Millwall 3, Carlisle United 0

Apr 28 2008 by Mike Corry, The Journal

CARLISLE’S season may not yet be in tatters, but it feels like it. After having control of their own destiny for so long, the Cumbrians have painfully thrown that advantage away.

They now go into the final game of the season, at home to Bournemouth, needing to win and hoping Doncaster and Nottingham Forest fail to win their last games.

But a return of five points from a possible 21 sees their poorest run of form unfortunately coincide with the business end of the season. And little solace is provided by a play-off place that has been assured for some time, as current form generally dictates the fate of the team triumphant at the Wembley showdown.

The Cumbrians also have the disadvantage of going into the remaining games without the services of David Raven and Danny Livesey, as their hitherto immaculate disciplinary record goes off the rails after consecutive red cards in the last two games.

Carlisle manager John Ward had plenty to mull over but his reasoning for the loss of form was more relative to the lack of depth in the squad.

He said: “There is a shortage of energy that you need to have at this stage or any stage basically, but I think we’ve got one or two running on empty and the squad is now thinning out (after Raven and Livesey’s red cards).

“That is not an excuse and it is certainly not a lack of trying but the energy is missing that we had in the previous two months and have found difficult to rekindle in April.

“There has been a huge physical effort to get us into the position we are at the moment and sometimes that takes its toll. It looked like that today. The energy you need at this stage of the season has deserted us. We need to get over this quickly, pull together and flood Brunton Park next Saturday and see what we can achieve then.”

Carlisle were up against it from the start with Kieren Westwood keeping their hopes alive with a string of saves. The first was from Jem Karacan and a follow-up block to deny Bas Savage. It was followed by stunning saves to deny a shot from Neil Harris and a Paul Robinson effort.

But something eventually had to give and Jay Simpson provided the breakthrough on 42 minutes when he cut in from the right to drill a shot beyond Westwood into the bottom corner.

Carlisle introduced Gary Madine at half time to play up front with Danny Graham, with Scott Dobie dropping back to right midfield in place of the ineffective Cleveland Taylor.

But their brief resurgence was terminated on 55 minutes as Livesey earned a red card in bringing down Harris, who tucked the resulting penalty away with ease.

And the contest was put out of sight eight minutes later as Harris headed back an Ahmet Brkovic corner across goal for Tony Craig to power home a header. Marc Bridge-Wilkinson’s 89th minute off-target effort was Carlisle’s only attempt on goal in the second half, a sorry indictment of their demise.

MILLWALL: Evans, Senda, Robinson, Craig, Frampton (Bignot 50), Simpson, Laird, Karacan, Brkovic, Savage, Harris. Subs (not used): Edwards, Martin, Fuseini, Smith

Goals: Simpson 43, Harris 56 pen, Craig 64

CARLISLE: Westwood, Arnison, Livesey, Murphy, Horwood, Taylor (Madine 46), Bridge-Wilkinson, Lumsdon, Hackney, Graham, Dobie (Campion 59). Subs (not used): Howarth, Thirlwell, Grant Smith

Sent Off: Livesey (56)

Booked: Lumsdon

Attendance: 10,075

Referee: Jon Moss (W Yorkshire)