What did we learn from Carlisle United's game against Wigan?

1 WIND OF CHANGE?

We need to talk about Gabe Breeze. But not for long.

The decision is surely clear enough without labouring the point, and the young Cumbrian must have done enough to keep the jersey for Carlisle’s next league game.

There was very little that the 20-year-old from Penrith did wrong against the Latics, and plenty that he did right.

Gabe Breeze impressed against Wigan (Image: Ben Holmes) The stats say Breeze, having been given a chance in the side in place of Harry Lewis, made 12 saves throughout the game.

Some of those were excellent, particularly in the second half of normal time when Wigan cranked up the pressure.

Just as impressive was the keeper’s general demeanour and his approach to his other duties. He was proactive with his punching and safe in his handling. His presence, when the ball was coming into his zone, was strong.

Carlisle, in January, clearly invested plenty of money and faith in Harry Lewis. He has had an unbroken run in the side in the league ever since his debut against Oxford United on January 13.

Lewis has had some good games this season, some lesser ones, but, given United’s predicament, there need be no sentiment or leaps of faith or pride to get in the way of a cold-eyed call.

What they need is the best man for the job, right now, and it is very hard, after watching Breeze’s characterful showing on Saturday, to argue that he is not that man – or at least worth the chance to reinforce the idea. The time feels right to find out, not hold the possibility back.

2 FIGHTING SPIRIT

It finished in defeat, yes, and in the end Wigan’s claiming of a place in the second round is the only outcome that truly counts.

This, though, was a cup tie of particular circumstances and there has to be a positive reading of the way United handled many of them.

Ethan Robson’s red card – on second viewing, it did look a harsh decision – could have pulled the rug from under a struggling side but for the period that followed it had the opposite effect.

Harrison Neal typified Carlisle's fighting spirit (Image: Ben Holmes)

It whipped the crowd into a defiant mood straight away and that kind of gusto has not been heard at Brunton Park for a while now, understandably given the series of bleak results and performances.

Carlisle's players also went about the challenge with both character and skill, as if feeding off the heightened atmosphere. They rendered Wigan’s efforts rather marginal until half-time and, through a couple of telling set-pieces and some sharp attacking movement, created a couple of very good chances themselves.

United’s inability to take them shone a certain light on an ongoing problem which, naturally, needs fixing. If this was to be a cup upset then the Blues really had to strike when the force was with them – and if they are to make progress in the league, ditto.

It was also clear enough how they lost their sharpest attacking outlets once Tyler Burey gradually faded after a lively first start, and Dan Adu-Adjei was also replaced on the hour - both substitutions perfectly understandable, yet neither strengthening the cause.

Yet it is very hard to be over-critical given how Carlisle put everything on the line to keep the Latics at bay overall.

The visitors racked up 27 shots by the end and, considering it took until the 104th minute for them to put one away, and the other goal was stroked into an empty net with nearly the final kick, Carlisle’s baseline defending and goalkeeping was evidently strong.

The rearguard action that defined almost all the second half and the opening stages of extra-time was always going to be hard to maintain without being broken. United, a man down, needed more of a late outlet than they could muster. And a replay, which would have been the outcome had the Premier League not stamped their precious little feet, would have been a more appropriate conclusion, all in all.

But there was a reason the lowest weekend home crowd of the season gave them such a warm send-off despite the finale and, in terms of the 90 minutes, it was only a second clean sheet of the season at home – and their first against higher-league FA Cup opposition since 2018. A solid and competitive benchmark for what needs to follow.

3 UNDERDOG STATUS

2024/25 was not supposed to be one that cast Carlisle as lowly upstarts. They were going to embark on a promotion push, a bounce-back surge. Come May they would own the north and a place in League One again.

Well, that’s not going to happen. Instead, the immediate job and indeed the mission for the foreseeable is to make United more competitive in order to move away from the wrong end of the fourth tier.

That is going to be the task in front of them for some time, and perhaps there was something in the psychology of Saturday’s performance that may guide them.

United showed the kind of defiance against higher-rated opposition that they must summon again and again in the league (Image: Ben Holmes)

Maybe, given their particular predicament right now, the time for thinking big needs to be parked. Instead, is it the moment for United to think a little smaller?

That might not fit the ambitious vision painted by their owners but right at this moment Carlisle are very much the underdogs of League Two, and maybe they need to start behaving like them.

Saturday showed what was possible when they scrap for everything, focus first and foremost on battling for their lives against a better opponent, give up possession for long spells if needs be, and scavenge.

Being harder to beat…isn’t that the first thing we wanted to see when United replaced Paul Simpson with Mike Williamson?

It might not be easy for United to regard themselves as having lower stature or reach than many of their divisional peers, but they have no right based on recent performance, and certainly not the league table, to consider themselves anyone’s superior.

They have more problems, points-wise, than all except Morecambe and so Saturday’s trip to Salford City must be carried out with this in mind.

The Ammies are, frankly, better than Carlisle. They are currently 12th and, with eight points from their last four league games, plus an FA Cup upset against Shrewsbury Town, there are signs that Karl Robinson is getting a positive tune out of the Peninsula Stadium side.

Carlisle, then must first toil for every inch they can get in their televised game. If that means bodies on the line, buses parked, defensive heroics first and everything else later, so be it.

At present it is destination over journey for the Blues. Whatever way they make gains will have to do. Considering they are not in any winning form, a certain realism in their approach, expectation and strategy must be there, until the picture brightens.