Big match verdict: Carlisle United 5-1 Barrow AFC

The noise, the fury, the sheer Cumbrian ecstasy of it?

This must go down as 2022/23’s most memorable Carlisle United night – until the next one, at least. It is four wins in a row, six in seven, a place in the top three, and so much superiority in a so-called derby it was almost embarrassing.

For Barrow, you can probably delete the ‘almost’. The majority of fans, in this ground’s biggest midweek league attendance for 15 years, could not have enjoyed it more. That the south Cumbrians were sent back down the road on the end of a shoeing for the ages was a huge dollop of icing on the already yummy cake.

Jon Mellish scores the first (Image: Ben Holmes)

Here, after all the carnage, are the facts. Carlisle are third, two points clear of fourth, in the automatic promotion race for real and, week by week, looking very much at home there.

They made Barrow, a supposed contender, look beneath them on this rainswept night. All this, too, after Paul Simpson gave his team a considerable refreshing.

The bad news for Barrow was that two of the refreshers were Garner and Patrick. Great credit, too, must go to Ben Barclay: on his first start since August a solid, unsung contributor on the right of the defence.

Barrow also made changes, but Pete Wild’s side, apart from a first-half period, were strangers to the idea of taming an eventually rampant Carlisle. Cumbria was the deeper shade of blue, all right.

Garner jumps for joy after making it 2-0 (Image: Ben Holmes)

And United were the most forceful element, even on a night of wild wind and rain – and even though it took a while for this to come about.

Carlisle, to begin with, showed an eagerness to get the ball forward early and to the left, looking to apply early aerial pressure in the wind, yet little dropped in the opening stages. Owen Moxon almost played in Jordan Gibson, Patrick almost found a way through after Garner won a header, but Barrow stood their ground well, by and large.

They gave United a tremor of their own when Patrick Brough cruised into space and saw his cross poorly defended before Elliott Newby crashed a shot into a home defender. Then Wild’s team grew into their passing game, working the ball with greater confidence, Carlisle’s rejigged side not finding much flow through the middle.

Jon Mellish and Ben Barclay celebrate (Image: Barbara Abbott)

After Garner had narrowly failed to meet a Morgan Feeney header, Wild’s side broke with bite, Josh Kay missing the target after cutting into space from the right. More constructive Barrow passing sent it wide to Tyrell Warren, whose looping cross had Holy backpedalling, the ball striking the crossbar and United escaping.

How deceptive this all now looks, in hindsight. Simpson’s moving of Mellish into midfield had the desired disrupting effect, yet he cannot have expected Barrow to crack and crumble so dramatically.

Mellish, who it was later revealed played through the personal worry of his father’s ill health, was - is - a marvel. He almost scored on the half-hour, burrowing onto a Gibson flick but denied by the alert Paul Farman. Then he did: Barclay winning a decisive header on the edge of the Bluebirds box, George Ray’s judgement failing him, and the defender’s indecision enough for Mellish to fly in and, despite being held (and, let's be frank, despite being offside) slot the ball under Farman.

Omari Patrick is mobbed by Callum Guy after making it 4-0 (Image: Barbara Abbott)

Brunton Park was in uproar – though in one respect, overly so, given the smoke device that suddenly landed in the Warwick Road End penalty area. Expect another letter from the FA, more messages about “fan behaviour”.

The half-time lead was not emphatic but Carlisle, not for the first time, had managed their way through a game’s testing spells and then found a way. Then, six minutes into the second half, Garner truly cranked things up.

Even as it happened, it felt like a big moment in the context of Carlisle’s ambitions: their tooled-up strike force showing its menace, their new, old crowd favourite baring his teeth. In the context of this game, it brought about bedlam, as United’s number 41, on his fourth full home debut, received the ball on the left from a fine Moxon pass, made his way infield and then whacked it inside Farman’s near post, via a Barrow boot.

Welcome back, indeed. You can imagine the noise that tore around the old ground, how many decibels there were behind the chant of “Ooh, Joey Garner…” It was accompanied by what appeared a decisive sharpness and spikiness about the Blues, who tackled as well as passed Barrow back down the M6.

Jamie Devitt celebrates with Kristian Dennis after the latter's penalty made it 5-1 (Image: Barbara Abbott)

Patrick almost cut in for a third, and Wild, on the hour, brought on Josh Gordon and Billy Waters. They were necessary measures for a Barrow who, despite feeling they were getting little from referee Andrew Kitchen, had also been watery in terms of true goal threat.

But then Carlisle sliced and diced them: Gibson playing Mellish in for another, then Moxon - a class above, once more - unselfishly assisting Patrick.

Barrow were broken, such strangers to United’s half they appeared to need a compass to find their way towards Holy’s area late on. Simpson inflicted JK Gordon, Dennis and Jamie Devitt on them for the finale, Barclay's own-goal gave Barrow the thinnest of headed consolations, then United’s Gordon drew a Farman trip and Dennis’s penalty wrapped up what, let’s be honest, will instantly go down as the classic Carlisle United night of recent times.

Until the next one, that is.