| Carlisle's three month exile at the foot of the Third Division finally came to an end as they clawed their way above Exeter, following a stuttering victory against their favourite opponents Kidderminster Harriers. This was the Cumbrians third victory of the season against the Midlanders following league and FA Cup wins at the Aggborough Stadium. Such has been Carlisle's seemingly impossible plight over the last three months that it has taken almost playoff form to get them back in touch with the pack. A run of four wins and four draws from their last ten league games has given the Cumbrians a lifeline and forced those above them to start looking over their shoulders. None more than Darlington's Garry Bennett and Jim Montgomery were in the stand following the postponement of their game at York. This was another Jekyll and Hyde performance from Carlisle. In the first half hour they played some good football, scoring the two match winning goals in the process and then inexplicably taking their foot off the pedal allowing the Harriers to dominate the rest of the game. They again had to thank a man of the match performance from keeper Matty Glennon to save the points. Manager Ian Atkins was less than impressed and said after the game: "I thought for the first thirty minutes we played exceptional, the best we've played at home all season. For some reason then we started to think we needed to do something different. From a game that we should have gone from two-nil to three-nil and be very comfortable, we started causing ourselves problems. We gave away possession too much and didn't close the ball down as well as we had been doing and gave Kidderminster the initiative." Carlisle survived an early scare when Drewe Broughton's second minute header from Adie Smith's cross deceived Glennon to rebound off the right hand post. However, the home side were soon into their stride with Steve Soley heading just over from Lee Maddison's cross six minutes later. Carlisle's direct style certainly has critics amongst the Cumbrian supporters but none could complain about the opening goal after nine minutes. A flowing move saw Richard Prokas feed Steve Soley who played in Scott Dobie down the right side of the area and the forward picked out striking partner Ian Stevens for a simple tap in from four yards out. A second goal followed seven minutes later, this time from the more predictable but none the less effective route one school. Mark Birch drove the ball 60 yards forward, inch perfect for Dobie's timely run. The striker took the ball on his chest before shooting across Harrier's keeper Stuart Brock into the far corner. On 25 minutes Broughton brought a full length save out of Glennon as the tide turned in favour of the visitors. Eight minutes into the second half Harrier's Dean Bennett shot over from a good position and then Broughton went close with a header. With Carlisle now well and truly under the cosh Neil McKenzie's 63rd minute cross shot went just wide closely followed by John Durnin heading over from McKenzie's cross. On 72 minutes Broughton's shot was turned away for a corner by Glennon and six minutes later the Carlisle keeper needed two attempts to keep out a pile driver from McKenzie. With the Cumbrians now content to play out time Glennon was still forced into another full length save from Broughton. Carlisle now face a tough trip to high flying Rochdale. It will be a true test of how far the Cumbrians have improved over recent weeks. |
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No
|
Player | Sub
/Time |
Goals
/Time |
Cautions
/Time |
No
|
Player | Sub
/Time |
Goals
/Time |
Cautions
/Time |
|
22
|
Matty Glennon |
|
Stuart Brock | ||||||
|
2
|
Mark Birch |
|
|
Ian Clarkson | |||||
|
4
|
Stuart Whitehead |
|
Craig Hinton | ||||||
|
24
|
Dave Morley |
|
Adie Smith | ||||||
|
19
|
Mark Winstanley |
|
Dean Bennett | ||||||
|
20
|
Lee Maddison |
|
Andy Ducros | ||||||
|
13
|
Mick Galloway |
|
Mark Shail | ||||||
|
8
|
Steve Soley |
|
20
|
John Durnin | |||||
|
16
|
Richard Prokas |
22
|
Neil McKenzie | ||||||
|
9
|
Ian Stevens |
|
|
|
Daire Doyle | ||||
|
7
|
Scott Dobie |
|
|
Drewe Broughton | |||||
| Subs | |||||||||
|
15
|
Gordon Connelly |
|
Tim Clarke | ||||||
|
6
|
Julian Darby |
|
Paul Webb | ||||||
|
11
|
Steve Halliday |
|
Barry Horne | ||||||
|
10
|
Carl Heggs |
|
|
Ben Davies | |||||
|
18
|
Tony Hemmings |
|
Andy Corbett | ||||||
| Stats | Stats | ||||||||
| Corners won |
2
|
Corners won |
4
|
||||||
| Shots on target |
4
|
Shots on target |
8
|
||||||
| Shots off target |
4
|
Shots off target |
7
|
||||||
| Free kicks against |
15
|
Free kicks against |
10
|
||||||
| Offside against |
7
|
Offside against |
4
|
