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With Ian Harte starting at left-back, and Richard Keogh and Peter Murphy paired at centre-half, goalkeeper Lenny Pidgeley and right-back Tony Kane being the other two players in the back five, United started brightly and took the game strongly to their Premier League opponents throughout. An early cross from Harte, caught by City's Tony Warner, signalling the danger coming from the Blues down that flank, as summer signing Matty Robson also put in a much more impressive performance than he had in the 3-1 win at Workington.
Taiwo then sent a ball in which flew past Dobie before Harte tested Warner's handling once more in the sixth minute, his 25-yard free-kick being well held by the Tigers stopper, Dobie then heading poorly over the top from a Robson cross just moments later. Carlisle did go 1-0 up after 12 minutes though when some excellent work from Cleveland Taylor saw his low ball miss Dobie, Robson however was able to profit as he side-footed home from six yards out.
A nice pass from Marc Bridge-Wilkinson just evaded Robson in the City box six minutes later, before Robson himself sliced a 20-yard left-footer wide of the target, Robson and Taylor both having particularly productive outings against Hull's full-backs. Bang on the half-hour mark and a disappointing Dobie made a mess of a good Taylor cross in, Taiwo then shortly afterwards, after a hefty 50-50 tackle, leaving the field for some treatment moments after City's Michael Turner had headed over from a Nicky Barmby corner.
Dobie didn't look like scoring all evening and he wasted a glorious chance in the 41st minute when he was left one-on-one with Warner after an awful back-pass from Nicky Featherstone, Dobie making a real hash of his attempt to take the ball around Warner. Taiwo and Bridge-Wilkinson having the last chance of the half moments later when a one-two, featuring a beautiful first touch knock from the latter, saw Taiwo lift a shot over the top from 15 yards out.
The Tigers had been due to play a behind closed doors friendly against Doncaster earlier in the afternoon but the late cancellation of that meant that Hull boss Phil Brown was able to bring a much larger squad to Brunton Park than had been planned. City fielding a completely different starting eleven in the second-half, that ensuring that they made no substitutions in the rest of the game, while the Blues came out after the interval on the back of four changes.
Those replacements seeing Carlisle move from a 4-5-1 formation to a more conventional 4-4-2, with holding midfielder Taiwo going off and Gary Madine and Joe Anyinsah now partnered upfront. The other couple of changes being David Raven on for Kane at right-back and Evan Horwood replacing Peter Murphy, Horwood going to left-back while Harte moved in one to partner Keogh at the heart of the Cumbrians defence.
Carlisle were still digesting those changes at the back too when Hull, perhaps undeservedly, equalised with the first attack of the second-half, French striker Daniel Cousin getting on the end of a neat pass from Nathan Doyle to hit a perfectly placed finish beyond Pidgeley from the edge of the box. Pidgeley then forced into a good save with his feet from Mendy's strike after he had palmed away a Tigers corner.
In the 53rd minute Madine finished well after rounding City replacement goalkeeper Matt Duke, from a Raven pass, only to be flagged offside, Anyinsah and Brazilian Geovanni then trading shots wide for the home side and the visitors respectively. Just before the hour-mark and Madine missed a glorious chance to give United the lead once more when he could only glance a header, following Horwood's perfect cross in from the left, miles across goal from only eight yards out.
It was still all Carlisle against their Premier League opponents and Duke had to make two good saves in the middle of the half, the first from a Harte free-kick, and then the second from Taylor's powerful shot, after good set-up play by Madine and Anyinsah. The returning Livesey now entering the fray for Keogh, that change coming after the Cumbrians had already made two further changes following the four at the interval, Adam Collin replacing Pidgeley in goal and Michael Burns coming on for Bridge-Wilkinson in the middle of the park.
The Blues were taught a severe lesson in taking their chances in the 73rd minute though when Hull made it 2-1, Peter Halmosi finishing very well from a tight angle on the left after Collin had got down quickly to push away a powerful 18-yard Craig Fagan drive. Conor Tinnion, now on for Robson down the left, then missing Premier League composure eight minutes later when, from a slightly better position than Halmosi, he could only smack his effort into Duke's side-netting at the near-post.
United were still testing the City back-line however and, after Tigers free-kick expert Geovanni had curled one miles over Collin's crossbar, Madine got closer to the target when his ten-yard header from an excellent Taylor cross in rattled off the top of the woodwork and into an empty Waterworks End, the attendance on a showery night in the two sides of the ground that were open being 2,156, Hull bringing around 150 fans with them from the east coast.
Try as they might and the Cumbrians still couldn't find that second goal, with Livesey heading over from a Tinnion corner in a late surge, Anyinsah though missing the best chance as the clock ticked into injury time. His need to take a touch unmarked in the middle of the box on a low Taylor ball in allowing a City defender the time to race in and block the eventual shot, a situation where a real striker would surely have hammered in a first-time effort.
A few minutes of injury time then bringing to end a Carlisle performance which most of us expected, good in defence and midfield - wasteful in attack, but also with a few more bright points, those being the performances of Taiwo, Robson and Taylor. The latter two putting a lot of ammunition into the Hull box which wasn't profited on by Anyinsah, Dobie and Madine, at least young Madine offered something in hold-up play though while Anyinsah and Dobie really need to be sacrificed by, if we ever get one, a new striker who is also a natural goalscorer.
United line-up :
Lenny Pidgeley (Adam Collin 61), Tony Kane (David Raven 46), Ian Harte (Tom Aldred 82) Richard Keogh (Danny Livesey 68), Peter Murphy (Evan Horwood 46), Tom Taiwo (Gary Madine 46), Paul Thirlwell, Marc Bridge-Wilkinson (Michael Burns 57), Cleveland Taylor, Scott Dobie (Joe Anyinsah 46), Matty Robson (Conor Tinnion 78).
Unused substitutes :
None.
Hull first-half line-up :
Tony Warner, Sam Ricketts, Michael Turner, Anthony Gardner, Andy Dawson, Richard Garcia, George Boateng, Nicky Featherstone, Jerome Thomas, Nick Barmby, Caleb Folan.
Hull second-half line-up :
Matt Duke, Nathan Doyle, Steven Mouyokolo, Kamil Zayatte, Kevin Kilbane, Bernard Mendy, Dean Marney, Geovanni, Peter Halmosi, Craig Fagan, Daniel Cousin.
Attendance - 2,156.
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