Carlisle's Third Division survival push gathered momentum last night following a well-deserved victory at promotion chasing Peterborough. Two outstanding individual goals from John Durnin sealed the points for United. Carlisle coach Martin Wilkinson said: "The best way to describe my emotion is ecstatic."
"What tremendous work rate, what a performance. Defensively very sound, we closed the ball down in midfield, kept a good back line and created chances as well. This was the best performance of the season so far."
A disappointing first half was lit up by an outstanding goal from John Durnin on 38 minutes.
Durnin picked up possession on the left edge of the box and curled the ball into the top right hand corner, giving Posh keeper Bart Griemink no chance. Peterborough enjoyed much of the early possession without really threatening Luke Weaver's goal, with Carlisle's three central defenders snuffing out the challenge of former Nottingham Forest star Jason Lee.
Posh seemed to loose momentum after loosing the impressive Tony Shields after 24 minutes following a foul by Stuart Whitehead. Carlisle slowly started to get into the game and Steve Soley was close to opening the scoring on 36 minutes, with his header well saved by Griemink.
Carlisle dominated the early exchanges in the second half and on 59 minutes Whitehead headed narrowly over from a Bowman corner. Two minutes later, Carlisle went further ahead.
The ball broke to Durnin on the right edge of the box and again he curled home a delicate chip, this time into the top left hand corner.
On 63 minutes Steve Soley gad a good shot saved and on 72 minutes Rob Bowman was unlucky to see a stunning drive hit the inside of the left hand post. Carlisle had to endure late pressure but defensively they continued to be sound and thoroughly deserved their win.
Mike Corry
Got back late last night from Peterbro after witnessing the best performance of the season. Fantastic result and the vocal away support from about 150 fans was excellent. We sang our hearts out last night and the players came right over to the away end at full-time to celebrate with us.... I have no voice this morning..
What can you say - if you've seen the goals on Peterbro's web site - need I say more... I think the whole difference seems to be that the team are playing as a complete unit now, playing for each other and with confidence too.. A clean sheet and two great goals coming on the back of the Barnet result will mean that the lads will go to Rochdale on Sat honestly believing they can win...
Defensively I thought the three man combination of Teale, Brighthead and Whitehead worked very well... Teale and Whitehead in particular worked tirelessly... we battled hard and fought for every ball. Weaver's handling and command of his defence was impeccable and as long as he remains in goal for Carlisle I am sure we will be staying up this season...
Up front Durnin was a genius, two fantastic goals and the home support were simply stunned that a team who were 92nd in the league last week could come and win relatively comfortably. After going 2-0 up, despite Posh pushing every man forward the Carlisle defence held firm and Weaver got down to everything they fired at him. Bowman had a great shot from about 25 yards and looked to be heading in, only to smack off the inside of the post and bounce almost the line and to safety, with the keeper well beaten.
Great result, still on a high, my first win all season, and my first game since Macclesfield over xmas. Dont really think I can work today as I cant get this game out of my head....
The BLUES must surely be staying up after this result!!!
Nick Dawson
What a victory! For the majority of the first half we were the better side mainly thanks to some vicious tackling from Hopper and Prokas who kept their right winger quiet and stopped the service to Jason Lee. It was difficult to see where a Carlisle goal was going to come from until Durnin curled in that shot. A real beauty. Revalation of the night was Rob Bowman playing in central midfield. He had a stormer of a game. He tackled, won the ball in the air, beat players, passed, shot - a really brilliant performance and deserved to be man of the match. His shot that hit the post was excellent and then he was denied a few minutes later when another shot destined for the top corner was deflected over the bar by a defender.
I was worried that our first goal would produce a backlash from Peterborough that we might regret, but at the start of the second half it was Carlisle that did the attacking, not Posh. You could see the panic setting in when they started to bring on subs, none of whom were better than the players they replaced. United kept the same side until the final minute or so when Prokas came off to cheers all round to be replaced by Damon Searle.
Durnin's second goal was another peach, an excellent chip/lob that left the keeper looking stupid.
Weaver - earned his clean sheet and made everything look easy without being called on to do anything spectacular. He had a harder game at Orient.
Hopper - made some bone-crunching tackles and worked hard all game.
Whitehead - his best game this season. Won a lot in the air against Lee, several feet taller than him, and cheekily beat players on the ground making them look pedestrian.
Teale - solid and dependable at the back. Made some telling headers.
Brightwell - the weak link in defence. Made one very dodgy tackle on Lee on the half-way line which might have seen him sent off had it been nearer the goal.
Clark - still isolated on the left. Drifted in and out of the game. Still not confident. Should have had a penalty when brought down from behind when coming into the six yard box from the left wing with only the keeper to beat.
Soley - lasted the full 90 minutes and had a couple of good shots.
Bowman - man of the match
Prokas - Ran his heart out. Would have been interesting to see him on digital TV. He must have covered every blade of grass.
Halliday - No real scoring opportunities but always looked dangerous.
Durnin - Did nothing until he scored. Looked slow and out of place until he curled that shot into the corner, then he never looked back!
Searle - only on for a couple of minutes.
The Carlisle fans were brilliant, completely silencing and outsinging the 5,000 Peterborough fans. There were at least another 100 round in the seats in addition to the couple of hundred behind the goal.
Undoubtedly the best performance of the season and apart from a couple of dodgy moments in the second half, the most convincing. The sad thing is that Peterborough looked no better and no worse than all the other teams we have played this season. This division is there for the taking. Maybe next year?
Malcolm Fawcett
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