit and we have to look at why we didn’t [play as well].”

Skelton felt the game against the young Magpies side was a different kind of test to United’s previous pre-season offerings.

“Livingston [last Tuesday] was a really physical game, which you’d expect from them, and in this one I’m sure the ball would have been in play a lot more, with the multiball system they’re going to have this year and the way Under-21s and Under-23 teams play.

“You get really good physical exercise from it.

“That’s what you want. You want different types [of games]. It keeps the freshness.

“Friendlies can be difficult, but I thought the pitch, with it being wet, brought a decent tempo to it.

“It will be interesting to see how far they’ve run, which is important, and in terms of them playing 90 minutes…we ideally wanted to give it to everyone but we had to look after a couple of them; that was the whole point of the exercise.

"In a sadistic, strange way you’re kind of pleased we were light where we were, so it doesn’t get glossed over and we’re not shocked in two weeks."