CARLISLE United dominated long periods of the game against League One strugglers Scunthorpe but it needed patience and a late strike from super-sub Francois Zoko to claim the three points the visitors deserved.

An early goal woke the Cumbrians up and they peppered the box with crosses and shots – only to be denied by the woodwork on three occasions and by goal-line clearances twice before the break.

Manager Greg Abbott said: “The first-half was probably as good as I can remember in terms of chances created but we could not find the net. We cannot even say it was bad finishing. It was just unbelievable defending and the woodwork.

“We come in at one down and it is one of them where you are so frustrated, but you have to give a positive half-time team-talk, which we did.

“We said we were going to win the game if we kept going.

“We did not play as well in the second half but overall we played terrific football and we are delighted to be going away from here with a win.”

A quickly-taken throw allowed Andy Barcham to open the scoring as Scunthorpe started brightly and the frustration mounted for the visitors as Lee Miller and Peter Murphy took it in turns to test the integrity of the woodwork. Former Middlesbrough front man Miller said: “It just would not go in.

“They had rocked us with their goal, but we knew if we kept going we would get back at them.

“In the end it took longer than we would have liked, but there are not too many who will argue that we did not deserve the win.”