With Stuart Green prevented from appearing against his current club by the terms of the loan deal with Hull, Mark Summerbell came back into the side to partner Mark Hudson. Mark Birch kept his place at right back and Brendan McGill came in on the right wing. Although Farrell finished the game with a goal, his failure to control the ball when put in by Foran early in the proceedings was to prove costly. The ball ran off his toe and away from the danger zone when he had a clear run at Tigers keeper Alan Fettis. Peter Murphy then curled a free kick round the Hull wall by Fettis got down well to save at his left hand upright. At this stage, it was probably the home side ahead on points but Hull struck a magnificent blow on 21 minutes to change the course of the match and put themselves in the driving seat. Peter Murphy was caught out of position by a swift break down the right. Jonathan Walters took the ball forward to just outside the box and then turned on a sixpence to curl a superb shot over Glennon and into the top left hand corner. From there, the game began to get away from Carlisle. City extended the lead six minutes from the interval when Stuart Elliott stooped to conquer with a free header at the far post after a cross by Richie Appleby. Things went from bad to worse for the Cumbrians on the stroke of half-time when Jamie Forrester strode through a large gap down the right to clip home past a stranded Glennon. A chorus of boos greeted the half-time whistle. Roddy Collins shook things up by taking off Birch and McGill and throwing on Will McDonagh and Jon McCarthy, switching to a back three. The ploy failed almost immediately as the rampant Tigers scored a fourth within five minutes of the re-start. Elliott was on hand to side foot home after Glennon could only palm away a Jamie Forrester shot. The visiting supporters taunted both Glennon and the non-playing Green. United still managed to put together some positive moves and Foran should have pulled one back when he ran on to a Rundle cross but failed to keep his header down and deposited the ball disappointingly into the Warwick. Farrell had a shot blocked on the line by Fettis and a Rundle header was easily claimed as the home team tried to get something back. But the icing on the cake for the Humbersiders arrived in the 68th minute when a linesman's offside flag was not forthcoming and Walters strode through down the left channel to fire across Glennon and into the opposite corner. Unhappy fans gave the hapless official an earful, but in truth it mattered little as the game was long gone. Finally Carlisle did register a score inside the closing seconds. Rundle was upended on the edge of the box. The ball was played to Farrell who drilled home low and hard into the left corner. Scant consolation, although probably deserved on chances created. Al's verdict: Was this as bad as Lincoln? Probably not, but our defence was caught square far too often and our midfield went AWOL on several key occasions. Summerbell was rusty on his return after suspension and on this evidence, we need Green more than we might have imagined. It was a bad day for Darren Kelly, Peter Murphy and and an even worse one for Glennon who had the Tigers fans on his back for much of the second half. Let's hope Green doesn't decide to return to Humberside on the basis of this result. It's certainly food for thought for him, not to mention Collins, who now has to coax a performance out of the lads on Tuesday night, in a match and a competition that looks to be proving an unwelcome distraction. The one positive thing to come out of the game is that we are still the right side of the relegation line, but it's still very tight and our goal difference has taken another hammering. |
