Carlisle United look in need of reinforcements at Doncaster Rovers

Perhaps this was the inevitable consequence – one they’ve fought like mad to avoid for much of this promising season – of injury upon injury upon injury. There was, naturally, another one here, and a thinning squad did look in need of some January transfer window assistance on the first day of the year. 

All the same – in performance it was still a different sort of statement to those made in their previous festive games. A late Kristian Dennis goal was far from enough, and two empty weeks now face Paul Simpson’s men as they chew on this defeat before trying to put it right.

That 13-day interim will ideally see additions. It is plain that some are needed to reinforce United’s fourth-placed challenge and simply maintain a competitive basis of professionals in the face of all their injuries. Jack Stretton limped off hamstrung here, joining a glut of other sidelined attackers, pointing the finger at one of several areas Simpson will surely address. 

Jack Stretton, right, limps off (Image: Richard Parkes)

Another may be the defensive right, where Carlisle have lost their two first-choice wing-backs of the first half of the season, and saw a third, the recently-returned Joel Senior, suffer a bad start to life back in the side with the error that allowed Doncaster’s James Maxwell to score in the fifth minute.

Senior, to his credit, grew into the game after that cold moment. But he is probably to soon into his comeback from a cruciate lay-off to be regarded as a weekly reliable. In terms of this performance, Carlisle’s better spells were too temporary and too belated, their efforts always at the mercy of a killing Doncaster second, which Kyle Hurst duly provided.

It did not flatter the hosts, who were more confident and capable in general. United looked more disjointed than they often have, and so a hopeful promotion push now goes on the shelf until January 14, when Newport County visit Brunton Park. 

After their 3-0 2022 sign-off at Crewe had offered further evidence of their resourcefulness under Simpson, this always looked a higher test, against Doncaster from the middle of their division; a side attempting to rebound into the play-off picture. The teamsheet offered welcome news for Senior, who was handed his first start since last February, with Kristian Dennis also recalled in attack as Taylor Charters and Jack Ellis began injury lay-offs. 

United then set foot into the year...and immediately misstepped. The truth is that the hosts had unsettled the Blues even before their early goal, George Miller getting the wrong side of Paul Huntington and Ben Close drawing an early block from the Carlisle defence, before the moment in the fifth minute which hit home like a New Year’s Day hangover. 

Doncaster strike in the fifth minute (Image: Richard Parkes)

Carlisle were initially found out at a throw-in, which enabled the hosts to cross low through the six-yard box. From there, it was a nightmare for Senior, whose attempt to deal with the danger failed to the extent that the ball rolled through his feet to Maxwell, who clipped it too comfortably across Tomas Holy from a narrow angle. 

If Senior could ascribe that to a shortage of match readiness, there was little mitigation for the rather pallid start which continued from Simpson’s XI. Doncaster, building and moving well behind Miller’s line-leading, with Luke Molyneux and Kyle Hurst often elusive to the Blues' defence and midfield, almost wriggled through for a second via Hurst, and after Charlie Seaman evaded a red card for a high challenge on Jack Armer - a different ref might easily have upgraded the yellow shown - Holy was grateful his risky judgement when leaving a Close attempt was on the mark by millimetres, as the shot dipped against the crossbar and away.

It then became grimly apparent that the injury curse had followed Carlisle into 2023, just 25 minutes of the game having passed when Stretton went down. Tobi Sho-Silva was his replacement, to the left of the attack, and that coincided with a phase of slightly better United play, Jon Mellish pushed into midfield and Owen Moxon firing just wide. 

Jon Mellish on the attack for Carlisle (Image: Richard Parkes)

United, now with a back four, seemed to gain an improved tactical foothold, but their efforts in the final third remained thin, their ability to penetrate in wide areas only occasional, Moxon and Jordan Gibson largely stifled by Danny Schofield's middle men. Jayden Harris for Gibson was Simpson’s next decision, at half-time, and Carlisle in general emerged with more life about them from here. 

After absorbing a Molyneux shot, they pressed and pushed Doncaster with better purpose. Senior, bright down the right, almost served Sho-Silva, before a Moxon piledriver left Ro-Shaun Williams in need of treatment.

A later Moxon free-kick just eluded Mellish in the box and this was, in general, more hopeful fayre for the increasingly vocal 1,222 away supporters to belatedly enjoy.

It was, though, Doncaster who still wielded the sharper knife. After Hurst coughed up a sitter, when Holy parried a Maxwell shot into his path, he sniffed out the home side’s second from close range after Miller had punctured Carlisle’s defence and rounded Holy, who was neither in one place nor the other. 

A late Morgan Feeney header misses the target (Image: Richard Parkes)

The Blues, at this forlorn point, did not appear to have a revival in them. It took Simpson until the 82nd minute to introduce Jamie Devitt, a late attempt to shake things up from a distant position, and Carlisle came on strongly towards the end, going rather more direct, and Dennis latching onto a Sho-Silva flick to dispatch his 14th of the season past Jonathan Mitchell.

That, though, was a rare case of the home No1 finding himself in the line of fire. He parried a further Dennis attempt, and later watched a Morgan Feeney header miss the target, but Carlisle's remaining XI, including those on as back-up, did not do enough of substance.

Overall this was one of the thankfully rare days in 2022/23 that was about what Carlisle did not have, rather than what they did. It takes no genius to conclude how important the market will now be in that vital, mid-season department.