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Hawley Double Helps United Rock Robins
United maintained their unbeaten away record with a victory at Whaddon Road over Cheltenham Town that was more comprehensive than the scoreline suggests.
The Cumbrians recovered from conceding an early goal to take control of the game and claim three strikes of high quality before a late penalty set up a tense finish for the 528 travelling Blue Army supporters.
United started in their now more common 4-5-1 formation with Karl Hawley as the lone striker, Raphael Nade and Brendan McGill supporting him from the wings and Chris Billy, Chris Lumsdon and Adam Murray making up the rest of the midfield. The back five remained unchanged.
The home side, who were unbeaten until last week's defeat at Wrexham, grabbed the lead after 19 minutes when midfielder JJ Melligan collected the ball in midfield and speared a 25-yard shot beyond goalkeeper Anthony Williams and just inside his left-hand post. It was one "Taff" will be disappointed with but unlike previous United sides of yesteryear Carlisle didn't crumble and quickly hit back to level.
The Robins' lead lasted only three minutes as Cheltenham midfielder John Finnigan dwelled on the ball for too long and was robbed on the edge of his own box by evergreen midfielder Billy. Hitman Hawley was onto it in a flash and guided a low shot across home keeper Shane Higgs and into the corner of the net.
Both sides had a number of half-chances either side of half-time but the turning point arrived on 52 minutes. United left-back Zigor Aranalde found Hawley on the edge of the area and the former Walsall man turned his marker before shooting a cracker past Higgs.
Aranalde seemed to have put the result beyond doubt 79 minutes when he scored a spectacular third for the visitors. Chris Lumsdon's corner was headed out by Ashley Vincent but Aranalde thumped a spectacular volley back from the edge of the box and into the top right-hand corner of Higgs' net. It was a corker from the Basque left-back who looks one of the best United signings in many a year and goes some way to making up for his shot that rattled the post at Lincoln.
Cheltenham had struggled for any sort of fluency going forward, although three minutes from time they were handed a late lifeline when Blues skipper Kevin Gray jumped all over Jamie Victory in the box in a repeat of the penalty United conceded late on at Wrexham. Referee Jarnail Singh pointed immediately to the spot and unlike his heriocs at Wrexham, Williams couldn't keep the ball out as Grant McCann coolly despatched the penalty.
Cheltenham threw players forward in the closing minutes but Carlisle were rarely troubled and can now boast an impressive record of three wins and two draws on the road as well as second place in the table.
Who would have thought that after nine games we would sit second in the league, it's more than any of us could have asked for I'm sure and while you wonder how long it can last it's great to see a United side competing at the right end of the table in this league for the first time in a long time.
Speaking after the match Cheltenham manager John Ward said :
The Cumbrians recovered from conceding an early goal to take control of the game and claim three strikes of high quality before a late penalty set up a tense finish for the 528 travelling Blue Army supporters.
United started in their now more common 4-5-1 formation with Karl Hawley as the lone striker, Raphael Nade and Brendan McGill supporting him from the wings and Chris Billy, Chris Lumsdon and Adam Murray making up the rest of the midfield. The back five remained unchanged.
The home side, who were unbeaten until last week's defeat at Wrexham, grabbed the lead after 19 minutes when midfielder JJ Melligan collected the ball in midfield and speared a 25-yard shot beyond goalkeeper Anthony Williams and just inside his left-hand post. It was one "Taff" will be disappointed with but unlike previous United sides of yesteryear Carlisle didn't crumble and quickly hit back to level.
The Robins' lead lasted only three minutes as Cheltenham midfielder John Finnigan dwelled on the ball for too long and was robbed on the edge of his own box by evergreen midfielder Billy. Hitman Hawley was onto it in a flash and guided a low shot across home keeper Shane Higgs and into the corner of the net.
Both sides had a number of half-chances either side of half-time but the turning point arrived on 52 minutes. United left-back Zigor Aranalde found Hawley on the edge of the area and the former Walsall man turned his marker before shooting a cracker past Higgs.
Aranalde seemed to have put the result beyond doubt 79 minutes when he scored a spectacular third for the visitors. Chris Lumsdon's corner was headed out by Ashley Vincent but Aranalde thumped a spectacular volley back from the edge of the box and into the top right-hand corner of Higgs' net. It was a corker from the Basque left-back who looks one of the best United signings in many a year and goes some way to making up for his shot that rattled the post at Lincoln.
Cheltenham had struggled for any sort of fluency going forward, although three minutes from time they were handed a late lifeline when Blues skipper Kevin Gray jumped all over Jamie Victory in the box in a repeat of the penalty United conceded late on at Wrexham. Referee Jarnail Singh pointed immediately to the spot and unlike his heriocs at Wrexham, Williams couldn't keep the ball out as Grant McCann coolly despatched the penalty.
Cheltenham threw players forward in the closing minutes but Carlisle were rarely troubled and can now boast an impressive record of three wins and two draws on the road as well as second place in the table.
Who would have thought that after nine games we would sit second in the league, it's more than any of us could have asked for I'm sure and while you wonder how long it can last it's great to see a United side competing at the right end of the table in this league for the first time in a long time.
Speaking after the match Cheltenham manager John Ward said :
"I have no complaints at all about the result. My complaints are about our second half performance, not the result. The better team won the game. We got so disappointed about their second goal that we fell away. I was looking for some leaders then to get back into the game but we looked sorry for ourselves and were fortunate to get a penalty to get ourselves back in.
"We made some poor decisions in the second half of the game and in situations that we talked about not just at half time but most of the week. We lost two balls in our own half for the first two goals and that just can't happen. Whether we believed our own hype, that we were a good team and we started well or we believed our publicity I don't know but the basic things in the second half were not there."
United player-boss Paul Simpson commented :
"I thought we were excellent today. I was disappointed to concede the first goal. It was a bad goal to give away. But we showed great character to get back into the game and Karl Hawley's finishing was superb. He should have had a hat-trick if we are going to be greedy but his performance was outstanding overall.
"People think our formation is negative but it gives the midfielders a chance to get forward and support the lone forward and we did that well today."