It's a while since we had anything to shout about, so it was a pleasure to see the joy on the faces of the United faithful following our first league win since beating Chester on 3rd January.
The match outlined the importance of the signing of Steve Halliday. At last we have a natural goalscorer who appears to be growing in confidence with each match. His second goal at the Warwick was poor magic, finishing of the highest order that even Dennis Bergkamp would have been proud of.
Considering Barnet are chasing a play-off spot it was difficult to see why we have struggled all season. Carlisle looked the better side particularly when breaking from defence. It's a long time since I have seen a Carlisle side build attacks so quickly with players in support in good numbers. The players had been told to close the opposition down whenever they had the ball and it was great to see the opposition struggling to come to terms with no space to work in. The only downside (sorry) was a worrying spell in the second half when we allowed Barnet to get back into the game. In this spell they scored, hit a post and created a number of openings with the Carlisle defence fully stretched.
Our first goal followed a good ball from Halliday to Durnin who got forward quickly before releasing Steve Soley with a through ball to the left side of the area. Soley drew the keeper and calmy slotted it past him. The second goal followed a quickly taken free kick by John Durnin who fed Steve Halliday down the left. Halliday took the ball on and coolly nutmegged the keeper.
The third goal came five minutes into the second half and was beautifully worked. A one-two in the box between Durnin and Halliday, gave Halliday the space and his finish, coolly lifted over the keeper into the roof of the net, was perfection.
Barnet immediately started to get back into the game as Carlisle defended deeper and deeper. I am sure this has to do with lack of confidence. One thing certain, when you are 3-0 up there is no need to defend too deep. At this point we needed someone to hold the ball in midfield and we just didn't have that individual. I still feel Durnin would be better suited to central midfield and if we sign Howard from Northampton this may be an option for us. John Durnin had a goal disallowed for offside, after a neat Prokas header had played him in. Barnet's inevitable goal came after some consistent pressure with the impressive Darren Currie heading home. Doolan then hit a post with Weaver beaten but Barnet's fire subsided and we held out to record a very important win, particularly with Chester and Shrewsbury losing.
On to Peterborough on Tuesday with new found optimism and it would do the confidence a lot of good if we could get something out of the game.
Mike Corry
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