But Carlisle's attractive passing football has built up expectation of late amongst the Brunton Park faithful. Surely the time had come when the Cumbrians would find their goalscoring touch and despatch the opposition into oblivion.

Bottom of the table Halifax Town apparently forgot to read the script. A resolute defensive performance from the Shaymen defied the odds stacked against them, to keep a clean sheet even with Carlisle producing eighteen attempts on goal, ten of which were on target.

The lack of finishing power up front is obviously worrying manager Roddy Collins with the promise of new faces coming in this week.

He said after the game: "We're just getting by at the moment and you hope you don't fall too far behind the pack. There are still some pieces of the jigsaw to fit in and I'm sure when it's right we'll not be far off I've no doubt about that. I've got a lad coming from Norway for a weeks trial, as their season finishes this weekend. With a loan option coming up on Monday, I've also got a proven goalscorer, who's with a club at the minute. If I can do a deal with his club he will be a massive asset.

"Today was the same old story. We are creating chances and we never looked like losing the game. One of these days the goals are going to go in and today we could have nicked it and moved up the table. But it will come right. We are now three games unbeaten and the players are starting to believe in themselves. We were expected to win today and that's a compliment to us."

A poor opening twenty minutes saw both teams struggling to find any sort of rhythm and Mark Winstanley was the first player to get a shot on target, volleying powerfully straight at Halifax keeper Lee Butler with 22 minutes gone.

Halifax should have taken the lead a minute later when veteran midfielder Neil Redfearn's goalbound shot was diverted straight to Peter Keen by team mate Steve Kerrigan.

Brendan McGill was proving a constant threat for the Cumbrians down the right and he provided crosses for Peter Murphy to go close twice.

Halifax had opportunities of their own with Kerrigan and Mitchell heading wide from Paul Harsley crosses.

With half time approaching Steve Halliday had a shot cleared off the line by Paul Stoneman and then shot straight at Butler when he should have scored.

Then a Lee Andrews slip let in Kerrigan who could only pull his shot wide with only Keen to beat.

Carlisle dominated after the break and Lee Butler was called upon with more regularity in the Halifax goal. He saved well from Tony Hopper and then brilliantly turned away a Winstanley volley from a Peter Murphy free kick.

Butler then save from Murphy and in the resulting scramble Redfearn did well to keep out Jonny Allen's goalbound effort.

Again Butler came to the rescue with a double save, firstly blocking another Murphy shot before acrobatically turning away Foren's header from a McGill cross.

With 75 minutes gone Halifax had a rare attack which saw Harsley take a Jules pass before shooting narrowly wide.

A surging run down the right by Allen almost brought the Cumbrians a late winner but Foran failed to make contact with the cross with an open goal beckoning.

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