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Port Vale had obviously made good time up the M6, and with the weather as cold as it was there was no point people standing around waiting for 11.30am so the game kicked off 15 minutes early. Yours truly missing the opening five minutes as I squelched across the rugby pitches from the car park.
50 yards or so from the game United took the lead, I couldn't see who was involved in the build-up but the end result was Ryan Bowman cutting in from the left-hand channel and firing a right-footed strike across the visitors goalkeeper low into the corner of the net from 15 yards out.
The wind was helping Carlisle a tiny bit down the slope in the first-half and it was the Blues attacking again on 12 minutes. Bowman hitting a similar strike to his goal that this time brought a good save out of the keeper with his legs, youngster Mark Sloan, featuring alongside Bowman in place of the ill Chris McDougall, then hitting the rebound straight at the quick to react stopper from the edge of the penalty area.
A couple of minutes before that double save Cumbrians skipper Tom Aldred had been involved in a clash of heads, and shortly after it he suffered a delayed reaction as he staggered off the pitch like a drunken sailor, with James Wood coming on in his place. The United centre-half then five minutes later being taken back to Brunton Park by the watching Greg Abbott.
As Abbott and Aldred wandered off into the distance a Vale 20-yard shot went wide of Alex Mitchell's far-post. With 19 minutes gone though Carlisle went 2-0 up when Jonny Blake swung in a right-footed corner on the wind, the ball bouncing up and down off the crossbar, a defenders head and eventually the roof of the net despite the fact that it already seemed to have crossed the line over the top of a stricken goalkeeper.
Sixty seconds later and Matt Duffy, now at centre-half from left-back in place of Aldred, with the right-footed Wood having to fill in on the left for Duffy, gave away a free-kick right on the edge of the Cumbrians box, just to the left of the 'D'. One Valiant then touching the ball off for another, the resultant right-footed shot going horizontally at the end as it sliced away out for a throw-in pretty much level with where it was hit from.
After 24 minutes Carlisle played the can't be offside from a goal-kick trick again. Bowman standing 20 yards behind the Vale back four, sadly though as the young Valiants screamed wrongly for the flag to go up, Bowman lifted a right-footed lob from 25 yards out over the top of the visitors crossbar.
Conor Tinnion stuck a corner in to the back-post three minutes later but Bowman was unable to get two close range strikes past a Vale rearguard that was defending, erm, valiantly. With 34 minutes gone Duffy hit a lovely long diagonal ball up for right-back Simon Lakeland to race onto, Lakeland then cutting inside the visitors defender down that side before seeing his 12-yard left-footed well blocked by the legs of the keeper.
Blake was fouled 30 yards out in the left-hand channel on 41 minutes but unfortunately no-one cut across his well-hit right-footed free-kick in and the visiting glovesman was able to take it on the bounce. The last action of the half coming in injury time when, after a good spell of Vale possession, one of their strikers could only shoot out weakly left-footed drive straight at Mitchell from just outside the box.
The visitors started well in the second-half down the slope with a left-footed shot from 20 yards out going narrowly wide of Mitchell's far-post in the opening sixty seconds. They weren't able to do too much with the ball when they had it though and a quiet spell in the game then followed before Wood in the 57th minute hit a right-footed cross-shot in from 20 yards out that was well held by the visitors keeper.
Bang on the hour-mark and John Seaton gave away a hotly disputed free-kick 28 yards out in the left-hand channel, the United lads fuming again when Vale took it quickly and gave the ball away only for the referee to tell them to take it again. The ball seemingly only moving about two blades of grass away from where it had been taken to where the official wanted it taken.
The free-kick eventually did come in though and it was a powerful right-footed strike that Mitchell palmed over the top of his own crossbar. The resultant corner flying over to the Carlisle back-stick where a Valiant player got a leg to it only to somehow shin it wide from about two yards out. The visitors then making a substitution on their left-wing during the break in play.
Shortly after that and it was 3-0 to the young Blues following a foul on Sloan 25 yards away from the Vale goal in the middle of the pitch. Tinnion stepping up to curl a delightful dipping left-footed effort across the diving goalkeeper and right into the far corner of the net.
The Valiants missed a good chance to pull a goal back on 68 minutes when Duffy headed a corner away to the edge of his own box. One of the Vale midfielders, unmarked in the 'D', only able though to hit his right-footed half-volley well wide of the United back-stick. Mitchell then just moments later saving a right-footed 20-yarder low down at his near-post.
After that the game went through another period with little of note happening. The next chance coming the way of Carlisle in the 83rd minute when, from a Blake corner, Steven Swinglehurst, featuring at centre-half today, got up well eight yards out at the far-post to thump a powerful header in that either pinged back off the woodwork or was nodded off the line by a covering defender.
For some reason, instead of bringing them both on at the same time, the Valiants made two substitutions within about 30 seconds moments later. One of them being involved in their goal in the 85th minute as his dinked ball in from the left was left by Duffy after Mitchell had shouted to claim it, Mitchell never got there first though and a Vale forward was able to head the ball over him and in from about eight yards out.
All of a sudden the visitors, fifth in the division, found another gear after their goal as it seemed to give them real heart that they could get something out of the game. Mitchell having to make an excellent save from a left-footed 20-yard drive two minutes later, the flag then going up as a Valiant was offside from the rebound.
Blues boss Eric Kinder looking to give the United back four a hand during the break in play as he brought on defensive midfielder Sean Law for Sloan, Tinnion then pushing up to support Bowman when Carlisle had the ball. The next shot in the game was a Vale one though as Mitchell was able to comfortably save a right-footed drive from the 'D' in the 89th minute.
The last effort of the match coming two minutes into the three minutes of injury time when Blake, over on the left, tried to curl a right-footer goalwards from 18 yards out, the shot though going well wide of the far-post. The final whistle signalling a return to winning ways for the young Blues after two defeats on the road, their chance to make it two victories in a row coming next Saturday morning when they face Stockport in an 11am kick-off at home.
United line-up :
Alex Mitchell, Simon Lakeland, Matt Duffy, Tom Aldred (James Wood 13), Steven Swinglehurst, John Seaton, Jonny Blake, Liam Davison, Ryan Bowman, Mark Sloan (Sean Law 87), Conor Tinnion.
Unused substitutes :
Mark Gillespie (GK) and Jamie Cleary.
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