| The manner of Carlisle's defeat, in this six pointer with relegation rivals Exeter, will have the alarm bells ringing again for the Cumbrians. The contrast in performance between the mid week draw at league leaders Chesterfield and this encounter were of Jekyl and Hyde proportions. Carlisle were always second best in the midfield and as a consequence provided little threat to an Exeter side who have now won three on the trot since the arrival of ex Tottenham favourite Steve Perryman as technical advisor. Ironically the Cumbrians were never really threatened at the back and would have come away with a point but for a rare lapse in concentration from the usually reliable Matty Glennon. When the Grecians Christian Roberts overran the ball, the Carlisle keeper's simple pick up turned into a nightmare as he fumbled the ball back to Roberts who only had to side foot into an unguarded net. Manager Ian Atkins was disappointed with his players. After the match he said: "Over the period of the last three months that was the worst we've played. When you play football you earn the right to win. When you do that, then you can play your football but today we tried to play football first and we got outbattled in every single department and Exeter deserved their win. They didn't create an awful lot but they did win every single battle. They were prepared to put their head in when the needed to up font and every ball that bounced in midfield. Our midfield three may as well come and sat with me. In games like this, when there is a lot of ball in midfield, you have got to go and win it. I said to the players it won't happen again. Obviously I can't bring any players in, so I've said it's up to them. Do they want to be Conference players or League players" Exeter settled the quicker with Kwame Ampadu shooting over after 5 minutes. Eight minutes later Scott Dobie had the Cumbrians first chance but squandered the opportunity shooting weakly wide from a good position. On 18 minutes the effervescent Roberts turned well only to drag his shot wide of Glennon's left hand post. The Cumbrians had a let off with 25 minutes gone when Steve Flack slipped as he was about to get a head on Paul Buckles cross. A minute later Exeter had a strong penalty appeal turned down as Roberts became the filling in a Darren Carr-Dave Morley sandwich. With six minutes left to the break Glennon's blunder gifted the home sides subsequent winner. The Cumbrians almost immediately broke back but home keeper Arjan Van Heusden did well to push away Morley's header. With Carlisle running out of ideas Atkins made a double substitution on the hour introducing Halliday and Soley for Birch and Stevens. Steve Halliday had an immediate chance when Dobie played him in but he failed to get any power on the shot and Van Heusden saved easily. Exeter continued to be the marginally better side and Inglethorpe's header tested Glennon on 73 minutes. Mark Winstanley, on for Carr, headed wide from Galloway's free kick and then shot wide from a Galloway corner but the Cumbrians could not find that all important equaliser and are left firmly rooted at the bottom off the league with a growing mountain to climb. |
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|
|
|
No
|
Player | Sub
/Time |
Goals
/Time |
Cautions
/Time |
No
|
Player | Sub
/Time |
Goals
/Time |
Cautions
/Time |
|
22
|
Matty Glennon |
1
|
Arjan Van Heusden | ||||||
|
2
|
Mark Birch |
|
2
|
Neil Whitworth | |||||
|
4
|
Stuart Whitehead |
3
|
Graeme Power | ||||||
|
24
|
Dave Morley |
4
|
Paul Buckle | ||||||
|
32
|
Darren Carr |
|
5
|
Chris Curran |
|
||||
|
20
|
Lee Maddison |
7
|
Alex Inglethorpe | ||||||
|
13
|
Mick Galloway |
8
|
Kwame Ampadu |
|
|||||
|
15
|
Gordon Connelly |
11
|
Andy Roscoe | ||||||
|
16
|
Richard Prokas |
14
|
Steve Black | ||||||
|
9
|
Ian Stevens |
|
23
|
Jamie Campbell | |||||
|
7
|
Scott Dobie |
28
|
Christian Roberts |
|
|||||
| Subs | |||||||||
|
8
|
Steve Soley |
|
6
|
Mark Burrows |
|
||||
|
3
|
Tony Hopper |
13
|
Geoff Breslan | ||||||
|
11
|
Steve Halliday |
|
17
|
Graeme Tomlinson | |||||
|
19
|
Mark Winstanley |
|
29
|
Noel Blake |
|
||||
|
18
|
Tony Hemmings |
24
|
Stuart Fraser | ||||||
| Stats | |||||||||
| Corners won |
5
|
Corners won |
5
|
||||||
| Shots on target |
2
|
Shots on target |
2
|
||||||
| Shots off target |
5
|
Shots off target |
2
|
||||||
| Free kicks against |
9
|
Free kicks against |
15
|
||||||
| Offside against |
4
|
Offside against |
2
|
