BIG MATCH VERDICT: Carlisle United 2-1 Tranmere Rovers

It went like this. Tranmere gather the ball and work it back and across, forward and along, in earnest search of an opening. It looks superficially slick, theoretically competent. And it gets them absolutely nowhere.

They do not even progress as far as Carlisle’s iron defensive line, for Callum Guy swoops in with an absolute passion-killer of a tackle. All that effort from the visitors, all that patience, just to go sideways and then to lose the ball.

This, in miniature, was United’s stamp on this FA Cup tie: their refusal to let Tranmere in during the game’s crucial phases. And yes, Micky Mellon’s side did eventually get a late goal, did make the game more nervy than it needed to be. But Carlisle had done the damage by then, and there was faith, even with a somewhat makeshift finishing XI, that they would have enough to see it through.

Taylor Charters shields the ball (Image: Ben Holmes)

Why was there such faith? A few reasons, but mainly the fact that this is what Paul Simpson’s team, his squad, just do. There can have been few grand plans that had Taylor Charters operating as a lone striker, until a youth team player could be sent on to bolster the attack, yet that’s how Carlisle functioned in the second half.

And those players, along with their peers, did admirable work. They contributed to the resourcefulness which has now put the Blues into the FA Cup second round as well as the League Two play-off places.

Let us stand and applaud the way they are doing this, the way they are refusing to be bowed by the weekly pulls and strains, how Simpson is asking for and getting solutions from all the corners of his squad; the way this train keeps on rolling.

Jon Mellish reacts after a near miss in the first half (Image: Ben Holmes)

Simpson is a believer that team spirit shows itself in collective victory rather than being artificially created by bonding activities or nights out. Wherever it comes from, it was on clear display here. It had to be.

Carlisle, having outplayed Tranmere to lead at half-time and then claiming a counter-punched second goal, impressed in how they did the work in the margins of this game to stay out in front. They pressed, they worked, they ran, they toiled.

In Tobi Sho-Silva’s case, he grafted superbly up front for the first hour, to the point where you felt he might have needed help getting off the pitch if he’d stayed on much longer.

Jordan Gibson pounces for the opening goal (Image: Ben Holmes)

In Jack Ellis’s case: gather all your superlatives and leave them here. What a shining performance this was at wing-back by the young Cumbrian. In the case of Carlisle’s central defensive three: an outstanding northern bulwark, Morgan Feeney, Paul Huntington and Jon Mellish defending proactively - each one hard, tart and astringent.

As a result: consecutive wins over Tranmere and the wild thought that even a trip to Harrogate might not be strewn with the usual landmines on Tuesday night. Strewth.

Pre-match injuries to Kristian Dennis and Jack Stretton set Simpson his latest puzzler here. Yet with Sho-Silva summoned and Gibson back from suspension, Carlisle began the game with outstanding intent.

Gibson and Taylor Charters celebrate the opener (Image: Barbara Abbott)

After a tame opening ten minutes, notable for an alert Tomas Holy save from Kane Hemmings, the rest of the first 45 was theirs. Ellis made several persistent, polished runs on the right, Gibson almost flickered in for chances, Mellish missed the target by a fraction, and then the first goal: Guy running onto his own header, Sho-Silva going through, Ross Doohan coughing the striker’s shot back up and Gibson following in.

It didn’t flatter Carlisle a jot, and they could have had more: Sho-Silva outbattling Tom Davies and almost lobbing Doohan, the striker played through again with a shot deflected wide. When, in the 43rd minute, a few random bars of ‘Walk This Way’ came on the PA system, it seemed a motto for Carlisle’s relentless direction of play.

Jayden Harris forces the ball past Dynel Simeu for Carlisle's second (Image: Ben Holmes)

Tranmere, who ditched their back three at half-time, had a case for complaint early in the second half when Dynel Simeu jumped with Holy and was penalised as his header fell into the net. The ultimatum from referee Declan Bourne looked generous in United’s favour then.

Yet in a more even second half, Carlisle still had the wit to pounce. After Harris had replaced the flagging Sho-Silva, the Blues pressed hungrily in Tranmere’s half, the sub winning the ball then getting it back from Charters before rounding Doohan and, at the second attempt, stabbing it over the line before Simeu could stab it away.

Neill Byrne pulls one back for Tranmere (Image: Barbara Abbott)

There was then a thick chunk of the game notable for Tranmere’s keenness to come back, and United’s refusal to let them. Charters, unusually in the number nine position, contributed very well and it was only after the Blues switched off at a free-kick – Holy saving from Hemmings, sub Neill Byrne heading in – that things got a little itchy.

Yet Simpson's men and boys did enough. Ellis, appropriately, cut out Tranmere’s best chance of an equaliser, intercepting Elliott Nevitt with a timely defensive dart, and a sequence of corners found the heads of Huntington and Feeney, and the gloves of Holy.

The outcome was right. The effort was admirable. This team, in negotiating so much that’s getting thrown in their path, are earning all the compliments they are getting, week upon sweat-soaked week.