What we learned from Carlisle United's draw with Harrogate

1 POSITIVES FIRST

Well, you have to start somewhere, and if Saturday was far from a perfect performance there were at least a few aspects to hold onto.

In one respect, for instance, Carlisle did something against Harrogate that they had not managed since New Year’s Day.

That is how long it had taken them to come from behind to earn a result in league football.

Luke Armstrong earned Carlisle their first comeback point since January 1 (Image: Ben Holmes)

Between the 2-1 fightback win over Port Vale on January 1 and Saturday, Carlisle had trailed in 25 of the next 32 league games and not avoided defeat in any of those.

So on this long and difficult effort to regain some missing defiance, at least they put a point on the board after suffering an initial setback.

Statistics clearly aren’t everything – United, after all, had nearly two-thirds of possession at AFC Wimbledon and look where that got them – but it is hard not to take at least some encouragement from their general dominance of play on Saturday.

Aside from possession (70 per cent to 30), Carlisle had 23 shots to four, nine on target to two, 28 touches in the opposition box to 13, forced eight saves to one, and their expected goals (xG) from the game was 2.24 compared with 0.72.

This, needless to say, shines a light on United’s inability to capitalise on all this, as much as their ability to develop it in the first place, likewise Harrogate’s ability to get a point on minimal relative output. Carlisle’s work in the final third, when it really mattered, was rarely convincing.

But in patterns at least – and the obviously positive individual aspects, such as Callum Guy and Taylor Charters’ starts, and Ethan Robson’s useful substitute cameo – there was certain evidence United were on the right lines, if not getting the job done entirely. And that’s progress from the desolation of Plough Lane.

2 THE BAD NEWS

This is, whichever way you spin it, still a rather barren run and until Carlisle regain the hard currency of winning, concerns will remain.

It is now, after all, six games in all competitions since United enjoyed a victory, their longest such sequence of the season (beating the five winless matches from late August to mid-September).

Eight games was their longest such period last season in League One. They didn’t get a single point on that run), so we are not necessarily in that sort of gloomy territory yet, thank goodness.

It's now six without a win for United in all competitions (Image: Ben Holmes)

But the Blues sorely need to find a way soon, the way other strugglers have. Accrington Stanley, for instance, have suddenly strung three consecutive wins together and are four points above the relegation zone for their efforts.

Few others in the bottom reaches of League Two are in similar form and the continued struggles of others keep Carlisle in touch.

You could almost smell the anxiety for a win in Saturday’s second half. Carlisle were never as bright as they had been in the first 45, and if that can be put down to a couple of their key starters understandably tiring (Callum Guy, Taylor Charters) and a couple of replacements forgivably rusty, it can surely also be ascribed to an uncertainty when the possibility of something better is in sight.

They simply have to get over this hurdle soon. On Tuesday it’s Walsall, third after seven wins from 11, then a Brunton Park showdown with a Cheltenham Town side who may be struggling in 17th, but have still known the winning feeling twice as often as Carlisle so far in 2024/25.

The tactical and psychological job at hand here remains acute.

3 BALANCING ACT

Back to the better side of United’s performance. In the first half, when they were often on the front foot, there just seemed a better feel and structure about the Blues.

It was not perfect but they had more lines of attack and more balance overall.

The presence of Taylor Charters appeared key to this: a left-footer on the left of the attack, operating with the attack-minded defenders Jon Mellish and Cameron Harper.

Taylor Charters helped give United better balance in the first half (Image: Ben Holmes)

Some of their link-ups had a more natural feel to it than we’ve seen from plenty of Carlisle’s other forward play so far this season.

There was a confident aspect about some of Harper’s movement, such as the shoulder-drop that got him into an excellent crossing position before the break, and some of his good positioning afterwards.

It was one of the Scot’s better games for the Cumbrians so far, and the stats say that 43 per cent of United’s attacking came down the left: the highest proportion, compared with the centre and the right.

On the opposite flank, things were more convincing before the break than after, the left-footed Dominic Sadi - apparently playing wing-back for the first time in his career – keen to run at Harrogate, with Harrison Biggins closest in support and Terell Thomas often taking up attacking positions as an outside centre-back.

Although that unit had its moments, things were not as cohesive a fit in general with that trio, and United’s ventures down the right more often relied on the individual offerings of Sadi the longer things went on.

United are probably a distance away from the point where they can play more on instinct than we’re seeing. When that day comes, progress can be made.

Until then, the search for something that clicks will have to continue. At least, in spells on Saturday, there was a little evidence of a potentially positive way in certain areas.

4 UPS AND DOWNS

A few more pluses and minuses to reflect on.

Carlisle clearly looked better for the midfield acumen of Callum Guy in his hour or so on the pitch.

The Blues’ No8 looked less rusty than one might have expected, given it was his first start for the best part of a year.

Callum Guy made a sound return to the XI but United also ran the risk of lapses after he went off (Image: Ben Holmes)

Guy retains ample experience and there seemed a little more freedom in some of Harrison Neal’s work while Guy was on the pitch, and perhaps a little less certainty after he had gone off.

That said, Neal also deserves credit for a goal-saving intervention late on when Sam Folarin threatened to make it another depressing Brunton Park afternoon, and the former Sheffield United man certainly did not hide from any of his duties at the heart of the game.

There was a later slip that might have cost United, and the Blues, as things went on, never convinced you that a damaging lapse from someone wouldn’t cost them.

The way Harrogate punched through them for the opening goal, too, was the latest example of Carlisle being too forgiving in the face of counter-attack and a ball into their box from wide.

They are still averaging two goals conceded per game – 24 from their 12 matches – and a couple of other first-half occasions saw them vulnerable to a sudden break.

This remains a team walking a certain tightrope in games, even those they statistically dominate. The Blues will have to learn to stifle as well as create, add some iron to what they are doing, reel off a couple of clean sheets close together, not the occasional isolated one.