Carlisle United 1 Barrow AFC 0: Ben Jackson has the ball on the left. The tension at Brunton Park, in the 93rd minute, is now thick and gloopy. The Barrow man drives a cross from the left, and it smashes straight into Aaron Hayden’s face.
A chance to go down, count the tweeting birds, accept some treatment, eat up a little more time? Not a bit of it. Hayden did go down but then sprung straight back up. There was an outburst of applause from the Paddock. A little message had been sent, and received.
It was one of defiance, of visible readiness to go to the end, and also of the more basic business of being whacked in the mush and things still being ok.
As Hayden's nose and teeth vibrated, it might not have been what he needed at that precise moment. But his response to it did the rest of us no harm at all. This being Carlisle United, this being a place which had not seen a home win since New Year’s Day, there still had to be some anxiety even after that, and when Andy Dallas plopped a header into the Blues’ net at minute 95 you felt the darkly inevitable had once more returned.
Another little moment of belief being sucked out of us. When will the suffering end?
Well, the assistant referee’s flag put a stop to that, killed the scampering and celebrating on the Barrow bench...and finally, finally, assured us that this was Carlisle’s day. And however it came, this was a day where destination certainly mattered more than the route taken. Points first, process later.
It was, all in all, something the Blues earned, with the nerve and will exemplified by Hayden, even if this 'derby' was never a fluent spectacle. So let the team absorb this and exhale, let them feel the wind it blows into their backs.
It is very early to assume United will be propelled forward with force as a result of a narrow win over their fellow Cumbrians, but it has to help, has to ease some shakes, has to reinforce the idea that this changed team can, after all, win, can hold on, can put bread back on the table after so much unsatisfied hunger.
And so, to Daniel Adu-Adjei. What a dynamic impression the young striker made – and what composure he also showed in deciding the game. This is what United need from their loan signings this season: impact. In the 35th minute, Adu-Adjei ambushed Theo Vassell and, pleasingly when cutting in from the left, with options to his side, did not appear troubled by the slightest ripple of indecision.
His judgement was clean, his aim true, his finish a simple treat – clipped across Paul Farman into what suddenly appeared a large expanse of net. Adu-Adjei made it look that way by the ruthless standard of his shot, which seemed to catch Farman unprepared. This was a refreshing spectacle indeed and, in the end, a crucial one.
For this never looked a game bursting with goals, and so it proved. Carlisle were the stronger first-half team by distance, powerful and snappy and, while the second half was inevitably more testing, Barrow seldom got true clarity in United territory.
All in all it was a visiting performance that lacked panache and presence. Partly this was because United made it so, but Barrow cannot be pleased with how they were kept at the margins by the Blues until Dallas stole onto a lofted cross and headed past Harry Lewis, not realising Vassell had wandered offside a split-second before.
“Unlucky, lads,” tweeted Carlisle, flushed with bravado all of a sudden. The road to that point was initially good, later tricky but rarely as neurotic as it threatened to be given United's aching long wait for a happy afternoon at HQ, which was flush with nearly 10,000 fans and those shiny Piatak-ordered new facilities.
Barrow got an early glimpse of goal, Robbie Gotts arriving onto a far-post cross, but little else in a forceful first half from United. It was football from the more muscular end of things, rather than delicate, but it established good territory and set the tone. Ben Barclay unfurled some long throws, Josh Vela led the press, Harrison Neal tackled with bite, and Barrow were denied space.
Half-chances, from this platform, were built, for Vela and Ben Barclay and while Elliot Newby failed to take one for the visitors, the direction of travel was overwhelmingly Carlisle’s. Adu-Adjei was a growing nuisance, pressing and harrying Stephen Clemence’s defenders, having a sniff of a penalty when Jackson blocked his shot – no handball, ref Matt Corlett judged – and then, after Hayden had headed against the outside of the post, the young striker burgled the winner from the stumbling Vassell.
United, via further Barclay and Neal shots, kept things in Barrow’s half for long enough and the intrigue then was how they would consolidate an unusual position of advantage: a psychological matter as much as a strategic one. First task was to negotiate the recently-tricky early second-half period, which they did, though Clemence’s side developed more spells on the ball as Carlisle sat deeper, looked less spiky and more functional and, one imagines, more worried as things ticked on towards that yearned-for result.
Clemence’s changes came before the hour (United had replaced the hamstrung Terell Thomas with Sam Lavelle at the break) and sought more width through Katia Kouyate and more punch with Ged Garner, who came on for the isolated Emile Acquah. Garner nosed onto an early chance, United almost responded via Ben Williams (after more Adu-Adjei pressing against Vassell) and Barrow often looked to the trickery of Connor Mahoney on the right, which always kept Carlisle engaged but never truly unlocked them.
More changes came, Williams replaced with a bash to the shin after another diligent display, Georgie Kelly on for Wyke and failing to lob Farman from long range while Archie Davies, who looks a find, remained a lively outlet. Barrow increasingly set the pace in possession, and Kian Spence went close with a low drive, and one feared the kind of late sting that fate, and a troublesome late period, might supply against a side not accustomed to seeing things through.
Goalkeeper Farman, up for a late set-piece against his former club, tried to engineer it with chaos. Carlisle cleared the first ball but Barrow rebuilt and the hoicked cross found substitute Dallas, who buried it past Lewis. Seconds later the striker glimpsed the bright yellow fabric of the linesman’s flag and the visitors’ joy dissolved. Cumbria, once more, was Carlisle’s and – more importantly in the context of, well, everything – so were the points. After all the angst, all those blows to the face, let this be day one of an overdue and welcome rise.
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