I was talking to Chris McFarlane at the Macclesfield game at Christmas, where he asked me if I was a professional reporter, after following my match reports for the mailing list. The answer was obviously no, but he had sown some seeds in my mind with that comment. I became recently aware that the Journal at Newcastle no longer had a reporter covering the Carlisle games. I rang the Sports Editor and offered my services and did a test piece on the Lincoln game last week. The Journal had already employed someone from Radio Cumbria to cover the home matches but offered me the chance to cover the away matches that I attend.
So thanks to Chris's seeds the life of a freelance journalist began with todays game at York.
Below is the extended match report I have prepared although a shorter version is likely to appear in the Journal. I also had the opportunity of taping David Brightwell's interview with Derek Lacey and on leaving the ground a chance to talk to Paul Baker. Their comments appear after the report. I hope you all find them interesting. I also had the pleasure of meeting fellow mailing list member Lynda Johnston at York today. I hope the match report comes close to your interpretation of the game Lynda.
A vastly improved performance earned Carlisle a point at Bootham Crescent, but they will be kicking themselves that they didn't come away with all three.
The return of Stuart Whitehead to partner Shaun Teale and David Brightwell as the three central defenders allowed bright young prospect Paul Reid to take up a central midfield position just in front of the back three. Hopper and Clarke filled the wing back roles with Prokas and Soley in central midfield. Dobie and Halliday partnered up front. In addition the return of goalkeeper Luke Weaver gave the formation a much more solid look.
The first half offered little in the way of entertainment with neither side being able to dominate. Carlisle were seeing more of the ball in midfield than they have done in recent weeks with Reid slotting in to his new role to great effect. The better of the few chances fell Carlisle's way with Clarke just unable to get onto Dobie's cross after 18 minutes and a powerful Prokas shot from the edge of the box on 28 minutes went straight to Alan Fettis. York came closest to scoring after 35 minutes when a Steve Agnew cross into the box was only parried out by Luke Weaver, but fortunately fell to Brightwell to clear. After 43 minutes Carlisle had their best chance of the half when Scott Dobie burst into the box only to fail to get any power in his shot with only Fettis to beat.
Carlisle started the second half the brighter. Tony Hopper had a free kick from the edge of the box well saved by Fettis, while Peter Clarke, finding more room on the left, twice got into shooting positions to test Fettis. On 58 minutes the Cumbrians took the lead through Steven Halliday, and what a goal to savour. Halliday looked to be running into trouble when a neat little turn gave him space to curl a 20 yard shot into the top right hand corner. Two minutes later Halliday should have sown the game up. A well timed run beat York's offside appeals, but Halliday failed to control the ball, when one on one with the keeper, and screwed the ball wide. After 67 minutes Halliday again showed great awareness when he attempted another 25 yard curler into the top right hand corner only for Fettis to match him with an outstanding save onto the post.
With 15 minutes to go York started to get back into the game with former Sunderland favourite Steve Agnew becoming more prominent. On 78 minutes Agnew fed Barry Conlon into the box and his shot was well saved by Weaver. York were now exerting intense pressure and it was no surprise when Barry Conlon curled in an equaliser after 85 minutes with a beautiful left foot shot into the top left hand corner, with Weaver well beaten. Two minutes later York almost snatched the winner when a great John Williams shot cannoned back off the Carlisle bar. The last few minutes of injury time were frantic but Carlisle held out for a deserved share of the spoils. A point of interest after the game was Martin Wilkinson's post match analysis with the players taking place on the pitch immediately after the final whistle.
Post match comments
Carlisle Captain David Brightwell
* "We played really well today. We started well and created more chances than York but the feeling is that we lost two points today."
* "We tried to get Peter Clarke on the ball as much possible and he had more chances today than he has had all season"
* "It was disappointing to concede so late on but if we can keep clean sheets between now and the end of the season we won't be far away from 5th or 6th bottom."
* "We had great support today and the fans stayed behind after the game and showed their appreciation."
* "The players want to play for Martin Wilkinson and Paul Baker and want to play for Carlisle United and lot of them want to play for themselves because there are a lot of contracts up at the end of the season. There is no point in saying we don't want to be here because this is our job and we have got to have a job next season and to get a job next season a lot of us are going to have to be putting good performances in and staying in the football league."
* "There is no question of anyone wanting Martin or Paul out, everyone's 100%, a 110% behind them and we've got to show that on the pitch."
* "It's nice to have Stuart Whitehead back but it presents a selection problem as Paul Reid has done well at centre half but today proved he can do well in front of the back five. With Paul Reid's range of passing he's got the licence to get forward and get into the box as well which will be undetected. He can come in on the blind side with nobody expecting to get in there."
* "We looked a lot more solid today and Steven Halliday took his goal really well but again at 1-0 he had a one on one and you have to at least hit the target especially at 1-0. I said after the match it was similar to the Macclesfield match when Matthew Pitts hit the post when leading 1-0. We have got to be more clinical in finishing teams off and today they came back into the match and almost nicked it. We've got to work at finishing teams off and Stevie knows that."
* "With no mid-week game this week it will allow us to do more work on the training pitch but it is difficult to get a good surface with the weather in Cumbria. We played on a good pitch today and showed that we can knock the ball about on a good pitch. The facilities we have got are not the best really but Martin and Paul have rang around just about every sporting club in Cumbria to get decent facilities but there just aren't any about. We train on the astroturf which is a better surface to pass the ball on but wear and tear and little niggly injuries picked up on that kind of surface make it hard to train. We'll be in Monday, Tuesday and probably have Wednesday off and back in Thursday for an important game on Saturday against Barnet."
* "We have got to start picking three points up because the other teams are all playing each other. The results have gone for us today which would have made three points today that much better but we haven't lost ground on anybody today and the Shrewsbury Chester draw was the best result for us today."
Carlisle Coach Paul Baker
* "Very disappointed not to win the game. We have got to take these one on one chances to kill games off."
* "We looked more solid at the back and had better shape but I'm still disappointed that we didn't win."
Mike Corry
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