The players may have had a good excuse to be distracted by events off the field but they performed with increasing confidence as the night went on. One player missing though was Richie Foran, allegedly because of a warm-up injury but the feeling was his mind wasn't properly on the job after Roddy Collins's sacking on Saturday. It was Billy Barr's first game in charge of United for a league game. He had been in the job for three weeks during pre-season. City made a blistering start and earned one of the fastest penalties ever seen. Just 53 seconds had elapsed when Keen sent Michael Proctor flying on the edge of the area. It wasn't immediately obvious if it was inside the box or not but referee Brandwood awarded the kick. Keen almost knocked the referee over in the ensuing protest. Proctor took it, and Keen, diving to his left, made a good save. In truth, it was a poor penalty. Within a few minutes Proctor almost corrected his error when he was put through on goal and Keen came out bravely. The ball rebounded off Proctor and rolled agonisingly wide of the right hand post. Ex-United hero Darren Edmondson then wriggled his way past several challenges and found John Parkin. He had a good chance but again Keen saved well. Carlisle were barely in the contest as an attacking force and only Brendan McGill was causing any trouble. The Minstermen almost scored again on 30 minutes when Stuart Wise beat Keen only to see his shot bounce back off the inside of the post. The second half had to be better for United and so it proved. McGill increasingly took to the wing and had the beating of York's defensive cover. Ian Stevens rattled in a shot was well pushed aside by Alan Fettis in the home goal. Then Steven Halliday jinked inside a couple of challenges and drilled a shot off the far post with Fettis floundering. Keen was still in action at the other end and a brilliant dive to palm away an Alex Mathie header was arguably the save of the night. Subsitute Jonny Allan entered the fray in place of McGill to a chorus of disapproval from the travelling United support. "You don't know what you're doing" they screamed at Barr but it was Allan who late on almost won the game for the Cumbrians with an impressive left foot shot which rattled the top of the bar. Al's verdict: I've never seen a quicker penalty in my life and at first it looked like a blatant dive but apparently the ref was spot on according to those who saw it from another angle. After a wobbly opening, in which we could have fallen 2 or 3 goals behind, we improved a lot and the second half saw us take control for long spells. The decision to replace McGill was a bit surprising. Some hinted that Barr is not a fan of the Irish players and prefers the younger lads he has helped to nurture. Time will tell if he's in the job long enough for it to matter. |
