| United's poor home form returned with a vengeance as they lost a vital clash 1-0 to mid-table Cambridge. The game was a personal disaster for Mark Birch who was harshly sent off late in the game and will now miss the Cumbrians trip to Cardiff for the LDV Vans Final. The result left Carlisle just two points clear of the relegation zone with a game in hand. Roddy Collins again courted controversy by leaving out striker Richie Foran, presumably to protect him against a booking that would take him out of the Cardiff final. He paired top scorer Craig Farrell with Craig Russell up front, with Peter Murphy back in defence after having a pain killing injection. Birch moved back to his usual right back position. It was Farrell who threatened twice early on. First of all he skied the ball over the bar after some good build-up play. Then he produced a quality lob that beat U's keeper Shaun Marshall but came back off the cross bar and bounced away to safety. United were on top in the early stages but the game swung dramatically the visitors way in the 26th minute when Matty Glennon misjudged a bouncing cross from Fred Murray coming into the box and Dave Kitson lurking beyond him dived to head home into the unguarded net. It came against the run of play but United really began to struggle after the goal and the fluency went out of their game. The second half produced fewer clear openings in the early stages although Jon McCarthy and Stuart Green worked a chance for Paul Raven who fired low and hard from 25 yards but the ball flew a foot or two wide of the target. Later in the half McCarthy got in a tame header that provided a simple catch for Marshall. Collins then decided he couldn't hold back Foran any longer and brought him into the game in midfield for Green. Foran's first action was to push away his marker before the ball had even gone back into play and he received a stern lecture from referee Boyeson. Needing to avoid a booking, all eyes were on Foran to see how he reacted but it was poor Birch who ended up suffering a disciplinary nightmare. A rather badly timed lunge near the Paddock touchline was extremely harshly punished by Boyeson who showed a red card to the utter disgust of the home supporters. For a while Carlisle were fired up, and nobody more so than angry boss Collins. Minutes after Birch walked down the tunnel, Collins was spoken to by Boyeson who then ordered him off too. The disgusted manager flung off his jacket and stormed down the tunnel. As the boos rang out around the terraces for the ref, United piled more men forward. Firstly a superb Foran header which seemed destined to go into the corner of the net brought probably the save of the season from Marshall who was mobbed by his team-mates for a brilliant reaction push away for a corner. From the resulting kick Raven saw his header blocked. With ten minutes remaining another corner was handled as it came over and referee Boyeson got it right for once by pointing to the spot. But the culprit Angus was only booked and not sent off as the crowd had been expecting. Farrell stepped up to knock home the equaliser but his effort was poorly struck and Marshall continued his excellent display by blocking it. Although five minutes were added on, United's best shot had been fired and it had missed its target. With no more home games until April 15, it's going to be a long few weeks for the players to work out how to get out of the relegation scrap. Al's verdict: So unfortunately CUFC Online's sponsorship of the match ball brought us no good luck. Following Tuesday's very nervy win, I was expecting to see a relatively comfortable 3 points over a mid-table side with little chance of reaching the play-offs. However despite some good first half football, we played without much belief and without Foran up front, we lacked a cutting edge, requiring Farrell again to do the work of two men. Farrell had another good game and it would be unfair to blame him for missing the penalty. Glennon's error was equally important and too many players such as Green again and Russell, were just not in the game enough. Looking at the table, it seems that 48-49 points might well be needed to achieve safety and that will take some getting now with so many well-placed teams still to play. It also means the trip to Cardiff will be somewhat tarnished by our perilous league position. Victory at Oxford really will be essential. Hopefully the team can keep Cardiff in the background for that vital match. Yes, the referee was poor and the decision to send off Birch was surely wrong but our performance overall wasn't good enough. |