Thetownend.com

Who's off to Scotland tomorrow?

Forecast, is just fairly grim..... rain and winds, for the afternoon replacing snow and winds am.  I guess it's what you expect for the far  north.... I'd be surprised if the Brunton pitch is up to much also.  last time we lost away was in fairly similar circumstances at an STFC graveyard Blundell Park.  Therefore very tough.  We can probably afford to lose this if we back up with a win at Stevenage...

Matchday predictions: 

1.  Brunton Park fails a pitch inspection at 2pm. 

2.  Wobbly Bob enjoys some extra drinking time.

The sort of norvern outpost where even our decent sides have struggled....a point would be massive, but wildly optimistic especially considering the bombshell news this week re. the CG that threatens the clubs very existence.

We’ll soon be approaching the part of the season where we need to begin resting players ahead of our trip to Whaddon Road, albeit I would suggest this weekend is a bit too soon.

I'm heading up, 2-1 win please town!

Yep 4 wins in 20 visits and 3 of those were either in August at the start of the season or May at the end.  The only success in the dodgy weather part of season was the Austin full debut game in November.

Carlisle are a bit like us last season, either win or lose.... we could certainly accept a draw as long as backed up by winning at Stevenage, as that would put the GD into positive numbers, so signs of progress.

The pitch doesn't look too bad from pictures in the local rag, although it has been pissing it down up here almost constantly for about a week now!

Hope it doesn't get pulled, going with a couple of non fans who last time we went to a town match was the late postponement at Accrington last season!

Brunton Park... 2015.

(https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/resources/images/4530797.jpg?display=1&htype=0&type=responsive-gallery)

Wish I was going tomorrow - fancy us, 2-0. Theo and a midfielder bagging in front of 380 Town fans.

Carlisle currently sit 1 place above us in 9th place 3 points better off but we have a game in hand against them. They have scored 11 more than us but conceded 2 more than we have, 4 of those goals coming in Wellens first game in charge as we all remember.

They have only drawn 5 games so far but have lost 4 more games than we have.

Their leading scorers so far this season are Hope with 11, Devitt with 10 and Nadesan on 8.

Carlisles home form is only slightly better than Towns with 8 wins 2 draws and 7 defeats, scored 29 and conceded 21 (we have lost 5 at home and won 6 by comparison).

Towns away form is W7 D4 L5 F20 A19

Home and away vs Carlisle we have only lost 3 times in 14 games.

At Brunton Park we have only won 4 times in 22 games but conversely have only 2 defeat in the last 11 games in the footballing outpost.

Carlisle U last 8 games LWWDLLDL scoring 8 conceding 12

Swindons last 8 games WDWLWWDW scoring 15 conceding 8

Thier prefered defensive formation is 4 huge defenders in Grainger, Gerrard, Parkes and Liddle who are not the most mobile but very strong so hopefully we can exploit their lack of pace defensively.

Thier manager Steven Pressley praising us in his pre match.

https://www.carlisleunited.co.uk/news/2019/march/manager-they-can-test-you-in-a-number-of-ways/

https://www.carlisleunited.co.uk/news/2019/march/big-match-preview-the-robins-are-at-brunton-park-on-saturday/

That report stating Doughty is the man to watch on Saturday....only if you have a camera in the stand!

Difficult place to go and get a result, could easily go either way but a win would be massive in our play off hunt and take us onto the same points as them with a game in hand still.

2-1 defeat with Anderson scoring©  in front of 4,406 with 375 hardy Town fans there.

4 points from the next 2 games would be huge, I don’t care which way round they are - but I’m confident we will get the 4.

Agreed - 10 from the next four should allow us loss at Bury before we embark on our easyish looking run in.

The infamous death kiss :D

No such thing... games are difficult at the end of the season.  Our remaining home fixtures look tempting, but these are sides who will be fighting for their FL futures.  Ideally you want to get them early on when they're just crap and under no pressure.

Tough, tough game. Avoid defeat and I’m happy.

Piece of piss! Don’t know what all you lot are worrying about.

Get some nuts!

^^What he said

FUCK YEAH!!!

I fancy us to take the points in this one.  Everything that was wrong with us against them at home seems to have been sorted and the past couple of away games have seen us perform pretty well against tougher teams.

Nah no way, they work magic up there. I went  when the pitch was a foot under, and the car park 8 foot under water the day before. And the game was on and the pitch played pretty well.

tbf there's only 3 predicting a loss and two of those are Reg and ShitReg

And the 3rd is my normal prediction no matter what form we are on so my prediction isn't really valid. :) "2-1 defeat with Anderson scoring©"

Half time in tonight's games,  Yeovil and Crewe both trying to help us,  Crewe 0-0 at Tranmere, Yeovil 0-0 at Lincoln,  although I don't think we'll catch Lincoln even with our end of season steamroll up the table.

If I try enough times it will happen eventually so 3-1 Town with the help of the football karma gods.
Actually for the first time for some time I feel that we can give a good account of ourselves irrespective who we play including the furthest hardest outposts. Obviously we’ll cock up from time to time. Everything considered including the ground scenario I’m pretty pleased I’ve renewed my season ticket. COYR. Onwards etc

Both of tonight's games finishing 1-0 to the home sides,   no one seems to help us,  got to do it on our own,  C'mon town 2-0 win tomorrow.

Morning TEFERS, I think if we are going to have a chance to get into the play off's we need a result today preferably a win.
 
2-1 to the Town. Don't care who scores.

It has been hammering it down all night up here.....

Sent from my SM-J330FN

No real rationale but I'm confident.

3-1.  Rogers, Smart & Noble.

😂😂😂

Scrappy win by one goal.

Worth remembering that each match day there are teams that can do us favours result wise. Equally we can do ourselves a massive favour by winning. In doing so if other results go against us at the very least we keep pace with the P.O. pack.

Thanks for that Captain Obvious! :)

Think we’ll win 2-0 today.

No problem at all. Glad you have not lost sight that other teams will have a big say in where we finish as well as us.

On Sky Sports Preview it says Vigs is out with a shoulder problem. Is it so?

Pitch looks fine today on the pic on the Twitter club page.

Not heard anything about Vigs but if he is out then it will mean a 1st team call up for Archie Matthews as  Will Henry went out on loan this week.

I see Wellens has told McGlashan he has no future and will not be in the 1st team squad next season so he is playing to impress for a move while at WXM then.

Pre match trying to stay neutral in the Woodrow Wilson.

Impressive snow capped peaks on the way up.

Lack of a shaved head is making it difficult to blend in with the locals.

No idea how this is going to pan out today.
Just hope the team will give a good account of themselves.

McGlashan not even on Wrexham's bench today!!

Yes, maybe he was signed too late to play being they had an earlier ko? says on their forum something about waiting for international clearance?

A bit more here about beng told hes not wanted, no loss IMO.

https://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/sport/17484633.jermaine-mcglashan-joins-national-league-club-wrexham-on-loan-after-not-fitting-into-richie-wellens-playing-system-at-swindon-town/

That makes sense. You'd be expecting him to start games for them.

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D1OKgjNWsAUaUBx.jpg:large)

Unchanged.

Interesting to see us stick with Knoyle at LB and Koiki not even on the bench preferring House of the loanees there.

Also Rose replaces Toums on the bench.

The joy of Thistly Cross cider one of the finest exports from our Gaelic neighbours.

Going to be proper grinder with that line-up today.

According to the Carlisle forum they have named a very attacking line up with their leading scorer Devitt back after suspension.

Looks like the Cumbrians are going for it after not getting a win in their last 5 games.

Sky in fake news shock!

love the whiskey cask cider. can only get it online down here :(

That might play into our hands with playing on the break.
On balance, would prefer Anderson to start though.

Really?

I am not a fan but our local 'Spoons sell that, mind you Somerset Wetherspoons trade on being cider pubs, our 'Spoons has 12 ciders in the box/cask all the time and thats a regular as is all of the TC ciders they rotate them.

Yes we do like to have teams play football and attack us then hit them with pace on the counter.

Gerrard and Parkes are massive fat slow lumps at CB, hopefully Robinson/Woolery/Bennett's pace will hit them.

I too would prefer Anderson to Bennett but I eagerly await seeing what Bennett brings to the team. His goal was a little fortunate last week but at least he shot...unlike Anderson - except his goal at MK of course.

Looking a wee bit murky, gusty and drizzly up there.

Exeter loosing at HT.

I've yet to find it other than once at the Chippenham beer/cider festival

well onto the game. not yet got our foot on it

iiiiiiiiiiin 1969...

can hear the town fans and we force a corner

Slow start, but Bennett has a shot from 25 yards, defelcted for a corner.

As Batch says Town fans in good voice, lots of passing from both teams but the wind is affecting the longer passing.

Corner to Carlisle.

Morecambe beating FGR.

Robinson close control not with it so far, Bennett looking livlier so far.

Carlisle have a lot of the ball, not created much with it yet. cooperesque.

it's hard work for us at the minute though.

0-1 deflected

1-0. horrible deflection.

McCourt made a poor pass at the start of that move, the wind is causing problems for both teams.

Vigs had no hope with the heavy deflection in the box.

Ffs.  Not what we wanted.

Knoyle not as comfortable at LB so far today.

Woolery has the beating of Grainger for speed but can't get his cross in, corner.

Nice corner from McCourt onto Broadbent whos header is touched over the bar.

3rd corner in a row for Town.

quite. could argue his mistake for goal, but difficult right footed at left back.

just had our first shot on target

Bit contentious?

McCourt lucky to have got away with a handball in the box.

contentious no. fortuitous yes

Great block by Woolf from Hopes shot 15 yards out.

Definite penalty

not really happening for town yet. Carlisle looking much the more comfortable/dangerous team

Dunne poor pass nearly cost us as they take a shot but it goes well wide in the end.

Big deflection.

Seem to have gone to pot a bit since.

Carlisle passing better than Town but they are also first to any loose ball in midfield.

Nice take by McCourt but his shot is blocked.

Bennett looking much more lively today

Superb interception by Bennett but his long shot is at the keeper.

Probably our best attacker so far.

Robinson not playing great so far, looks like he has the wrong studs/boots on as he is slipping about a bit and not able to use his pace.

Cullen down injured for them, groin injury?

Carlisle striker Cullen could have to go off injured.

could Town make an early change, anderson coming on?

Anderson coming on, change of tactics.

I hope not, aversion have an aversion to it!

McCourt off Anderson on.

Carlisle making the sub for Cullen too.

McCourt off, Anderson on.

I think McCourt was unlucky to go off, Dunne had less impact on the game than he has.

Sterling work Batch. In other news, the inventor of the spellchecker died today.

May he rust in piss.

I agree with the sub, we were off par.

Free kick to Town 40 yards out centrally.

Not sure who will take the set pieces now especially the corners.

Assume Wellens isn’t happy to make a sub after 30 mins?

Rubbish free kick from Bennett.

didn't spot any injury

Definately not happy, but he could have taken any of the midfield/strikers off with the exception of Bennett.

Town coming back into the game since the subs.

Poor header back from Woolf but Vigs wins the ball, really poor judgement by Woolf.

looking better since the sub

Foul on Woolery on the edge of the box, Carlisle player booked.

Get in!!

goooal, free kick in edge of area 1-1

Bennett

1-1 perfect free kick from Bennett.

Get in there. COYR

Top corner over the wall, perfect.

Great free kick Bennett..

Yeeeeeeeesssssssss!

C'mon Town !!.

Conroy deflects the ball in the box but luckily it is straight at Vigs.

Brilliant free kick. Wild card.

Carroll so near to a good pass for Woolery but the keeper cuts it out.

Corner to Town bad defending by Carlisle.

Robinson high foot trying to almost bicycle kick it.

HT 1-1 pretty fair, Carlisle started brighter but Town finished better. Other than the goal Carlisle haven't threatened us at all. The wind has played a massive part in the game so far.

1-1 HT Would have settled for that before KO.

so much better after the sub. nice one Wellens

Decent scoreline so far.

Wellens again showing he has some tactical nous with the substitution.

Far too passive in the first 20 mins, which was part of the reason for the goal.  We were letting them feed balls to the front men n the floor, gives them the chance and even though it was a wicked deflection it was possible due to our approach.  The sub has changed things, full switch around, we look a real threat now.  Great free kick.  We could well pinch this, they look leaden footed in defence and with more pressure being applied they are playing far less out from the back now.

For a home side Carlisle in the top 10 positions they have threatened us very little, they got very lucky with the huge defelction for the goal otherwise they havent looked like scoring at all. Hope is their best striker but you cut out his service and they are toothless.

Definately there for the taking, still can't quite figure out which way the strong wind is blowing but I think we will have it more behind us this half.

How long is it since we had a manager with an effective Plan B?

If we could pinch this we'd likely be 2 points behind the play offs with a game in hand

Not just a plan B but having the guts to admit it was going wrong and change it early in the game.

The same time since we had one with an effective Plan A.

They are definately beatable.

Jimmy Quinn did it at Palace.

Dunne looking very animated seemingly arguing with Woolery pre kick off.

Its quite rare for a town manager isn't it.

Good move between Bennett and Knoyle on the left but Knoyles cross didn't quite reach Robinson.

Nice move between Bennett and Anderson but Bennetts ball into the box just out of his reach.

Robinson 25 yards hits the defender, out for a corner.

Mansfield losing 1-0

Cleared for another corner.

Good corner, Woolf meets it but Robinson misses it in the 6 yard box, so close.

Town have started this half way faster and better.

Woolery 20 yards saved by the keeper.

Seems like we are going for it! Come on Town :)

Robinson 25 yarder at the keeper.

Gerrard must be 25 stone, makes Ruddock look thin.

P Vale 2 Mansfield 0

Great counter by Town, Anderson broke with pace 50 yard run set up Robinson whos cross was just in front of Bennett.

Carroll is a niggly fucker! brilliant.

Fantastic run by Woolery whos cross to Anderson isn't quite strong enough, should have been a goal.

great run from Woolery, just blocked out his cross

Carlisles 2nd sub.

Town harrying Carlsle at every chance, Carlisle look physically scared of us.

Woolery looking so eager this half as is Anderson. Can finally see what Bennett brings to the game today too.

Carlisle really under the cosh.

Carroll booked, deservedly.

Robinson really is exactly what we have not had all season until he arrived, hes a real missing peice of the jigsaw.

Carroll will not complete the full 90 mins today, either he will be sent off or taken off to save him being sent off.

Carlisle slowly coming back into the half in the last 5

Corner to Town. Woolery playing brilliantly this half.

Poor high deep corner in the end.

Anderson runs 60 yards but his shot is saved.

unlucky Anderson

Carlisle have no pace and can't cope when any of our players run at them.

Bennett 25 yard volley well over the bar.

Wheels are coming off for FGR.  3 nil down

Corner to them.

oooh. got away with that one

Inches wide by Carlisle with a quite open goal, got away with that.

We must have had 70% possession this half despite what the BBC page says.

Carlisle with 57% possession overall so far, but ony 5 shots with 1 on target, Town 10 shots, 6 on target.

Hmm. You do worry about the sucker punch.

Goal for them disallowed, looked good.

and there it is.

nope... offside! phew

Phew

As I said according to BBC...thats not right.

Bennett finds Robinson in the box but it gets under his feet and goes out, good chance for Town.

Carlisle would not have deserved that goal but sucker punches do happen.

Might be a chance to give House a run out for Robinson now and Rose on for Carroll who is walking a red card tightrope.

...aaanndd there it is  :(

2-1 to them

fuck 2-1

Good block at the start but we couldnt clear it, not really deserved but that football.

We should have been out of sight well before that goal.

Hate to sound defeatist but you'd imagine that will take the wind out of our sails now, particularly seeing how many good chances we seem to have wasted this half. Am hoping someone will quote this later when we've won 3-2 in 96th min.

House on for Woolery...not sure thats the right decision but we will see.

not sure Woolery for house is the right call.

but we'll see.

edit: soapy tit wank . Jinx

That's what happens when you don't take your chances - Don't panic - still time.

Taylor on for Knoyle.

knoyle off Taylor on ???

:D I would have taken Robinson off TBH.

Only got ourselves to blame - had enough possession and chances to have been in front.

Is he looking knackered or having a poor game ?.

They did announce the crowd but didn't catch exactly what it was, somewhere around 4,500 with about 350 Town fans there.

Hes played well but hes fucked up a couple of decent chances, not knackered really hes still running.

We have lost our shape since the goal.

4,629 crowd with 345 Town fans.

ah, the pikies have just scored against the scum. it's not all bad

Vigs good stop.

A defeat won't end our play off hopes but it will put a big dent into them.

Should have been a penalty.  Not our day.

handball ref!

Almost a goal for Town and looked like a handball.

3 mins added.

Defo handball

I fear that this is it for our play off push, imo we needed a point today

FT 2-1 we should have won but didn't take our chances. Nobody played badly but just wasn't our day.

Can't complain about the performance once the sub was made, but a pretty damaging result.

Blatant handball in the end. How did both the ref and the lino miss that?

We only have ourselves to blame for that. Should have scored when we were dominant in the 2nd half and were sloppy for their 2nd goal.

On a brighter note. Oxford are now 1 point adrift in the drop zone.

Needed to capitalise on teams above us losing.  Instead the gap is now 6 points.  I think that's our season done.

Tbf we've had some decent results versus teams around us. I think there are still several twists and turns to come yet. Very much just hard luck today. Bennett seems to have settled a little now. Beat Newport (GIH) and we should be 3pts adrift with a so called easier run in. Points are going to be dropped all round between now and the end of season. The opportunity is still there, just got to take those chances!

Problem is when playing catch up, you're always one bad result away from they others disappearing, so ideally you want the points in the bag.   Carlisle show that, poor form of late, but because of points in the bag, one good win puts them back in the PO slots.

If we could win 8 of the last 11, that would probably do it, and possibly 7 and a draw might. That's the sort of form needed and very, very difficult to achieve. 

Stonewall penalty imo.  :pint:

Not only was it a handball, but that ball was on its way into the net. 

Very disappointed with the result,  was hoping to get something from that game.   Stevenage just one point behind us, makes a win Tuesday much more vital now.   Think we could still scrape into the play offs but how many more  'last chance' games are we going to get ?. Times running out.

on the handball, I think we got away with one in the first half too. not that two wrongs make a right

I think there was still an element of the lack of creativity/goalscoring ability in the squad that Wellens inherited. Despite the dominance that we had for about 35 minutes in the 2nd half, we didn't trouble their keeper nearly enough as we should have done.

Grr. Game was there for the taking in 2nd half.
Just a little bit more guile would have done the job.
Hopefully that won't be an issue next season.

Yep. I'm confident we'll recruit well enough to be quite potent in League 1 ;)

You should know that as a Town fan, it's the hope that gets you.... today quite literally.

you can't ignore the game in hand. that will pretty much define the season to whether we can do it or not.

the good thing is that we aren't just chasing one team. it's very close

5 games until the Newport game, without say 4 wins it won't make too much difference...

Meh, we are still head and shoulders above the other play off contenders - if we don’t take 7 points from next 3 games I will post a photo of my shaven balls.

Saved for posterity.

You really want to see them if we don’t get the points?

Just got in, fuck that was cold! We did ok I suppose but that's what happens when you don't take your chances, Robinson worked his socks of but had the touch of Keith Scott, summed up when he was thrown the ball to take a free kick and dropped it!

One thing as a rare attendee, any ideas why there was chanting of 'fuck the IRA' has it become the norm again?

Might be defrosted by Tuesday?

Sent from my SM-J330FN

Wasn't it Bushey Boy who made a similar statement - and had to complete his forfeit!!

Only saw one lad singing that and he appeared to have had his first drink today. A few bellends seemed to travel up today.

Just back in, we played well in second half. Think we should have won.

Still a chance for playoffs.

Don’t pretend I haven’t already sent you them. ;)

Might have been the Glasgow Reds (Rangers Branch) keeping their eye in?

I was thinking at the time of the unlikelihood of the people who like to sing about German Bombers etc also coming up with some catchy songs in praise of the ownership of production by the workers, or the benefits of redistribution of wealth.
In general there are just not enough jolly ditties from the terraces on the subject of dialectical materialism.

Anyway. More importantly. Tuesday night. We go again.  :pint: :)

My Facebook memories just came up from this day in 2012.

We had just had our 12th win in 13 games to go 8 points clear at the top of the table after our home win vs Cheltumb and in front of over 10,500 fans...how times change.

And as usual a few views from our opponents fans from their forum....

The Red Flag....  :hmmm:

I was up walking on Salisbury Plain last week, and the red flags were out in force...

Just goes to show what awful shot the British army are then.

Yep, pen.  >:(

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1Agq0ux7j8

  First time Carlisle have done the double over us....  :(

Seems like we were a bit unlucky.

Don't see how that could be called a definite penalty.  A mishit shot going nowhere near the goal that the defender couldn't have anticipated and had no reason to handle.  At best a marginal one that you sometimes get. 

Not impossible from here but we need to go on a hell of a run.

there were two Town players ready to knock that into an uncovered net had it not struck the upper arm of the defender. clear penalty for me.

agree that POs not yet impossible but that was a 6 pointer.

think the Town players were offside, mind :)

In front of a computer now, so some further thought from a first view of the season.

Thought we played reasonably well once they got the formation and personnel sorted after the half hour mark, Knoyle looked like a fish out of water at left back, although in his defence he was totally exposed as the player who was supposed to be in front of him (Bennett?) was constantly pushing inside meaning that Knoyle had a midfielder and a right back with the freedom of the right hand side, running at him from distance all the time, seemed to get better once McCourt was replaced although didn't really notice why in particular.

Second half we looked much better and frankly should have scored a couple, Robinson seemed unable to control a ball (he also can't catch, see earlier comment) and when he did fell on his arse, Woollery had the beating of their defence but has no end product, although again in his defence if a man is constantly getting to the byline the strikers should be attacking the near post, not holding back in the centre for a cut back that was never going to come as Carlisle got men back in numbers, as in many areas we just seem a little static (we barely won a second ball in midfield all afternoon, always came out second best in 50-50 tackles). Likewise our corners were not too bad, but their keeper seemed to claim every one often a distance off his line without being challenged by anyone in red. Ultimately we got done by a sucker punch and after that the wind just went, not sure why Woolery was hooked for House as he seemed to be a decent threat but hey ho.

In more general terms;

- It was bloody cold and windy, froze my balls off (not helped by being rough as a badgers arse)! Felt for the guy in the wheelchair who was placed in something resembling an open fronted bus shelter facing directly into the wind at pitch level, must have been freezing;
- Their No.9 (Hope) was a niggly whingy bastard;
- Penalty aside (looked stonewall from where I was sat, likewise from where I was sat the one against us in the first half looked like ball to tit at worst) thought the referee was not that dreadful, however the lino on our side was blind, fuck there were times when the ball almost made it into the front row of the stand and he didn't give a throw in;
- I can understand why Vigs winds up opposing fans, not sure whether its time wasting or that he just does things bloody slowly generally, even at 2-1 with us chasing the game he was throwing the ball down for goal kicks and then having to walk up to it to place it to take it, unnecessary;
- The pies were good;
- The beer was not;
- Their fans were quiet;
- Ours were not, looked to be more than 350 odd there to be honest, in fact with 5 mins to kick off looked to be more town fans than Carlisle in the ground;
- Footballers are still stupid, if in the last five minutes you are closing a defender down who is facing his own goal in the area if you touch him he is going to fall over and a foul be given.

All in all I attended and we lost so rather par for the course.

Cheers Horlock.

Bad news for tomorrow with Woolery ruled out due to a thigh strain, I thought he had an excellent game on Saturday and will be a big miss.

I am sure we can find someone to replace him running to the by-line and then passing to a defender in the box, its not that tricky a role?

Think RW will ring the changes tomorrow - would expect to see Knoyle revert to RB, Taylor to come in at LB and Keshi come in for Kaiyne, at least.

Possibly, whoever plays at LB is gonna struggle if the midfielder in front of them is as undisciplined as Bennett was on Saturday! I assume that Knoyle is comparatively mild mannered as I would have been giving him serious shit for leaving the defence as exposed as he was.

Was Koiki left out Saturday because of injury or tactically? He would be my preferred choice at left back personally.

Aren't we only allowed 5 loanees in the squad?

Yeah.

Koiki has been very inconsistent for me. Almost like he's a 19 year old learning into league football :)