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United had the first chance of the game on four minutes when some good work from Connor Tinnion on the left saw the ball pushed across to John Seaton 20 yards out, Seaton then finding his right-footed strike from there easily held by the Accrington goalkeeper. Seaton, this time after being set up by Andy Cook, hitting an almost identical strike in five minutes later.
Sixty seconds on and Steven Swinglehurst's cross in from the left was headed wide of the Stanley far-post from eight yards out by Carlisle striker Ryan Bowman. A passage of nice passing in the 22nd minute from United eventually seeing Seaton shoot a little too soon as his right-footed 25-yarder went well over the Accrington crossbar.
After 25 minutes a good ball over the top from Blues right-back Simon Lakeland was taken down well by Cook on his chest in the penalty area, a Stanley defender though doing very well to get an excellent block tackle in on Cook's 15-yard drive. Play then going up the other end where Accrington's first chance of the game saw a shot from 25 yards out easily held by Mark Gillespie in the Carlisle goal.
United midfielder James Wood had been treated for a nasty looking injury a few minutes earlier and he finally succumbed to that in the 28th minute when he was replaced by Liam Davison in the Blues engine room. The early prognosis on the terrier-like Wood not sounding good as he could be out for a large chunk of the rest of the season, or even beyond, with knee ligament damage.
The only thing of note in the rest of the opening period was a shot from 18 yards out by an Accrington forward on the half-hour mark that Gillespie was able to watch fly over his crossbar. The last 15 minutes of the half being utterly tepid fare to be honest as both sides struggled to get the ball down and get any sort of rhythm going.
Four minutes after the interval and Tinnion and Jonny Blake worked a short corner over on the far side of the pitch, Blake's ball in deep to the back-stick seeing a stretching Bowman head wide of the target from five yards out. Davison then failing to take a relatively good chance in the 51st minute when he headed past the Accrington near-post from close range as he got on the end of Tinnion's corner in.
Carlisle finally taking a deserved lead with 54 minutes on the clock when Blake, running onto a Seaton pass into the Stanley penalty area, was felled by at least one defender. Cook smashed the spot-kick straight down the middle only for the Accrington goalkeeper to make a tremendous one-handed save, Cook though luckily on-hand to take a quick touch on the rebound before thumping it into the back of the net.
Five minutes later and it was 2-0 to United after the visitors right-back had brought down Tinnion 25 yards out in a central area, Cook stepping up to curl a powerful right-footed free-kick round the defensive wall low into the bottom corner. Although it perhaps shouldn't have got there as the Stanley number one didn't do the greatest job in guarding his own net as he seemed to dive over the ball a little.
Just after the hour-mark and the Accrington left-back thumped a deep free-kick up into the Carlisle box, one of their defenders then heading back across goal and well wide from 15 yards out. The visitors made a double substitution during the break in play and both of those replacements were involved in the 67th minute when a mix-up between Gillespie and Jamie Cleary saw the ball bounce all over the place in the United box before skipper Tom Aldred was able to hoof it clear.
With a little less than 20 minutes to go Bowman's 15-yard right-footed cross-shot from the far side was tipped wide by the Accrington goalkeeper, the resultant Blake corner in bouncing off the back of Bowman at the far-post and out for a goal-kick. That being United's last chance to make it 3-0 before Stanley pulled it back to 2-1 after 74 minutes.
The opportunity coming after a bit of a daft challenge from Seaton meant an Accrington free-kick being awarded five yards beyond the Carlisle 'D', the visitors then making a substitution while United lined up their defensive wall. That wall would be no use to Carlisle though as the Stanley left-winger stuck a wind assisted left-footed effort over the top of a leaping Gillespie and into the roof of the United net.
Eric Kinder made a change upfront with ten minutes to go as under-16s striker Mark Sloan came on for Bowman in an effort to pep up Carlisle's attacking efforts. The next two shots though came the way of the visitors on 82 and 83 minutes, first a badly sliced long range half-volley that went well wide, then the Stanley left-winger being unable to reproduce his previous heroics, when following a Blake foul, he hit the set-piece straight into the United wall.
Sloan was to almost get himself on the scoresheet moments later after Cook had hammered in a 25-yard right-footed drive, the young Blue though being flagged offside after finishing well from the rebound off the body of the Stanley goalkeeper. It was 3-1 on 87 minutes however when Cook got on the end of an excellent angled pass over the visitors right-back from Blake. Cook taking a quick touch goalwards before toe-poking the ball in at the near-post from six yards out under the body of the advancing Accrington stopper.
The last thing to go onto the notepad being the substitution of Cook for Shaun Law in the 89th minute, Tinnion then moving into a more forward role as Law slotted into the midfield ranks. The final whistle coming after four minutes of injury time on a win that takes Carlisle up to second in the table, let's hope that Monday night at the Fraser Eagle Stadium proves just as successful.
United line-up :
Mark Gillespie, Simon Lakeland, Steven Swinglehurst, Tom Aldred, Jamie Cleary, Jonny Blake, John Seaton, James Wood (Liam Davison 28), Andy Cook (Shaun Law 89), Ryan Bowman (Mark Sloan 80), Connor Tinnion.
Unused substitutes :
None.
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