The match was decided by Derek Holmes' close range header two minutes into the second period. It was later marred by the sending off of Chris Billy following an incident near the edge of the Northwich box. The Cumbrians left out Brendan McGill, injured and went with Paul Arnison down the right. Kieren Westwood and Chris Beech, impressive against Accrington, kept their places. Vics had two ex-United players in Jonny Allan and Jon McCarthy in their starting line-up. The pitch is now much firmer and suiting United's measured passing game. From the off they took the game to the visitors. Peter Murphy's inswinging corner in 6 minutes found Danny Livesey's head but the ball was wide. Then Holmes got up well to meet a right-wing cross but keeper Andrew Ralph clung on well. Vics came into it as Mark Quayle forced Westwood into a smart tip over the bar. Lumsdon tested Ralph from 25 yards but the keeper saved well. Murphy went close with a close-range effort and Holmes had an effort blocked by defender Charnock as the Cumbrians still looked the more likely to make the breakthrough, but their play began to lose its edge as the half wore on. Mark Devlin fired over the bar for Northwich who looked sporadically dangerous and were increasingly combative with two players in Charnock and Karl Munroe entering referee Matadar's notebook. Close to half-time Billy was booked and then Quayle tested Westwood again. Magno Vieira had the last decent effort of the half as United went into a muted reception. The second half needed to start on a better note and two minutes in, the ground lit up as Vieira's shot was punched out by Ralph and the lurking Holmes was there to nod home a simple goal and put Carlisle one-up. On 55 minutes Ralph made the save of the match when he tipped Chris Lumsden's 20-yard effort on to the outside of the post and away for a corner. Ex-United man McCarthy was booked for protesting a decision inside the United box when he was adamant the visitors should have had a corner. United were playing rather better now but things got out of hand just past the hour. Billy made a lunge as he approached the penalty area, got involved in some fisticuffs and was shown a red by Matadar, apparently for diving. Shortly after this Allan fell over in a heap but the referee waved away appeals for another yellow on the same grounds of diving. McCarthy got a shot on target on 63 minutes but Westwood was solidly behind it. The game became scrappier but Carlisle always looked to have the visitors at arm's length despite their man advantage. Allan very nearly levelled but his shot on the turn was inches wide as Westwood scrambled to get near it. Then Byrne delivered a good cross that substitute Bailey headed at Westwood who saved well, to preserve United's narrow advantage. Al's verdict: Not quite as convincing as last week's win, but this will do. With other key games ending in draws, our position has improved again, despite staying in fifth place. It was crucial we picked up three points from home games like this no matter how scrappy the performance. Westwood had another fine game and it was very heartening to see Holmes nab another goal. Give Northwich their due, they battled away and made life difficult for us but I felt we coped reasonably well after going down to ten men. Allan, who looked quite sharp, was fortunate to stay on the pitch for constant nattering to the match officials. Unfortunately Billy will now miss three games when we need him in there to boss midfield. Always a few clouds to spoil the day. |
