A crowd of 2,413 on a cold night saw United score late in each half to steal a win that was against the run of much of the play. Wrexham created and wasted a host of chances and Carlisle keeper Matty Glennon was again kept busy. As for United, Peter Murphy was an absolute rock at the back and winger Jon McCarthy celebrated his home debut with his first goal for the Cumbrians. The Cumbrians had survived a couple of nervous moments without creating much of note themselves when they made the vital breakthrough in the 41st minute. Leon Osman, who was taken off at half-time after some more breathtaking dribbles from midfield, drove in a shot that came back off the underside of the cross-bar. The matter of whether it had crossed the line or not became irrelevant as the onrushing McCarthy nodded the ball into the empty net. The hard-working Craig Farrell should have extended the lead just a minute later but after breaking free of the defence his weak attempted chip was saved by Wrexham keeper Paul Whitfield. The crowd warmed to a United team who had played some neat build-up football without much of an end product. Roddy Collins tried to bamboozle Wrexham at half-time when he hauled off Osman and Farrell and brought on Richie Foran and Paul Robinson. United were now playing with two men up front again but it was the visitors who created most of the chances on offer. Unfortunately for the Welshmen, they couldn't take them. Paul Barrett shot over the bar from 15 yards out and soon after this a Stephen Roberts shot was deflected inches wide of the right hand post with Glennon stranded. In the next attack, substitute Hector Sam should have done better than shoot straight at Glennon after he was put through clear on the left. For United, Foran wriggled his way into a good looking position but was mysteriously pulled up for a foul and this affected his game for about 10 minutes, as United failed to hold the ball up front and allowed Wrexham to gradually take control and force the home defence deeper. The home side delivered the perfect coup de grace in the closing minutes when Foran exploded into space down the right, drew out Whitfield and calmly played the ball across goal for Robinson to trap and tap home from barely two yards out. Al's verdict: There's no doubt we've played better this season but at the end of the day we took our chances and they didn't. It was as simple as that. We'll need to improve a bit to repeat the scoreline in the league on Saturday though and I don't think Collins will mess around with the formation as much as he did tonight. Anyway, this puts us a step closer to a Cardiff final and should help swell the coffers even more. The disappointing aspect of the game was a small crowd which was fairly inevitable given the full price the club was charging. Surely this game could have been discounted? |
