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A cold and windy morning greeted the spectators after squelching across the two waterlogged rugby pitches to get over to where the football action was taking place. The strong wind across the top of the hill blowing slightly from side to side but more up the sloping pitch than down to produce a bit of a leveller in the conditions. Kicking down the way Wigan getting the first shot in on two minutes when their left-back fired wide of the United near-post from 15 yards out.
Some poor visiting defending just sixty seconds later though from a long Alex Mitchell goal-kick allowed Ryan Bowman to cut in from the left-hand channel and curl a 15-yard right-footed effort across goal and straight onto the face of the far-post, with Jonny Blake then pulling the rebound wide of the target with his right boot from just outside the Latics penalty area.
With 14 minutes on the clock a cross came in from the Wigan right-back which their left-winger ran in on only to head it over the top of Mitchell's crossbar from ten yards out. Nine minutes later and another Mitchell goal-kick over the top found Bowman and Conor Tinnion reach the ball at the same time 15 yards out in the right-hand channel. One of them, it looked more like Bowman, then sending a right-footed 15-yard half-volley across goal but not on target.
In a quiet spell in the game with the Latics closing the ball down quickly in midfield the next shot came in the 28th minute. Simon Lakeland, on his weaker left foot, hitting a good strike in from 20 yards out which the visitors keeper pushed out one-handed at his near-post. The resultant Tinnion corner then being well claimed out of the air by the Latics glovesman.
Three minutes after the half-hour mark Blake was fouled 25 yards out to the right of the Wigan 'D', Tinnion's left-footed shot straight from the free-kick curling just inches past the far-post. Both sides making a change in personnel due to injury in the break in play, one of the Latics centre-halves being helped off the pitch while Sean Law hobbled off for Carlisle to be replaced by John Seaton, Blake then having to drop back into a more defensive midfield role.
Another Mitchell goal-kick up was creating confusion in the 37th minute as it bounced about before McDougall brought a save out of the Wigan keeper with a right-footed 15-yard strike. The subsequent two Tinnion corners producing what the Jocks would describe as a stramash as the ball pinged about all over the place before eventually being cleared.
On 44 minutes the visitors number nine was booked for a foul on Bowman, Blues skipper Tom Aldred then pushing the free-kick up for Blake to hit an ambitious left-footed 30-yarder well over the top. The last action of the first-half coming a minute into injury time when Wigan had a couple of chances to take the lead in the game.
The attacking play for the Latics coming after Jamie Cleary had played Swinglehurst into trouble deep in the United half, one of the Wigan midfielders then able to pick up possession and smack in a fierce right-footed drive from 15 yards out which Mitchell did well to stop. The resultant corner, after the ball had been hacked away from danger, seeing the visitors substitute send a ten-yard free header wide of the Carlisle back-stick.
Three minutes after the interval and it was Wigan again getting the opening shot in with a long rang left-footed strike that flew well over Mitchell's crossbar on the wind. After 55 minutes a limping Lakeland gave the ball away to a Latic who played a quick one-two with a team-mate before toe poking a shot wide off the body of Mitchell from 12 yards out, the flag-kick in producing nothing though from a Wigan perspective.
Just before the hour-mark and Blake's corner in saw Aldred's six-yard header at the back-post, which looked to be going wide, palmed out by the visitors goalkeeper for a Tinnion flag-kick which this time United couldn't get anything out of. Wigan having the next chance on 61 minutes when their number ten made a good run in from the left-hand channel only to toe-poke a horrendously weak effort straight at a diving Mitchell from close range.
The Latics then making a double substitution in the 62nd minute with a change in midfield and upfront before they took the lead seven minutes later through an awful goal from a Carlisle perspective. A regulation cross in from the Wigan left-back taking a tiny bobble in front of Mitchell only for the United keeper to allow the ball to get past his body off his right shoulder and creep into the far corner of his net.
Lakeland eventually gave in on his leg injury sixty seconds later as he was replaced by combative first-year James Wood at right-back. A Latic then hitting a 20-yarder over the top in the 73rd minute before moments later, from a Blake pass, Bowman missed a good opportunity as he shot right-footed from 15 yards out in the left-hand channel wide of the visitors near-post.
The big chance for United to get something out of the game though came and went on 76 minutes when Bowman, about to shoot, was brought down in the Wigan penalty area. In the absence of Duffy and then Cook it looked like Tinnion was going to take the spot-kick initially as he picked the ball up and wandered off with it only to eventually throw it to Bowman.
Bowman striking the penalty well right-footed only to see hit it the inside of the far-post, bounce back and hit the body of the diving visitors glovesman. The way the day was going being confirmed by the fact that not only did the ball not go in off the keeper's body but that it also dropped down right in front of his hands as Bowman raced in to try to whack in the rebound.
That penalty miss being the signal for United boss Eric Kinder to go to three at the back in an effort to find an equaliser, midfielder-cum-striker Towler coming on for Cleary. That late leveller almost coming in the 86th minute when Wood stuck a tremendous cross in from the right which Bowman, eight yards out, headed back across goal and somehow millimetres wide of the post, with all the spectators present having thought the header was in all the way.
Chasing a goal and one defender short the young Blues were getting a little ragged at the back on the break and a warning shot was fired across the bows on 89 minutes with a 15-yard right-footed strike which Mitchell held at the second attempt. He could do nothing sixty seconds later though when a similar effort from the right-hand channel was fired across him and into the net off the inside of the post, something the ball had refused to do for Carlisle.
The final whistle then coming a few minutes into injury time on a disappointing day for United's title challenge, but when Burnley and Wrexham keep on winning every week something has to give somewhere. Let's not forget though that this was the first defeat in the league for the lads since the opening day of the season and for that they deserve a great deal of credit.
United line-up :
Alex Mitchell, Simon Lakeland (James Wood 70), Steven Swinglehurst, Tom Aldred, Jamie Cleary (Phil Towler 76), Jonny Blake, Sean Law (John Seaton 33), Liam Davison, Ryan Bowman, Chris McDougall, Conor Tinnion.
Unused substitutes :
Mark Gillespie (GK) and Mark Sloan.
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