Carlisle United: Why it feels the right time for Gabe Breeze

And maybe that’s the case. Yet lowering Holy to the bench wasn’t in itself the wrong call. It was how Carlisle replaced him.

With Jokull Andresson, namely. He has been in the news this week, leaving Reading permanently having never made a senior appearance for the Royals. He did tot up seven whilst on loan for Carlisle and very few of them offered the security needed in League One.

There was one good showing at Stevenage – although one that featured a generous officiating reprieve from a spill along the way – and too many others that ranged from the eventful to the chaotic: miscontrolling a pass and conceding a penalty at Port Vale, conceding a penalty against Derby County, and then, farcically, being ambushed from behind at Wycombe Wanderers, triggering a red-card infringement.

The Icelandic international was not of the standard required to calm the waters at Carlisle. One could make the case that late August was too early for Paul Simpson to lose faith in Holy yet, had a better stand-in been available, United’s growing list of 2023/24 problems would have been one item lighter.

It is, more often than not, what you do next rather than simply what you do in the first place. Losing, for instance, Kristian Dennis in the summer of 2023 was not on its own a misstep. Failing to replace him with a League One calibre centre-forward was. Selling Owen Moxon in January…that would have been more palatable had Carlisle’s step-change funds been invested in midfielders of at least some of those attributes (not easy, sure).

And so, to today, and the judgement call on Harry Lewis and his would-be replacement, Gabe Breeze. If there are enough reasons in both columns – to drop Lewis and to call up Breeze – then the decision can be made with a clearer outlook than may have accompanied the axe coming down on Holy.

Lewis first. This has, in general, been a better season so far by the former Bradford City man than his first half-campaign in Cumbria. There were good performances and clean sheets against Swindon Town and Colchester United, a feeling that Mike Williamson’s style of play might be more to the 26-year-old’s liking and the idea that, similar to other aspects of Carlisle’s revamp, it may be something that could benefit from patience.

Harry Lewis has had some better games this season but the argument for Breeze to get his chance is stronger than ever (Image: Richard Parkes)

At the same time, United’s goals-against record in the league remains diabolical. Lewis’s saves-to-shots stats, as the writer Richard Wilson analysed recently, are not high-end to say the least. And as much as shipping 28 in 14 is not solely on the keeper, nor can he stand above the situation, untouched by it.

Reasons for his retention right now are based on that patience mentioned earlier, the usual psychological judgement call to weigh when dropping a keeper, a notably good character in Lewis and a skill set which, having been witnessed to good effect at Bradford City in much of 2022/23, is known to be there, if only it could emerge more consistently.

Yet is that enough? It is hard to make the case, particularly when Carlisle’s need is so pressing and especially when witnessing how well Breeze performed when given a sudden chance in the first-team last weekend (we’re not counting the Bristol Street Motors Trophy which can, as ever, take a hike). There were impressive saves, but not just that.

Goalkeeping, it often feels, is a matter of aura as much as aptitude. This might be an area statistics struggle to pin down but, against Wigan Athletic, Breeze had that aura. It was tangible in how he approached crosses, one or two of them particularly challenging, and how he demonstrated a general command of his domain.

This is a Carlisle team sorely in need of a sense of security, one or two touchstones of reliability. Their record tells you how absent those parts have been for too long. The applause and admiration for Breeze’s performance, then, contained another sound.

It was relief. As if to say: well, at least that bit’s sorted. We’ll take that. Fasten this onto the alertness and athleticism to make the stops that he did, along with a broad sense that Breeze was very much enjoying his work – is there a player, in general, with a happier demeanour around Brunton Park? – and this sent some positive waves and feelings to the rest of the team, to the crowd, and much appreciated it was.

He has to play again, surely, not just because it was one good game, and anyone can have one good game, but because of all those constituent parts, and the idea that United have a young keeper whose baseline, whose six-out-of-ten, is assured and solid, whatever else might come with it on a given day, whether spectacular or imperfect.

And yes, if it doesn’t work, Carlisle might have a further problem. Yet why is it that outfield players can be dropped for their own good, and assumed to have the fire to prove the boss wrong, but keepers are regarded as more delicate flowers, who cannot handle a few weeks on the bench without their entire world being shattered, as some felt of Holy?

United’s main, experienced keeper in the 2004/05 season, lost his place briefly to a talented rookie. Matty Glennon had to do time with the substitutes while the youngster – Keiren Westwood – played four league games, keeping clean sheets in three of them.

Matty Glennon lost his place for a spell to a younger men - Keiren Westwood, pictured - in 2004/05, but the more experienced figure soon bounced back (Image: Jonathan Becker)

Glennon, though, soon returned, his wiles and attributes deemed more relevant to Carlisle’s Conference run-in, and the outcome vindicated Simpson’s calls. It did not take Glennon long to sort himself out following a period out of the team. The idea a similar move might provoke Lewis in the right way should not be dismissed, when we have yet to find out.

Right now, though, the table being as it is and Carlisle lacking what they do, this feels like a time to see if something else is better, based on some good signs already, the numbers that imply it can’t get much worse, the urgency of their need for improvement…and, it very much seemed last Saturday, that aura. It all points to Breeze.