Having played indifferently and won on a couple of occasions, on Saturday we took it a bit further and played poorly and drew. A rearranged midfield never really worked and we defended increasing sloppily as the game progressed, the principal culprits being Marshall and Joseph. This was compounded by Carlisle, as they had at the Circle, showing themselves to be well-organised and hard working, with Brendan McGill and Chris Billy bossing the midfield and Andy Preece, though now in his late seventies, demonstrating that though age may have slowed him, the skills which once took him to the Premiership, improbably enough with Crystal Palace and, more impressively, once shone next to St. Kevin of Francis as they made Stockport (even more improbably) the terrors of the second division, are still intact. As Samuel Goldwyn would have said, we've all passed a lot of water since those days, and Preece had a bit passed over him recently as he was sacked this season as the boss of Bury, but he showed that he can still do it where it matters most and he and his mates looked like they had done enough. But these days, whatever else, we ooze class and options when we get the ball forward and Stuart Green silenced Cumbrian jeers as he got the goal that got us the point.

Though at times we looked as though we might be swept away, we also might have put the game beyond them had we finished better and had we been facing a less able goalkeeper than Matt Glennon, slimmed down as he was when he first signed for us, reminded us what a good goal keeper he could have been had he liked work a bit more and ale a bit less. Coupled with Green's cathartic strike this made it a bit of a 'what goes around comes around' sort of day for both sets of fans. But Green must be delighted that he saw sense and Glennon is perhaps sufficiently stupid that he doesn't realise the career he's pissed away, so maybe both are happy. And on balance their respective efforts deserved a point.

Generally bumping into each other as they tried to work out where they should be standing and running were:

Myhill
Marshall Whittle Joseph Dawson
Green Hinds Delaney Elliott
Allsopp Burgess

Always nice to see the Sarge at the centre of defence, of course, but never particularly good to see central defenders at the heart of the midfield and we had two of them, so Green was shoved out to a peripheral wide right role that seldom makes the best use of his attacking talents. Given that Whittle and Joseph understandably had a shakier understanding that both have formed with Delaney and that Joseph had one of his useless days and that Allsopp was uncharacteristically leaden-footed and off the pace up front, there wasn't really anything that we did as well as we might have done. Given that we have lacked midfield cover all season it seems a particularly odd time to sell Keates, but that is the way the manager does things and perhaps we should no longer be surprised.

With the sun glaring out from underneath lowering clouds and sat in Carlisle's ludicrous main stand, which means the far end action is about a ½ mile away, we didn't have great view of proceedings. But we saw enough to see the Carlsters nearly take an early lead as McGill raided down the right and found Preece who had evaded his marker and headed against the post. The ball rebounded invitingly to another Carler who steadied himself and was only thwarted by an excellent Myhill save.

This pretty much set the first half pattern. Carlisle outpassed us in midfield, Green, Elliott and the forwards were isolated and the defence was uneasy. They fired a freekick over the bar and then came very close from another that we scrambled clear for the corner. They got this in at pace and Myhill did well to paw it away under pressure from Preece. In the first half hour, apart from some hard and intelligent running from Burgess we showed nothing at all. Then we had an Elliott break, outpacing the cover he had only one thought it mind as he bore down on goal, and that was to shoot. And, frankly, this was a pity, as he should have been thinking, "Gosh, Greeny's made a good run, lawdy he's in a lot of space there, just beyond Danny isn't he, waving his arms at me like that, I really ought to slide a simple ball to him and let him score." But he didn't, and Green and the rest of us all muttered as he shot weakly straight at Glennon.

But the tide did seem to be turning. We won a freekick and floated it in from distance, Burgess crossed it inside for Elliott who hit a rasper against the inside of the post from whence it screwed away along the line and clear. The heavens were now bestowing their customary Cumbrian bounty of pissing rain on to the players, but Elliott was starting to run at them and we were beginning to look good. We should have taken the lead just before half time as the excellent Burgess robbed them in the tackle then flicked on for Green, clear, one on one with Once Fat Matt. Glennon stood up well, and it was hard not to think that Green, the hoots of derision, er, hooting around him, bottled it, as he screwed it well wide. Should have hit the target, should have put us ahead.

Half time gave a bit of time to peruse our surroundings. As we ought to go up and they despite their recent good form will almost certainly go down, it's a good time not to be coming back. Over the last few years, Brunton Park has developed to the extent that the tractor no longer reposes in the unoccupied east stand behind the goal. On balance, I think this is a pity. I like Carlisle, the town is fun, the people are feisty and unpretentious, pretty much like Hull folk in fact, and the drive west through Cumbria from Scotch Corner across the A66 is as picturesque and enchanting a sight as we get on our extensive fourth division travels. But Brunton Park is soulless these days and feels somehow wrong and the walk out along the back of the stand, with no other exit so that if the locals have taken exception to you as they did a couple of seasons ago you might as well be carrying a placard saying "Away fan, please kick me," is potentially a very uncomfortable experience. Not that there was any bother at all yesterday and nor were the police expecting any, judging by the fact that the dog handlers had brought 2 puppies who gambolled happily in the rain. "Small dogs, you've only got small dogs," we informed them helpfully. Thankfully there was no sign of trouble so it never looked as though the pups of war were likely to be released.

As the second half got underway the game immediately opened up. In part, this was because we roused ourselves. The increasingly influential Elliott interpassed skilfully with Allsopp and had a shot well saved by Glennon. Then Green set up Allsopp with the sort of chance he had been tucking away all season, but the striker's muted afternoon continued with him spannering it weakly and straight to Glennon. But the game was opening up at the other end as well, because we were defending with increasing carelessness, as Joseph and Marshall continually over elaborated, seeking to play it around the edge of the area or back to Myhill at pace, something that our custodian didn't really need on a bobbly playing surface. Marshall was particularly culpable, seemingly completely averse to the right back necessity of getting rid. Carlisle started to get wise to this, playing the ball out wide and pressuring the hapless Marshall as he insisted on keeping possession, keeping it in play and seeking to play it back into our area. Clearly Marshall can play, clearly he can't play right back, but then since Taylor got shut of Mike Edwards, no one else has been able to do that either.

From one such piece of fannying around we conceded a freekick that Myhill saved well. From the resultant corner we failed to clear the ball properly, a shot in was half closed down by Whittle but the ball spun over to Preece who took his time in putting it past Myhill. Taylor reacted by bringing on Walters for Allsopp, which seemed a very sound move and then by replacing Whittle with Melton, which was predictably a near disaster. On the plus side we had the class of Walters who immediately linked well with Burgess, On the minus, we had Melton, as lazy and as ineffective as ever, tarting around in the midfield, skipping out of trouble, just occasionally getting a touch to initiate a Carlisle attack. He is a disgrace. And we've got rid of Keates. It really is hard not to shake your head in wonder. Delaney was back in defence and working hard, Joseph was showing his Huddersfield and Bristol form. We could easily have fallen further behind as first Melton then Joseph combined to let in a Carlster for a whipped-in cross that smeared off McGill and just wide of our post. Then Joseph gave it away on the other side and let one of theirs clear on goal and we should have gone further behind as it slipped just past the post. In truth, we seemed resigned to losing, and it didn't seem to matter by how many.

Thankfully, Burgess and Walters were still trying despite feeding on midfield scraps. Walters got hold of a high hoof forwards, controlled it exquisitely and found Big Ben steaming on to it, before firing in a fine left footed effort. But Glennon reacted excellently to turn it on to the post and wide. Again, we couldn't keep the pressure on, again they attacked our right flank, again Marshall refusing to find row Z was dispossessed and this time was reduced to an abject rugby tackle to stop his man's run on goal. He got a yellow though he deserved the red that might have been a relief to be both him and us.

But our forwards always give us a chance. With 8 minutes left Elliott got the ball in his favourite inside left position and held it intelligently before finding Green in the area. The Cumbrian exile slalomed through their defence and this time keeping his nerve shot left-footed and low past Glennon. 1-1.

Any thoughts that we might try and win it were pretty much ended as Elliott was immediately withdrawn for Holt. We didn't exactly go for the jugular, although Walters and Burgess again played intelligently off each other. And at least we didn't run it to the corner flags. Carlisle looked deflated by our goal and a very exciting half ended quietly, although we managed one final defensive doze off as they brought serial loony Richie Foran, fresh from failing on loan at Oxford on for an injury time corner and we declined to mark him and looked surprised as the corner was hit to him. But we survived, and at the finish both teams were rewarded with very generous ovations from their respective fans as well as a point.