What we learned from Carlisle United's loss to Grimsby Town

1 LEAKS OPEN BACK UP

And so, after the rare high of a clean sheet the previous weekend, things went back to familiar type for Carlisle United in terms of goals conceded.

The three they shipped to Grimsby Town mean the Blues now have the joint worst defensive record in the EFL.

Only Cardiff City, bottom of the Championship, can match United’s record of 17 against.

It’s a dreadful record to date, the Blues averaging more than two goals a game in their own net in League Two, and highlights an obvious structural weakness Mike Williamson has to address before all else.

United now have the joint worst defensive record in the EFL (Image: Ben Holmes)

It is no good, after all, improving the ball-playing technique and systems of a side if they are going to be this short at some of the defensive basics.

Williamson felt fatigue, and an associated lack of concentration, was behind the way United conceded two late on. This is no doubt a damaging cocktail of physical fitness, psychological struggle and the incremental consequence of a side that had lost its way strategically in the second half.

The result, numerically, is another stroke in a dismal pattern. Their eight league games this season have seen Carlisle let in 4, 0, 3, 2, 2, 3, 0 and 3.

Oh for a resolve such as that possessed by Gillingham, who have conceded an entire total of two goals in the same period, and sit top of the table despite scoring just two more than the Cumbrians.

2 LOSS LEADERS

Here’s another concerning stat, and it may seem an obvious one, but it’s still telling in terms of where Carlisle find themselves.

The Blues have lost more games than anyone else in League Two at this stage.

Six from eight is the record and not even the two sides beneath them have come unstuck so often in that respect.

Carlisle have also now lost four games by a single goal, having got themselves level or into the lead in all of those fixtures.

Nobody in League Two has lost more games than Carlisle (Image: Ben Holmes)

It is not just their inability to force victories in them that concerns, but their failure even to tough out a draw. A point on Saturday, from the half-time position, would have been a blow but one not half as deflating as that they suffered when Grimsby scored their winner.

Carlisle failed to make a step or two up the table as a result and while, at this still early stage, things remain relatively tight, the situation will become even more concerning if United cannot gain enough results to keep them honest while other sides around them find a little form.

Second-bottom Morecambe, believe it or not, are now unbeaten in three, and if those games have all been draws – Saturday’s from a winning position – there are still signs, from a distance, of a certain spirit developing from the Shrimps’ cobbled-together squad.

Morecambe, and bottom side Accrington Stanley, clearly have their issues, and don’t have a victory between them yet. In the end it’s points that matter.

But United must be wary of any wider patterns, and have to do enough to guard against the kind of revival that’s bound to occur with one or two of the strugglers. They have to go on that improving journey themselves.

3 A FOUNDATION?

It might be easy to describe it as straw-clutching to focus heavily on how Carlisle played in the first half. That would indeed be fair comment, in truth.

However. As this season is about looking for a new way, a style of play that is designed to make United are more interesting and lasting proposition, there must still be something to take from the first 45 minutes.

There has to be. Remarkably, after all, it is the first time Carlisle have scored two goals in the first half of a league game since April 7, 2023, when Kristian Dennis put a brace past Tranmere Rovers.

United's first-half performance was the clearest sign of Williamson's coaching so far (Image: Ben Holmes)

United, until the break, were positive in their work, dangerous when they broke and showed some further set-piece aptitude with a well-worked Sam Lavelle goal.

It had the stamp of a new way and these aspects have to be the foundation of what they go on and do. It was clear, in how they played in that period, how Williamson and his staff have attempted to re-coach the team in a short space of time, and improvement was visible there.

Squaring the entire circle is of course the trickier bit and the drop-off in the second half was concerning. Carlisle did not seem to have the energy to confront Grimsby’s changes and while David Artell made five substitutions, Williamson made just the two, and none sooner than the 87th minute.

He was aiming to make a couple before Grimsby scored their second goal but things seemed to be calling for an overhaul before then, yet the head coach decided that the options to hand were not convincing enough for the particular task.

Again, that’s a worry regarding squad depth right now and perhaps also how the new boss regards the game-changing characteristics of some of what he’s inherited.

It points, all in all, to United’s recovery being a job of many parts, one of which is coaching, but others that involve psychology, the injury list and, dare we say it, recruitment again down the line. None of which will complete the full package overnight.

4 THE WAIT GOES ON

Saturday’s game was a good one for Grimsby. They recorded back-to-back league wins for the first time since March 2023.

Carlisle were waiting a similar length of time for such a feat. Their second-half collapse duly prolonged things further.

United, as we know, have been strangers to the clean sheet for too long as well, and the weekend saw the chance missed to put two of those together at long last.

April 2023 is the last time that happened, when Paul Simpson’s promotion-chasers enjoyed three shut-outs on the spin.

As a sign of the change in the intervening period, just a single player who started April 15’s 0-0 draw with Northampton Town was in Saturday’s XI (Ben Barclay), and just four of the matchday squad are still at the club (Barclay, Jon Mellish, Callum Guy, Jack Robinson).

Sam Lavelle has performed well under Williamson so far but on Saturday it counted for nothing (Image: Ben Holmes)

This makes it harder to spend too much time giving a certain amount of credit where it is due. And it is probably due in the case of Sam Lavelle, who was again one of United’s better players on Saturday, but had nothing to show for it in the end.

Lavelle, who was strong in the win at Swindon Town, opened the scoring on Saturday and had an excellent defensive first half. He did not seem to do a great deal wrong after the break but nobody in particular can carry away with them an armful of praise when Carlisle conceded as they did.

The back line remained too easy to conquer when those crosses were coming in, and that will tell their forthcoming opponents something - and the rest of us that, collectively, things are still short. Work to do, then, and plenty of it.