Carlisle United 0 Stoke City 2: Carlisle's hopes of a gutsy Carabao Cup evening were alive by halfway but stone dead by the end. Stoke’s superior pace and quality, and Carlisle's familiar inability to make their better moments go in their favour, eventually took this first round tie well beyond the Blues.
At the 45-minute mark Carlisle were justifiably in the game following an even and competitive opening period. Yet the margins are finer than normal against opponents such as this and the Blues, as we know, are not - to be generous - yet acquainted with the winning habit.
One trait they are very close chums with is the practice of conceding early in the second half. When their defending came unstitched at a Stoke set-piece in the 48th minute it was the sixth time in consecutive games that they've shipped a goal soon after the restart.
Their last four friendlies, their league opener, and now here: a faulty pattern that's not helping an already precarious hold on the idea of getting on top of a game and staying there. Once Freddie Anderson had headed Steven Schumacher's side into the lead, the notion of Carlisle delivering a memorable Carabao Cup night started to fade.
Anderson, only 17 and making his first-team debut, was one of a number of enviably talented young Stoke players on show here, not least also Emre Tezgel, who put the lid on things with an 80th-minute second. In the case of Anderson and Lewis Koumas, on loan from Liverpool, they have considerable family footballing pedigree too (as the sons of Viv and Jason respectively).
They flourished, ultimately, at Carlisle's expense. Paul Simpson's side gave the Championship team some discomfort to begin with yet the wait for a home victory in competitive football since New Year's Day goes on.
Losing to a team two levels above you is not the occasion to go in hard on United's shortcomings. As at Gillingham there were periods of encouragement here, times you could see a positive way forward, yet it came encased in overall failure and only when Carlisle put the full package in front of us (please, please let it come against Barrow on Saturday) can true hope return.
In isolation this could be written down as a fair effort against a fine side. Context, though, pursues United early in 2024/25 - the losing form that hastened their League One decline, and now two Ls to start the new campaign.
Shift those clouds, Carlisle, and quickly. With consistency and finding a better groove in mind, Simpson kept changes minimal here, Jack Ellis for Ben Williams the only change to his XI, while Schumacher was content to swap eight starters.
For the last time before the refurbished East Stand (and Warwick Road End) is thrown open to home fans, Blues supporters were all on the ground’s west side. Those in the Main Stand and Paddock saw Stoke settle into an early possession game before Carlisle found a few ways to punch holes on the break.
A third-minute cross by the livewire Koumas, at which Harry Lewis rather flapped, was an early concern but it was the last such worry in an otherwise good and, in light of events at Gillingham, encouraging half from Carlisle’s keeper. In the opening stages, Jon Mellish, typically, was United’s outlet with his bursts down the left, and the Blues gradually gained ground.
A flurry of chances at both ends duly came. For United, Archie Davies twice appeared in good attacking positions, first curling over the bar from outside the box, then shooting wide when Carlisle kept a corner alive.
These moments resulted from the Blues attacking as a unit and competing hard in the middle ground. Yet Stoke’s pace in response was a concern, Niall Ennis shooting across goal and narrowly wide, before Carlisle came again with Harrison Neal, whose low drive shook some of the dust from Frank Fielding’s gloves on the veteran keeper's Stoke debut.
Koumas, on the Stoke left, blended trickery with nimble pace but Lewis was equal to his powerful shot, then the Blues keeper was swiftly off his line to save when Ennis broke clear. Schumacher had his head in his hands when Koumas failed to complete another fluent run with an accurate cross…and again when, on the half hour, they hit the bar: Lewis off his line to deny Ennis, and Sol Sidibe lifting the follow-up against the woodwork.
Carlisle battled to make good on these reprieves, and worked the ball well at times, Josh Vela trying to drive them forward but Stoke always displaying greater control in possession. Yet some good hunger from United earned a free-kick from which Neal, breaking onto a clearance, set up Wyke, but the striker guided his first-time finish wide.
Nothing wrong with the Blues’ appetite, but not enough right with their work, ultimately, in these positions, it must be said. A couple of minutes into the second half, an enterprising Davies run created a free-kick opportunity Carlisle couldn’t take. A short while later, Aaron Hayden caught the dangerous Koumas and the resulting free-kick, initially worked short, found Anderson towering into space at the far post to meet Lewis Baker's delivery, United’s marking suspect as the young defender’s header found its way past Lewis and in.
That is all it takes to let good opponents through, and Stoke were on their toes from here. Million Manhoef was millimetres from nailing the contest shut, his curling shot hitting the underside of the bar. After a brace of Carlisle changes, Luke Armstrong and Williams on, Ellis - now on the right - combined with Harrison Neal, who was denied by Fielding. From a later corner, Ben Barclay’s header was nearly hooked in by the relentless Mellish, the post thwarting him and Stoke defiant on the line.
United never got the Stoke target as clear in their vision again, Wyke's line-leading and Armstrong's chasing not coming with the addition of true service. The visitors zipped through the lines, Ennis just failing to connect with a Daniel Johnson cross in front of goal, but then Tezgel emerging from a triple substitution to fasten onto a through ball and his shot looping in, despite Lewis' attempted save and Hayden's forlorn chase, flattening for good Carlisle's aspirations.
The task - and its importance cannot be overstated - is to reinflate them against Barrow, when Carlisle's performance will determine the tone of where they go much more than this one.
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