Gillingham 4-1 Carlisle United: Jon Colman's verdict

Optimists will lean to A). They will agree with the interpretation that this “wasn’t a 4-1 game”, that Carlisle did many good things; that there was, at times, genuine and new energy about their game, and that a couple of key moments, had they been flipped, could have changed the scoreline entirely.

Those feasting worriedly on what happened at Priestfield will opt for B), and, let’s be honest, can they be blamed? Yes, United’s performance, in general, was not shocking. But the decisive incidents were, the outcome certainly was, and when you’re trying to set a new tone after a wretched campaign, an opener like this…well, to be kind, it doesn’t help.

Let’s also break down the idea Carlisle played well. Which, in certain departments, they did. But which also, in others, they emphatically did not. Football is a game not just of patterns but of managing moments. United’s hold on the major ones in Kent was dire.

Less than two minutes had gone when Harry Lewis spilled a cross and, from a second bite in the penalty area, Gillingham scored through Tim Dieng. Less than two minutes of the second half had passed when Terell Thomas coughed up another goal, finished tidily by Jacob Wakeling.

Aaron Hayden with a headed chance for Carlisle (Image: Richard Parkes)

Before that, Charlie Wyke had missed the kind of chance a striker of his pedigree should take blindfolded. After it, the idea of Carlisle attacking this season with new stubbornness came under painful assault, Jack Nolan and Jonny Williams smacking two more late goals into the Cumbrian net.

That’s a lot of things to go against you, a lot of circumstantial objection to the idea of a good display. It is true that Carlisle, at their first-half best, looked better, sharper, more muscular than they often appeared when tumbling to League One relegation last season.

• READ MORE: Gillingham v Carlisle United - as it happened

But 4-1 is no sort of argument that things have changed decisively. By the end it felt achingly familiar and that’s the concern that comes out of game one of 46. That everyone watching it has read this story before. It is, naturally, a single afternoon, and there is no law to say it will continue in this manner. Who knows what a positive display and result, soon, could do for the belief of a reshaped team with some individuals who were not part of 2023/24's struggle?

Yet the wait cannot be a long one, surely, given the context. A brighter occasion, one feels, must come against Barrow next Saturday if more supporters are not going to leap immediately off the cliff of belief.

Carlisle need that, Paul Simpson needs that, we all need that. We did not need this: a game of frustration, of qualified improvement damned by events, by costly episodes. United, as we know, approached it with one injury incident after another, a new wing-back (Ben Williams) spirited into the side at short notice and, little more than 90 seconds in, a shoddy way of conceding: Lewis coming, spilling, Aaron Rowe shooting into a defender, Dieng rifling the next one into the net.

Hello darkness. Still here, are you? United then chased the light, and the rest of the first half saw the Blues positive. They fed the ball forward, pressed behind it, snapped into Gillingham, worked angles and opportunities with good urgency and good pace. The hosts fell back behind the ball but were also pushed onto their heels by Carlisle.

On the left, Williams was encouraging in his work. On the right, Archie Davies was front-foot. Josh Vela was proactive in the press, and their defence handled the ball well enough.

The Piataks, United's owners, watched the opening-day defeat at Priestfield (Image: Richard Parkes)

From all this, glimpses emerged: Williams’ inswinging free-kick that just eluded Aaron Hayden, Vela shooting over when racing into space, Williams serving Dan Adu-Adjei in front of goal (Williams was offside, alas), Harrison Neal with a shot blocked. All in the first ten minutes.

Carlisle filled their lungs, came for more. Ben Barclay, in midfield, curled over after another piece of left-sided enterprise, Hayden fired over when served by a cross, Davies put a diving header wide. The hosts’ own flurries were tame, Rowe denied by a block, Remeao Hutton's ambitious wide-angled shot not worrying Lewis.

Then came United again, Jon Mellish bursting forth and testing Jake Turner in the home goal, Wyke shooting wide when well served by Vela, who then ambushed Max Ehmer, went down under his challenge but failed to earn the penalty that looked, at first viewing, credible. Then the platinum chance: Gillingham missing a cross, Wyke composed in his control but imprecise in his finish, the ball cracking the bar.

Hmm. Carlisle trailed at the break when they should have been level, minimum. This kept things unduly precarious…and then Gillingham pushed them off the bridge. Thomas’ pass for Barclay was poor, Wakeling gobbled it up and went through to score.

Harry Lewis is beaten by Jonny Williams' shot for Gillingham's fourth (Image: Richard Parkes)

United regrouped and eventually forced a way back, Mellish – now in midfield – driving onto a Williams cross and forcing his shot home. But it was a fragile recovery bearing in mind Ehmer and Conor Masterson both found gaping space in Carlisle’s box minutes later and then, after sub Dan Butterworth had curled a free-kick just wide, Gillingham powered at the loosening Blues and killed things: Nolan hurdling Ben Williams’ tired lunge before battering a shot past Lewis, then Jonny Williams, who played a canny midfield hand after coming on as sub, lasering one home from outside the box after an 87th-minute free-kick.

Off Williams cantered, pursued by blue and white shirts. Off Carlisle trudged, as green as their own jerseys, left to try and put a thrashing into context. Same as last season? Well, no, but also, unavoidably…yes.