Colchester United 0-0 Carlisle United: Jon Colman's verdict

Can’t win, don’t lose. It’s one of the game’s oldest articles of faith and something that, in the recent past, Carlisle have almost completely failed to observe. In the home defeats to Grimsby Town and Notts County, United, whatever enterprise they showed at times, had looked the opposite of a side that was difficult to beat: item one on a struggling side’s checklist.

Thanks goodness that, at Colchester, they could give it a firm tick. In goal, Harry Lewis was excellent. In front of him, the error/risk count was low.

This, in terms of establishing the basis for recovery, is critical. The good defensive habits United showed in Essex must now be shown to be repeatable. The rest – the attacking, the passing, the flow, which was good for half a game here – can be developed. But don’t get out of bed unless you can be sound at the negative side of the game.

Harrison Neal joins the defensive effort (Image: Richard Parkes)

Is this over-egging a goalless draw against a side from mid-table? Maybe. But context is all. And Carlisle’s context, at 3pm, was seven defeats from nine, a couple of inadequate home performances, an ongoing shoulder-glance at the relegation zone and the risk of extending a mini losing run early into a new head coach’s reign.

None of those circumstances are to be taken lightly when it comes to hoping better things are in reach. So credit United for the point, for the nil, before going at the lesser aspects of this performance, such as their failure to make good on their best first-half spell, or their difficulty in spinning Colchester around when Danny Cowley’s side put their teeth in at half-time.

Individually, the nil rewarded certain players too. Each display like this from Lewis puts welcome distance between the keeper and the struggling days of 2023/24 and some of the challenging early ones of this season. United’s No1 was outstanding, alert, defiant. The defenders in front of him had their lights on in terms of concentration. Tick, tick.

Josh Vela's first-half shot is saved (Image: Richard Parkes)

The rest of the showing? Good at times, less so others; an exhibition of good and positive control followed by a less convincing spell where they failed to disrupt Colchester’s flow. United as the prevailing team for a full 90 minutes under Williamson is yet to be witnessed. Still early days and all that. This was always more likely to be a staged recovery than an about-turn.

The JobServe Community Stadium has never been a home from home for United. Colchester paraded Olympic boxing medallist Lewis Richardson before the game. Yet Carlisle then forced Cowley’s side against the ropes the longer the first period went on.

After a tricky start, which saw Mandela Egbo head over a free-kick and Samson Tovide waste a good left-channel break, Carlisle’s shape settled. Their press became more confident, their use of the ball pleasingly mixed in terms of short passing and longer ideas, their composure in decision-making largely sound.

Luke Armstrong tries to get the better of Tom Flanagan (Image: Richard Parkes)

Josh Vela could – should – have scored when breaking beyond Tom Flanagan, Matt Macey saving. Jon Mellish had a shot blocked, and Charlie Wyke, dropping off the frontline, proved a linchpin for Carlisle’s counter-attacking which Colchester struggled to restrain. United won the ball back well, kept it in the home half.

It lacked the precision of a telling final ball, and this was United’s main first-half flaw. The rest encouraged, and when Jack Payne nipped in front of Cameron Harper to volley wide for Colchester, it was a rare moment indeed for the hosts.

Carlisle reached the interval in good shape if in need of better delivery from wide areas. Yet the likelihood was always that Cowley would rejig and push Colchester onto them in the second half, and so it occurred. Fiacre Kelleher added size to their defence as well as a more proactive presence around Wyke, and fellow sub JK Gordon (once of this parish) took up position on the attacking left.

United were seldom as confident faced with this reshaped and more eager U’s. Lewis’ first save of serious note came when Payne’s shot took a nasty deflection. Carlisle then had corners to survive, had to show structural firmness with the ball now largely in their half. Sam Lavelle headed a Blues corner wide on the hour mark but that was about it for Cumbrian attacking.

Williamson made changes, Mellish escaped a second yellow, Lewis denied Lyle Taylor and Payne then reprieved United by shooting wide after giving Lavelle the slip. A while later, the ball arrived for Arthur Read outside the box and the midfielder’s connection was clean, dangerous and true.

Colchester sub JK Gordon fires over the bar late on against his former club (Image: Richard Parkes)

Lewis was on his toes, ready for action. His diving save was smart and, truthfully, that’s also as close as Colchester got again. There was more attacking, more set-pieces, more crosses, more skirmishes, more complaints at referee Thomas Parsons (the day ending in a -y, after all) and not enough poise or disrupting idea from United in terms of the direction of play, their attackers and supporting ideas faded.

But there was plenty enough of the other stuff: the horrible, backs-to-wall defiant stuff which has been too alien at United for too long. We are far from the place where a 0-0 draw on the road can be dismissed as insufficient and, as much as United will need to go on a brighter journey in the long run, you have to start somewhere. Let it be here.