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Adam Murray had recovered from a virus but with the team being in such good form that meant that Blues boss Paul Simpson stuck with the same eleven that had taken to the field against Boston at the weekend, Murray having to settle for a place on the bench, and so relegating McGill to water carrying duties. So, for the Cumbrians that meant a starting back five of Keiren Westwood, Paul Arnison, Zigor Aranalde, Kevin Gray and Danny Livesey. Across the centre of the park were Chris Billy, Chris Lumsdon and Peter Murphy, with Michael Bridges playing just off a front two of Derek Holmes and Karl Hawley.
Paul Morgan, Jeff Hughes, Danny Bacon, Gareth McAuley and Simon Yeo all missed the big match for City, while left-back Paul Mayo picked up an arm injury in Lincoln's 5-0 home win over Grimsby Town on Saturday and didn't make the long trip up to Cumbria. 18-year old Rotherham-born right-back Phil Watt was added to the Red Imps squad on Tuesday morning, taking shirt number 30, but the youngster did not feature in the Lincoln sixteen.
It was a heavy looking surface at Brunton Park and that was never going to be good news as far as the prospect of an entertaining match was concerned, especially considering the way Lincoln play their "football." The game off to a pretty quiet start with just a corner apiece for the two sides to show for the very early stages, the first few rolls of the ball showed that the pitch wasn't as wet as it looked and that it only seemed to be the goalmouths that were holding any water.
United had the first chance of the game in the sixth minute from a lovely Lumsdon ball, after Holmes had set up the Carlisle schemer from an Arnison throw-in, sent the Blues right-back racing away and down to the City by-line. Crossing in hard and low Arnison's ball in found Bridges 12 yards out from goal who was unlucky to see his well-hit right foot shot go straight at Alan Marriott in the Lincoln goal, either corner and it would surely have been 1-0 to the Blues.
In the 11th minute Red Imps front-man Francis Green, who saw a lot of the ball down the right-hand side in the first-half, took advantage of a slip by Arnison on the greasy surface to cross in, Livesey was on hand to clear the danger for Carlisle though. United were having the better of the game at this point although it soon became evident that it was going to a horrible game from the perspective of a purist with both sides resorting to long balls down the field, although in United's case that was due to the state of the pitch and not the total gameplan.
After 18 minutes the Blues went as close as they would do for a long time in the game when Bridges hit the City woodwork. Aranalde's free-kick in from the left, after a foul by ex-Scarborough midfielder Scott Kerr on Murphy, took a slight deflection before Lumsdon headed it on into the edge of the Red Imps box where Holmes and giant Lincoln centre-half Jamie McCombe were doing battle. Neither player could do anything with the ball and McCombe only succeeded in knocking it straight out to Bridges who was lurking 20 yards away from the Lincoln net just to the left of the ‘D'. Bridges hit a cracking first-time effort from there with his right-foot and was desperately unlucky to see it dip over the top of Marriott but just not come down soon enough as it flicked off the top of the City crossbar and into the Waterworks End, populated with 171 visiting supporters.
Just two minutes later and the Blues were starting to have by far the better of the play. Murphy swung in a flag-kick from the Waterworks/East Stand corner which Holmes met with a completely unmarked run ten yards out, it was a poor header though and Gray was also unable to get a foot to it as it bounced on past the City near-post. Holmes seemed to have being concentrating too much on heading the ball down, perhaps mindful of the good chance he failed to take on Saturday late in the first-half of the Boston game. Shortly afterwards some good link-up play between Lumsdon and Murphy saw the ball fed in to Holmes who in-turn laid it back to Bridges 20 yards from goal. The ex-Leeds man once more tried a first-time effort but this time his radar was further off and the ball drifted harmlessly wide of the City woodwork.
The game went through a bit of a spate for a while after that of Lincoln winning free-kick after free-kick and corner after corner as referee Tony Bates of Stoke only seemed to be seeing infringements that happened to a player in a red and whit shirt. Some set-pieces were given away in dangerous positions but nearly all of them were comfortably dealt with by a resilient United rearguard as the visitors, who live on these kind of opportunities, struggled to put a really good delivery into the Carlisle box. The only close effort of any real note coming near the start of the gruesome passage of play in the 27th minute following a foul by Aranalde on Green on the right-wing, the one-time Peterborough man certainly making the most of the marginally poor challenge. Another ex-Scarborough man in right-back Colin Cryan, the Ireland under-21 international having played for the Seadogs on-loan from Sheffield United, put the ball in but McCombe could only flick the cross wide with his head from the middle of the Carlisle penalty area.
In the 36th minute the Cumbrians started to find a bit of a foothold in the game again and it was my man of the match, Chris Billy, who tried to notch his first goal of the season. From an Aranalde throw, Murphy laid the ball across to "Ceebs" but his shot from fully 25 yards out was always on the rise and sailed well over the angle of Marriott's bar and post. Sixty seconds later Bridges set up Hawley for a long-ranger with some nice skill cutting in from the right but, unfortunately for the Blues, McCombe managed to get his foot in the way of Hawley's shot and Marriott was able to gather it easily.
The visitors were still looking to make chances from set-pieces though and went close in the 40th minute through another six-foot plusser, in front-man Marvin Robinson. Kerr curled a flag-kick out from the Paddock/Warwick corner which was flicked-on by the head of City midfielder Luke Foster at the near-post, Foster yet another Lincoln player who has had a spell at Conference National outfit Scarborough. Robinson was on-hand to meet the touch-on with a firm header goalwards from ten yards out but Westwood showed bravery to get down amongst the flying feet and claim the ball in his muddy six-yard box. Robinson had another headed opportunity moments later, but, under pressure from Livesey, he found it difficult to get good accuracy on the effort from a Green cross in and it flew a foot or so over Westwood's crossbar from 12 yards out.
Shortly before the interval Holmes fouled Foster just inside the City half and Cryan stepped up to, once more, hump the ball up into the United box. Referee Bates gave a foul on Livesey by McCombe though, the only free-kicks the official giving to the Blues coming in their own area for innocuous challenges which he would no way have given as a penalty at the other end. Only a minute of injury-time came and went with both sides going down the tunnel realising all was still to play for in a first-half in which Carlisle had seen slightly the better of the play.
The Blues were first up to the plate just 45 seconds after the restart when Bridges tried his luck again from range after being set free by Lumsdon, it wasn't looking like it was going to be Bridges' night though when he fired the effort well over. The visitors were straight back into the game however when Murphy brought down Kerr 40 yards out from the Carlisle goal, Cryan pumped the set-piece up but even the 6'5 McCombe could only get a slight glance on the ball to send it harmlessly through to a grateful Westwood.
The Red Imps were having a good little spell of pressure now and had a couple of opportunities within sixty seconds. Firstly, in the 49th minute, Arnison brought down Foster right on the by-line only a yard or so from the edge of the Blues box, although the City midfielder would have been as much in pain from his theatrical dive as he was the foul. Kerr swung an extremely dangerous looking ball over to the back-post, which, fortunately for United, flew just inches over the head of the onrushing Robinson.
Then, moments later, came the best, and only real, chance of the game for the visitors. City centre-half Nathan Brown launched the latest hoof up from the back, which Arnison, under pressure from Forrester, could only head straight to the feet of Robinson just inside the United box. Robinson turned Livesey outside then in before trying a curler with his right-foot from the left-hand side of the box, as soon as it was veering towards the Carlisle goal and over the top of Westwood towards the far corner I said "it's in." Not for the first time though I was more than happy to be wrong as the ball crashed back out off the underside of the Cumbrians bar, the ball landing four or five feet away from the Carlisle line, the clearance being completed by Aranalde who hacked the ball away for a City throw-in. A close escape for the Blues but in all honesty it was the only real time the visitors would threaten to score all night.
Two minutes on Holmes won a high ball up from Gray well as he nodded it down into the run of Lumsdon. The Blues schemer snatched at his half-volley on his weaker left-foot though from the edge of the Red Imps box and could only scuff it straight to Marriott. Shortly afterwards City left-back Lee Beevers was forced to be on his game as Bridges broke away down the right and hammered in a low cross which Beevers just managed to put behind for a United corner.
In the 55th minute Foster was the first man in the game to pick up a yellow card from referee Bates, as he sent Arnison flying off the pitch with an awful sliding tackle right on the touchline. Two minutes later Robinson should also have been booked for deliberate handball when he used his arm to control a pass but like many decisions on the night the official made the wrong call by letting him off. Mr Bates certainly had some very bizarre moments with the whistle, particularly in the second-half, as he gave numerous throw-ins and a couple of corners to the wrong side when it was clearly the other way round.
Bang on the hour-mark Lumsdon wasted a good chance for the Blues went he sent a flag-kick in from the Warwick/East Stand corner which went straight over the heads of everyone and landed on top of the Lincoln net. A minute later Tom Wilkinson came on to make his debut for City as he replaced Green, with Red Imps boss Keith Alexander looking to spice up his side's attacking play out wide. Shortly afterwards Lumsdon received a yellow card for Carlisle when he brought down Foster, Lumsdon being booked for persistent infringement. Somehow, seconds later, Robinson escaped a yellow card yet again when he was only spoken to for giving away another free-kick after fouling Livesey, one more decision that showed a severe lack of consistency from the official.
The game was starting to drift into what looked like an inevitable 0-0 draw now but Blues manager Paul Simpson wasn't settling for just a point though when he brought on Glenn Murray upfront for the tiring Holmes in the 71st minute. That effort to go for the City throat and the effort that the Carlisle players had put in on the night was finally rewarded in the 75th minute when Bridges at last got in behind the big and slow-to-turn City back-line to slot home his 12th goal of the campaign for United with an excellent finish.
Hawley tried to take in a Lumsdon header 45 yards out from the visitors goal but Beevers was on-hand to just nick it through the legs of the United striker, albeit straight back to Lumsdon inches inside the City half. Looking up quickly the ex-Sunderland schemer hit a peach of a pass over the top of the pushed-up Lincoln defence for Bridges to run onto and in on the Red Imps goal. Bridges managed to get a little touch on with his left foot into the City box and just managed to knock it up in the air past Marriott with his right foot as the visitors keeper came rushing out to block. Cryan had raced back to try and make a challenge but Bridges showed some of his pace of old to get to the ball first by inches and toe-poke it home on the bounce with his right foot from two yards out to spark scenes of jubilation from the 6,552 Blues fans in Brunton Park.
Carlisle could have made it two just moments later when Brown fouled Hawley 22 yards out slap bang in the middle of the pitch. Like most United shots on goal from free-kicks this season though it never tested Marriott as Murphy blazed it high and wide to the left of target and into the Warwick Road End. The shock of going behind at a late stage seemed to slow the visitors right down for a few minutes with Hawley firing a good 25-yard drive in from the left with his right foot which Marriott did well to hold. In an effort to drag his side back into the match Red Imps boss Alexander brought on Gary Birch for Lee Frecklington with Birch going upfront to join centre-half McCombe, that tactic seeing City employ an air-force-esque 4-2-4 formation for the last twelve minutes.
In the 80th minute the ball bobbled around the Carlisle box for a few seconds after a Cryan corner in before Bridges managed to boot it away from danger. A minute later City did have the ball in the United net when good work from Beevers released Robinson, however, he was judged to be offside before crossing to Birch who was also in an offside position, and, despite Birch tapping it into the net, the goal was rightly chalked off. With seven minutes left in the game came the latest basketball player to enter the fray when Jude Stirling came on in place of Foster who was carrying a back injury after an aerial challenge with Hawley. Stirling played at Brunton Park earlier in the season when United disposed of Oxford 2-1, but was since released by the U's, only to presumably be picked up by City because he is tall and has a long throw-in.
After 87 minutes came the latest Stirling long throw into the United box which flew in under the Blues crossbar, Westwood not for the first time though was strong under immense pressure and was awarded a free-kick from the official when McCombe led with his arm in the air. The balls into the Carlisle area were causing the Cumbrians surprisingly few problems through a combination of Westwood cleverly choosing to punch the ball clear instead of risking a catch and his defenders working like trojans in front of him. Shortly before the end the referee took a good two minutes to talk to Blues boss Paul Simpson about something the fourth official had noticed, that only added to the agony at the end when it turned the three minutes injury time that had been allotted into a nailbiting five.
Just as the game ticked into those added minutes Stirling was the third player on the night to go into the book following a wild lunge on Arnison as Carlisle looked to hold the ball up next to the Lincoln corner flag. There was still time for the hearts to end up in the mouths of the United fans in the fourth of those five minutes of injury time however went Birch went close. Wilkinson's break down the right saw him earn a throw-in off Aranalde which Stirling hurled deep into the Blues box. Gray managed to head it clear from the goalmouth but it only went straight to Birch who hooked a volley across goal and out for a Cumbrians goal-kick to the sound of loud exhalations of air from the Cumbrians faithful. A minute later the final whistle blew and Carlisle had gone six points clear at the top of the table, won six league games in a row and were five days away from the Football League Trophy Final at the Millennium Stadium, can it get any better?
Post-match quotes :
Carlisle boss Paul Simpson said:
"We knew this would be a tough game, we really had to roll our sleeves up. It was a very good finish from Bridges and I think the goal was reward for our performance.