With Richie Foran starting his suspension, Brian Wake came in alongside Craig Farrell up front. Leon Osman was back with Everton so Jon McCarthy came into midfield. 390 travelling fans were present amongst a holiday crowd of 4,879 at the Matchroom Stadium. The lively Jabo Ibehre had the first real chance in the 13th minute when he fired in a shot direct from a Matt Lockwood corner that was partially blocked by Darren Kelly before being saved by Matt Glennon. United broke through on 22 minutes when Brian Shelley scored his first goal of the season with a 25-yard screamer that went in off the inside of the post. Ibehre should have brought the O's back into it when he headed wide of Glennon with the goal at his mercy. Within a minute of this Ibehre made amends when he charged through the middle, shrugging off Shelley and Peter Murphy to lob over Glennon and equalise. Chris Tate fired over for the home side and McCarthy went into the book. Hudson fed McGill on 30 minutes who shot over the bar from 25 yards out. On 34 minutes the home team grabbed the lead when a corner kick went right over the area, Tate crossed back in and defender Dean Smith found the back of the net from the edge of the six yard box. Wake then worked a good position for himself, getting to the byline and crossing for the unlucky Hudson to fire against the bar. Darren Kelly limped off the pitch at half-time, but reappeared after the break following treatment. Within seconds of the re-start and Farrell was put away by Hudson who shot across goal forcing Smith to concede a corner. From the kick Kelly got up well but headed over. Orient applied a bit of pressure but Shelley again tried his luck with a rising 30-yard effort that was a bit too high. Wake had a shot blocked as Carlisle tried to take the game to the opposition. Farrell tried his luck from over 30 yards and forced a save out of Scott Barrett. Ryan Baldacchino replaced McGill on 65 minutes in a straight swap. Lee Thorpe, leading scorer for the O's, replaced Tate a couple of minutes later. Ibehre got away on 68 minutes only to be hacked down by Maddison and the left back must have been a relieved man not to have got a red card. Wake then got a flick on to a free kick by Murphy and Barratt tipped it over well to keep the home team's lead intact. United increased the pressure and when Orient failed to clear Shelley drove from nearly 40 yards and the ball was just inches over. Carlisle would have been pleased to see Ibehre go off to be replaced by Kevin Nugent with 13 minutes left. With United pushing forward, there were bound to be gaps at the back and Thorpe broke free of Shelley only to see Glennon push his shot away for a corner. Shelley made a great tackle on Scott Canham to foil another Orient raid. Al's verdict: This is turning into a familiar tale - sorry defending costing us the points after a great opening strike from Shelley. Mistakes like these could cost us our place in the league unless we start to show some resilience soon. Poor results at home put pressure on the team to get results on the road and despite our fine goalscoring run - we've scored in every league game since mid-September - two goals against seems to be the norm for our under-performing defence. It's going to be a very tough trip to Hartlepool. |
