What did we learn from Carlisle United's Exeter City defeat?

1 NOT-SO-CLEAN SHEETS

The good news is that Carlisle United are on course to emulate their First Division heroes of 1974/75. The bad news is that it isn’t a feat they’d particularly like to be chasing.

Saturday’s defeat at St James Park was the 20th consecutive game in which the Blues have conceded in the league.

Not since September’s 2-0 win over Shrewsbury Town have the Blues kept a clean sheet in League One.

Corey Whelan was recalled to the defence on Saturday (Image: Barbara Abbott)

It is the longest such spell without a league shut-out since Keith Curle’s boys of 2016/17 side went on a similar 20-game run.

And should the Cumbrians let at least one in to Oxford United next weekend, it will be their longest such sequence for 50 years.

You have to go back to 1974/75, when the Blues conceded in every game of a 22-game run in the First Division, for a worse run in terms of consistently protecting their goal in the bread and butter of the league.

The Shrewsbury game remains their solitary shut-out in this third tier campaign and Carlisle’s failure to prevent Exeter pouncing on two rebounds in Saturday’s second half leaves their defensive record, previously a source of relative strength, increasingly a weak spot now.

Some 38 goals against is the joint third worst total among League One’s 24 teams, and only three teams have a worse goal difference than the Blues’ -17.

It’s an accumulation of numbers which rams home why they are where they are – and why a clean sheet next Saturday would be particularly timely.

2 STRUGGLES AGAINST STRUGGLERS

Carlisle have faced a number of sides around them in the relegation battle this winter. Their record against them has proved damaging.

From games against Cheltenham Town, Fleetwood Town, Wigan Athletic, Reading and Exeter City in the last month and a bit, Paul Simpson’s side have accrued a single point.

That’s a paltry return indeed from five games against the sides currently in 22nd, 24th, 18th, 21st and 20th. Even a marginally better record in this spell would have seen Carlisle much more competitive in the survival battle.

Sam Lavelle and his team-mates have failed to pick up enough points against their rivals this winter (Image: Barbara Abbott)

United can only hope the fact their sporadic wins have come against sides higher up the division delivers enough benefits in the games ahead.

Their four victories have arrived against teams who, at present, are 2nd (Bolton Wanderers), 14th (Port Vale), 15th (Shrewsbury Town) and 17th (Burton Albion).

Next up it’s games against two sides in the play-off places (Oxford United and Barnsley) before another showdown with Cheltenham. And then it’s Bolton again.

By the end of January they’ll have faced four of the bottom seven twice. It all points to the job getting harder, based on how the table is presently looking.

Last season it took 46 points to stay in League One. On that basis United need another 26 from their 20 remaining games at a points-per-game average of 1.3 – a marked improvement on their current average of 0.77.

In other words – the time to make the resurgence is now.

3 DEBUTANTS

The search for hope on a deflating day took you, in many respects, to two players wearing the blue shirt for the very first time.

Luke Armstrong and Harrison Neal went straight into the side for their debuts, Simpson seeing little point in breaking the pair in gently.

Carlisle’s need is clearly urgent enough for such a call. There’s no point breaking your transfer record for a striker and not playing him, and little worth in investing in a young Premier League midfielder and leaving him kicking his heels, especially when another key middle man (Owen Moxon was on the sidelines).

Luke Armstrong came close in the second half (Image: Barbara Abbott)

Both showed some of what Simpson will hope they can bring in substantial form over the run-in and beyond.

Armstrong, the statistics show, won an impressive 11 aerial challenges during the game in Devon, a tally that far outstripped any other player on the pitch.

There were signs in that work of how Carlisle can build their way up the pitch and stay there in a better way than they’ve managed previously this season, provided the team can quickly adapt.

Armstrong couldn’t mark his debut with a goal, and perhaps should have scored with the second-half chance he volleyed against the post.

At least, though, he was there to go so close, and United have lacked that sort of predatory presence on the end of crosses. We must simply hope that Armstrong, with 90 minutes in his legs now, can quickly get up to speed.

As for Neal, he attracted plenty of praise from Simpson after the game and it certainly looked, on first evidence, an archetypal performance from the midfielder given all we have heard in recent days.

Neal topped United’s tackle count, his passing accuracy was good, he covered decent ground and showed a good awareness when breaking up some Exeter attacks.

The ex-Sheffield United man is of good stature in the middle of the pitch too and ought to add a certain physicality to United’s efforts.

He may not be like-for-like for Callum Guy in shape and style but someone with the intelligence to do the dirty work well ought to be a good addition for the long run.

Something to build on, then, with the new pair, even on a gloomy afternoon in general.

4 PACE ACE

It is not as if Dion Rankine was the standout player on the pitch. It’s not as though everything Exeter did went through the attacker on the right.

The home side were more inventive than that, and in players like Luke Harris and Jack Aitchison they had some good, young and mobile players who often popped up in places United would have preferred they hadn’t.

Yet there was also an out-ball for Exeter and it reminded you that Carlisle, right now, are not a side blessed with serious pace or a potent dribbler.

Dan Butterworth added some late dynamism to Carlisle's attacking (Image: Barbara Abbott)

Rankine, when fed in his wide position, was always keen to take on United’s left-sided defenders, and in the first half in particular he stretched and sometimes glided past Jon Mellish and Jack Robinson.

The Chelsea loanee’s final ball, his ultimate decision-making, was raw and let Carlisle off the hook at times, while some of United’s last-ditch defending, often involving Sam Lavelle, was good.

Yet he still helped Exeter move the direction of the game deep into the Blues’ territory, enabled them to get Carlisle facing their own goal.

Nobody, particularly, did that in a blue jersey until Dan Butterworth came on and put some gusto into United’s late efforts.

Whether Butterworth is ready for a run in the starting line-up is a debate to be had after his bright cameo. There is obviously a difference between cameos such as Saturday’s and proving he has the consistency of performance to warrant regular action.

Carlisle, often aiming for Armstrong in the air, did not set up to be as fluid and pacy as Exeter were, and since the departure of Omari Patrick and JK Gordon, and the more recent injury to Terry Ablade, do not have much in the way of out-and-out acceleration to call upon.

Joshua Kayode, who should soon be fit, is no slouch, but one wonders if this is a trait Simpson still might look to add before January is out, if only to give Carlisle something that can pose a few more questions of opponents, even if the answers aren’t always crystal clear.