A bug had laid low the majority of his squad, forcing the Carlisle manager to seek independent medical advice, which confirmed that a number of his players were unfit to travel to Swansea.

Collins was told to “get on with it” or face a three points deduction and a fine of £28,000. The parlous state of the clubs finances meant a fine was out of the question and a three point deduction would have sunk the Cumbrians to the bottom of the league. Not much choice there then.

By ten to five Collins was more than pleased with the outcome of a difficult 24 hours, after seeing his patched up team gain an important point in this relegation battle.

Collins said after the game: “Under the circumstances we did well to put eleven players out and get away with it. I am really delighted with the point. It would have been a tragedy for the lads if Swansea had nicked it. They put us under extreme pressure at times but we coped and handled it really well. The point takes us a point further away from Halifax and we look forward to the trip home now and we can build for next Saturday. Stuart Green was excellent, what a quality player he is. His distribution, his reading of the game, his touch, his awareness, he’s an excellent player. But I was delighted with all of them. The preparation wasn’t the best but the Football League have rules and we must abide by them, but it made the players more determined to come back with something.”

On a difficult, frost bound pitch Swansea had most of the early pressure with a long John Williams throw causing an early fright, Andrew Mumford blasting the loose ball narrowly over the bar.

With 14 minutes gone Ian Stevens should have given the Cumbrians the lead. A surging Foran run was stopped by Nick Cusack, the resulting loose ball falling to Stevens who could only scuff his shot wide, with only Swansea keeper Roger Freestone to beat.

Peter Murphy then latched onto Brendan McGill’s through ball, only to screw his shot across goal.

Steve Brodie had a shot turned away by Peter Keen and was then booked for over elaborating with an artistic dive, attempting to gain a penalty from an Andrews’ challenge.

Six minutes into the second half Andrews had to block a Matthew Bound shot on the line and Mumford again scraped the bar from 25 yards.

With Swansea pressure increasing substitute Mamady Sidibe had Keen at full stretch before the introduction of Jonny Allan, for Phil Hadland, almost immediately brought a goal for Carlisle on 66 minutes. Michael Jack picked the ball up in midfield before releasing the Cumbrian teenager down the right with his cross shot going narrowly over the cross-section of post and bar.

Sidibe should have done better than head over an exquisite Brodie cross and Keen again came to the Cumbrians rescue saving well at the feet of Jonathan Coates.

After the six goal mauling at the hands of Tranmere last week a clean sheet was just the breath of fresh air the Cumbrians needed.

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