Carlisle United 2 Northampton Town 0

Mar 25 2008 by Paul Cunningham, The Journal

BY this stage of the season, momentum is all that matters whether you are fighting relegation, scrapping for promotion or racing towards a title.

To use the phrase beloved of American political commentators, it is Carlisle United who have “the mo” in League One.

As Doncaster Rovers were dropping points for the second time in four days, Carlisle extended their amazing home record to 14 straight wins.

With Swansea City suddenly starting to flounder after months of plain sailing, the Cumbrians have left behind the scramble for the play-offs and are well and truly in the title race.

Carlisle’s second Easter win was not an exhibition in beautiful football but with the confidence of their incredible Brunton Park record behind them, a team with an average age of only 24 needed only to display the work ethic typified by Chris Lumsdon and Danny Graham to ensure victory.

“The character is never in question,” said a proud assistant manager Gregg Abbott afterwards. We deserved the win but if we didn’t I’m not bothered anyway!

“In League One you get rewards for hard work. Sometimes our play’s not Real Madrid stuff. We’ve hit the heights at times and we’ve battled when we’ve not played well. Today was a mixed bag. We’re desperately delighted with our performance.

“We’ve done Easter, we’ve done six points out of six, we’ve seen other teams around us drop points and I’m not going to play it down, the dressing room’s buzzing. We’ve given ourselves a fantastic chance of finishing at the top.”

Playing a lop-sided 4-3-2-1 formation, Carlisle’s flying start petered out after an opening quarter of an hour in which they enjoyed a flurry of corners.

Carlisle’s two best chances of the first half fell to Graham – one early, one late – in similar tight positions to the right of the goal. On the first occasion, he shot under goalkeeper Mark Bunn but the ball hit the outside of the upright and rebounded to safety. When Evan Horwood’s deep ball later fell to Graham, Bunn was quickly off his line.

The Cobblers were dangerous themselves, particularly down their left, but Carlisle started the second half as vigorously as they had the first and this time maintained it.

They were made to wait just four minutes for their reward. Cleveland Taylor’s cross hit a defender and went out after Simon Hackney and Graham both passed up good shooting opportunities.

Peter Murphy flicked Hackney’s corner to his central defensive partner Danny Livesey, who smashed it into the roof of the net for his third goal in five games.

The hosts dominated from there on without making the game safe.

They were nearly made to pay 11 minutes from time when Northampton hit them on the counter-attack after Grant Smith’s shot was blocked.

Jonathan Hayes used his side’s numerical advantage on the break well to pick out Giles Coke but Kieran Westwood made a vital save.

It took six more minutes but Carlisle finally put the game beyond doubt as Graham at last got his just deserts for his phenomenal hard work.

Under pressure from Marc Bridge-Wilkinson, Mark Little passed back to Bunn and Graham was quick to see the possibilities, intercepting and playing in Bridge-Wilkinson.

The cultured midfielder steadied himself and picked his spot.

CARLISLE: Westwood, Raven, Livesey, Murphy, Horwood, Taylor (Dobie 73), Lumsdon (Arnison 89), Bridge-Wilkinson, Grant Smith, Hackney (Carlton 83), Graham. Subs (not used): Howarth, Madine.

Goals: Livesey 50, Bridge-Wilkinson 84.

NORTHAMPTON: Bunn, Little, Gyepes (Holt 40), Dolman, Crowe, Coke, Burnell, Jackman (Larkin 63), Jones, Akinfenwa, Hubertz (Hayes 62). Subs (not used): Dunn, Henderson.

Attendance: 9,038

Referee: Neil Swarbrick (Lancashire)