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Danny Livesey was now fit after recovering an ankle injury, but United boss Paul Simpson didn't want to have two defenders on the bench, so the versatile Peter Murphy continued at centre-half. For the Cumbrians that meant a starting back five of Keiren Westwood, Paul Arnison, Zigor Aranalde, Kevin Gray and Murphy. Across the centre of the park were Chris Billy, Chris Lumsdon and Adam Murray, with Michael Bridges playing just off a front two of Derek Holmes and Karl Hawley. On the Carlisle bench were Anthony Williams, Simon Grand, Paul Simpson, Glenn Murray and Simon Hackney, Simpson coming in with McGill out injured with a dead leg and Mark Rivers having been released from the club 24 hours earlier.
Any thoughts that the huge Brunton Park crowd of 13,467 fans, with 352 of those making the long journey up from the South Devon coast, that it would be an easy ride for United were soon banished as the Gulls took the game to the Cumbrians from the off. As early as the second minute ex-Arsenal trainee Jo Kuffour was showing his huge advantage in pace over the pedestrian Gray and Murphy when, some good work by the diminutive striker out on the left, meant Adam Murray was forced to concede a corner as a dangerous low cross came in. One-time Rotherham midfielder Darren Garner sticking the flag-kick in which centre-half Steve Woods headed down from close-range, only to see Aranalde hack it away for another corner, this time on the right. Garner swung it in again but this time striker Lee Thorpe, on loan to the Gulls from Swansea, could only head it well over Westwood's bar from 12 yards out.
After seven minutes Aranalde hurled a trademark long throw in from the Waterworks/Paddock corner. Holmes showed good strength at the near-post to head the ball on, but Adam Murray's left-footed half-volley from 12 yards out came to him awkwardly on the bounce and Andy Marriott was able to collect it quite comfortably in the Torquay goal. That was about as good as it got on the day for the Blues then as some particularly lazy defending out on the left saw them go behind just sixty seconds later.
Kuffour and Garner worked a throw out on the right which saw Kuffour afforded far too much time on the ball, as Aranalde and Adam Murray stood off him. Kuffour made the most of the lackadaisical defending from the two Blues to swing a good looking right-footed cross over to the United far-post where midfielder Kevin Hill had come steaming in down the left-hand channel. Making a prodigious leap the long-serving Torquay man was able to climb well above the static Arnison and power home a header beyond Westwood from just six yards out, a very poor goal to concede from a Carlisle perspective.
Two minutes later, as the Blues looked to strike back immediately, Bridges, who has been a little off-form of late tried a curler with his right-foot from the left-hand angle of the Gulls box after beating the visitors right-back Matt Villis. It never looked like testing Marriott though and it was easy fare for the one-time Premiership glovesman to take. Shortly afterwards, Danny Hollands, on loan from Chelsea where he is captain of their reserve team, was a little selfish as he took the ball on himself and chipped a weak effort straight into the arms of Westwood from 20 yards out. His left-sided team-mate Martin Phillips looking well placed for an easier shot on goal.
In the 18th minute Kuffour nicely chested a deep ball up from Woods back into the path of Thorpe five yards outside the middle of the United ‘D', Thorpe could only blaze his left-footed half-volley well wide of Westwood's near-post though. Three minutes later Aranalde and Adam Murray combined on the left before the latter played in Hawley down the left-hand channel. Choosing to go for goal from 22 yards out, when a lay-off to Lumsdon on his right was the better option, Hawley mishit his low left-footed effort and could only watch it drag a good way wide of the Torquay net.
There were few chances in the game to be fair, as the Gulls sat back with two straight banks of four and the pace of Thorpe and Kuffour upfront, and United persisted in lumping the ball forward for the impressive Woods to head straight back to them for the whole of the first-half. The visitors did made a break forward in the 26th minute when Thorpe did well to chase down a searching Phillips ball up. His shot from the right-hand channel was poor though, only for it to come straight to Kuffour eight yards out from the United goal, Murphy doing well to get in a blocking tackle as the Gulls striker looked to turn and fire in a low drive.
Carlisle's defending was dreadful at times in the opening 45 minutes and they were nearly made to pay for it again in the 32nd minute when the Devonians hit the woodwork, starting from a simple long punt upfield by Marriott. Thorpe was able to get a good headed flick-on to send the ball into the path of Kuffour 25 yards from the Blues goal. As Westwood raced off his line to attempt to clear Kuffour showed good agility to get a left-footed half-volley over the United keeper, only to hold his hands to his head as he watched his skilful effort bounce off the outside of the Carlisle far-post. Arnison being in the right place at the right time as he hacked the ball away to safety, following a big let-off for the Cumbrians which you would have hoped they would have learnt from.
The Blues missed out on a great chance themselves in the 34th minute, when Aranalde crossed in a delightful ball from the left for Hawley to head goalwards from just eight yards out at the near-post. United's top scorer, with 26 goals this season, really should have done better as well, as he could only catch his effort far too thin and send it flying straight across the Gulls goalmouth and out for a goal-kick. The only time the Cumbrians ever looked dangerous in the opening period was when they got the ball down on the ground and played in balls from out wide. The constant hoofing of the ball straight up the middle being simple meat and drink for an Ian Atkins managed-side to defend.
In the 40th minute Torquay missed a great opportunity to double their lead, but they wouldn't have too long to fret about it as they did just that shortly afterwards. Garner swung a flag-kick in from the left which was again defended poorly by an off-colour Carlisle side as they allowed Woods to run in completely unmarked at the back-post, something you would have thought they would have remembered from the first goal, scored by Hill. The Gulls centre-half even seemed to have time to take a touch on the ball, he choose to volley it first-time on his right-foot though only to show a defender's finish as he blazed it well over the United crossbar.
It was a short respite for the Cumbrians though because they did concede that second goal just 87 seconds after Woods had missed his chance. Kuffour and Hollands combined well as they moved the ball on the floor out to Hill on the Carlisle right, Hill cutting inside Aranalde to send a cross into the edge of the Cumbrians box on his left foot which Thorpe headed pretty much straight up into the air. Kuffour was there to bring the ball down though, even with Gray, Murphy and Lumsdon all within close proximity, and it was Murphy that Kuffour turned quickly to fire home with his left foot from 15 yards into the bottom left corner of the United net. It was a neat and tidy finish from Kuffour that really gave Westwood no chance, but it was another poor goal to concede defensively from a Carlisle back-line that looked to be playing with lead boots on.
Two minutes later though and how the visitors weren't reduced to ten men is absolutely beyond me after Hill almost snapped Lumsdon in half with an utterly dreadful challenge. It was an incident similar to the one that should have seen Grimsby's Ciaran Toner red-carded for a foul on Adam Murray three weeks earlier. This time it was Hill who came straight through Lumsdon as the Blues midfielder chested the ball on, Hill racing in foot up to stud Lumsdon bang in the middle of the chest at force. Referee Clive Oliver from Ashington completely choking on the decision to send the Torquay man off as he only gave him a yellow card, if a diabolical challenge like that isn't a straight red card offence then we might as well all give up and go home now.
The last action of the half came in the one minute of injury time, that in itself another ridiculous decision as there had been two goals and Lumsdon had received treatment for nearly two minutes after Hill's "tackle". Adam Murray seeing his 20-yard left-footed drive deflected off Gulls centre-half Craig Taylor straight to the feet of Woods, the Torquay man gratefully clearing the ball up the pitch. The whistle for the break came seconds later on a 45 minutes of football that the Blues players would want to forget, and do something to rectify in the second-half.
Unsurprisingly the Carlisle coaching staff made a change during the interval, with Simon Hackney coming on in place of the ineffective Holmes. That meant United going to a 4-4-2 formation with Hackney on the left, Adam Murray going over to the right and Hawley and Bridges upfront. Straight away you could see the extra impetus in the Blues after a half-time kick up the backside and they nearly scored in the 47th minute when Kuffour gave the ball away to Hackney, the ex-Woodley Sports man playing a clever pass through for the middle for Hawley to chase. Marriott ended up on the floor outside his box in his efforts to clear but the Gulls defence did just enough to get the ball away to safety.
Sixty seconds later and the Cumbrians did get a goal back early in the second-half which looked like it would set the game up for a grandstand finish in front of Brunton Park's biggest crowd of the season. The goal couldn't even been more simple when it did come either, Lumsdon swung a flag-kick in from the Paddock/Waterworks corner which Aranalde, pretty much unmarked eight yards out in the middle, headed low into the far bottom corner of the Gulls net. There were certainly two bad points about it from a Torquay perspective as not only was Aranalde left alone, but there was no-one on the line defending the back-stick to kick the header away, two very basic defensive errors.
In the 52nd minute, as you could see the Devonians starting to drop back and shrink into their own shell, United went close after Villis had brought down Hawley out on the left. Lumsdon swung the free-kick in right-footed and Hawley got a nice flick-on only to see Woods well placed to boot the ball away upfield. Seconds later Hackney tried a snap-shot on his left foot from fully 25 yards out on the left which Marriott did well to hold as the ball came flying at him at pace.
All of a sudden the Blues were making all kinds of chances but they just couldn't manage to get the ball into the back of the Torquay net. After 55 minutes an Adam Murray cross in from the right found Aranalde racing in at the back-post but the Spaniard was unable to control his header under pressure and it flew over Marriott's crossbar. Only sixty seconds later and Gray really should have equalised for the Blues after Taylor had brought down Bridges 35 yards out in the right-hand channel. Murphy swung the free-kick in to an extremely dangerous area just eight yards out where Gray should have buried his header into the back of the net only to get too skinny a connection and flick it wide of the Gulls far-post.
Bang on the hour-mark and the Devonians had a rare foray forward only for Thorpe to slice his right-footed effort miles wide of the United goal from fully 25 yards out. The Blues seemed to run out of a little bit of puff from there after a good fifteen minutes of hammering pressure on the Torquay goal, with the Cumbrians just unable to find a way through a well-organised visiting defence that showed no interest in pushing forward in the second-half.
After 66 minutes the Gulls did have an opportunity to restore their two-goal advantage when Aranalde fouled Phillips 25 yards out in the right-hand channel. Left-back Stephen Reed, on-loan from Yeovil, stepped up to take the set-piece but he was off target as he blasted his effort well over Westwood's bar. Chances were coming at a premium now with both defences on top in the latter stages but in the 70th minute Arnison found Hawley. The United striker, who was having an off-day and looking tired after featuring in every Carlisle game this season, smashing a 25-yard effort across goal with his left foot inches wide of the Gulls far-post.
Two minutes later Taylor was booked by referee Oliver for a poor challenge on Hawley 25 yards out on the right-angle of the Torquay penalty area. It was a Carlisle United set-piece on goal though so there was never much chance of a goal coming from it, and true to form Aranalde smashed it straight into the Gulls defensive wall with his left foot. In the 76th minute the visitors made their first change of the game when Ian Atkins brought on defensive midfielder Matt Hockley in place of Phillips as Torquay went even more backs to the wall than they were already.
With 78 minutes gone in a tight match Lumsdon put in a corner from the right which Aranalde got to first, only for the Spanish left-back to nod his close-range header wide of the Gulls near-post under a firm challenge from Taylor. Shortly afterwards Murphy was the latest player to miss a good chance for the Cumbrians when he rose well to meet Lumsdon's corner in from the right, only for the Dubliner to head over the crossbar from just six yards out. It was now beginning to seem obvious that it was going to be one of those games when the equalising goal was never going to come. The Blues went for all-out attack now with Glenn Murray coming on to replace Gray, with Carlisle going to three at the back and three upfront.
In the 82nd minute Billy, marauding upfield in a packed Torquay penalty area, won a good header after Adam Murray had lobbed a high cross in from the right. Hawley and Bridges tried in vain to get on the end of the knock-down but Marriott was alive to the danger and dropped on the ball in his six-yard box. Three minutes later Hockley cynically brought down the flying Hackney on the Torquay right and was rightly booked for the offence, the break in play seeing ex-Blue Paul Robinson coming on for Kuffour in a change for the Gulls. Lumsdon swung the free-kick in right-footed from 30 yards out on the left flank, with the ball seemingly going straight into the postage stamp right-hand corner without anyone getting a touch. Marriott was flapping at the ball as it came in at pace under an aerial challenge from Glenn Murray and it was for that minimal contact by the Maryport-born striker that the official chalked the goal off and gave a free-kick to the Devonians.
Sixty seconds later Carlisle player-manager Paul Simpson made what is extremely likely to be last first-team appearance at Brunton Park when he came on in place of Lumsdon, the ex-Sunderland schemer having had a disappointing afternoon. Right on the 90 minute mark Adam Murray tried to get a shot in from 15 yards out in a central position with his left foot only to slice it wide, just as the fourth official was indicating there would be three added minutes to play. Two minutes on and it was Simpson who, probably as much in desperation as anything else, was trying his luck from distance only to smash his left-footed effort from fully 30 yards out well wide of the Gulls near-post.
Giant 6'7 Frenchmen Morike Sako then came on for as short an appearance as you can get, Hollands leaving the field as the Torquay coaching staff understandably looked to run the clock down. The last half-chance for the Blues came seconds before the final whistle when Hockley conceded a corner on the right, Hackney swinging it in left-footed only for Garner to make a good headed clearance at the near-post. The ball came right out to Westwood who was at least 10 yards inside the opposition half on the right-hand side but the whistle had gone to end a deflating 90 minutes before he hammered a powerful left-footed drive only just wide of the Torquay far-post.
Post-match quotes :
Torquay boss Ian Atkins said after the game:
"I am absolutely delighted for the players. We performed to the maximum today. We took our goals well but when we conceded at the start of the second half I thought "oh no", but we held firm and the lads did very well.