More plain football at Plainmoor
Torquay is the sort of place where old people go on holiday or to die. On this form it looks as if Carlisle United are in their death throes as the entire defence went on holiday to allow struggling Torquay United to gain three points with consummate ease.
It was FIFA's fair play day, whatever that meant, and it obviously wasn’t clear to the players as the first two goals came from penalties. The first was given to Torquay when Bedeau either lost the ball or was tackled cleanly by Dobie, but then stumbled in the box. The referee had no doubt and gave the penalty, duly converted. United could have already been one-up by this time when Lemarchand showed some of his promise by dribbling through the entire Torquay defence only for the referee to blow for a foul fifteen yards further back when a goal looked certain.
Carlisle were soon on level terms when the referee enjoying his own little fair play day rewarded United with a penalty after a Carlisle attacker was mugged from behind in the box. Ian Atkins turned away as Heggs confidently strode up to take the shot. ‘He’ll only miss it,’ Atkins told the fans as Heggs struck the ball cleanly and firmly into the bottom corner.
Torquay’s second goal was dreadful. Another very dodgy decision by the referee gave Torquay a free-kick about thirty yards from goal. For reasons best known only to Maddison, he charged at the kicker before the kick was taken, earning himself a yellow card and moving the free-kick to the edge of the box. With Weaver unsighted by the Torquay players extending the wall to the half of the goal he was meant to be guarding the ball was struck inside the post to give Torquay the lead. Fair play to the referee, he had now clocked up his hat-trick.
United struck back early in the second half to give the handful of Carlisle fans, who had bothered to make the journey, something to shout about. A corner on the right was taken by Maddison, missed by the Torquay keeper and after a brief flurry of head tennis was looped into the net off the head of Tracey, who had been hiding for the majority of the first half down the left wing.
As it was fair play day, let’s be fair and say that neither side looked confident nor capable of winning this game and it was obviously going to come down to which side made the fewer mistakes.
This turned out to be Torquay. A corner from the right was headed back into the centre of the goal by a United defender so that it dropped on the edge of the box where the unmarked right-back, Tully had time to steady himself and pick his spot in the far left hand corner.
The plump referee was not being helped by his even plumper assistant who wobbled up and down the line in front of us. Whilst he was willing to take a gamble on which side kicked the ball out, he was unwilling to give any opinion on what was happening on the field of play. Indeed, in his defence, he may have been as non-plussed by what was going on as we were, but surely he must have noticed one of the giant Aggrey’s fouls on Carlisle’s forwards. I guess we all want consistent adjudication, and this man was certainly consistent. He didn’t flag for even one of them - and there were plenty to choose from.
This led to Lemarchand, who had turned into a large bruise by this time, being substituted by Stephen Halliday. What you need when the chips are down is someone who is 100% committed to getting you out of that position, not someone who has proved that when the chips are down you are more likely to find him putting his own chips down in the casino followed by downing a plateful of chips to soak up the beer he’s just consumed.
Halliday looked slightly bemused, if not disinterested, in the game and apart from a header, from which he should have scored, added very little up front.
United’s rhythm was upset in the first half when Inglis suffered a self-inflicted back injury. Atkins decided to bring on Thurston and told him to warm up. Thurston ran up and down the touchline a couple of times and then stripped off ready to come on. Atkins told him to put his tracksuit back on and Thurston sat down. Five minutes later he was running up and down the touchline again stripped off and ready to come on only to be told to get dressed and sit down again. Eventually halftime came and Thurston’s nerves seemed to be at breaking point.
It was no surprise that Inglis did not come out for the second half and Thurston finally got onto the pitch in a midfield role, forcing Whitehead to drop into the back four. It seems that now we have stopped the goals going in with a 5 - 2 - 3 formation we have changed to a 4 - 4 - 2 formation to try and get some. Unfortunately, the players just seem to be confused and end up in a 5 - 1 - 4 formation with defenders challenging each other for the ball, no midfield and the forwards stranded.
The fourth goal was typical of the lack of confidence with which the team is playing. Weaver, under no pressure whatsoever, grubbed a goal kick into touch. From the throw-in the ball was swung over to the left wing where Birch and Weaver both went for the ball, neither of them getting it, so that the Torquay winger was left clear with a simple goal. It was dreadful headless chicken sort of stuff.
The addition of Lee on the right wing didn’t help either. Dobie moved into the centre to crowd out Halliday and the ball stopped coming. Lee should play in the centre of midfield to carry out the role that Darby should be playing, the midfield general. Instead it was more of an outfield private role, as he walked up and down the touchline just a few yards from where he had been sitting in the dugout. He must have wondered why he had bothered leaving it.
With Birch and Maddison both looking suspect and out of their depth, United’s hitherto solid defence had more cracks than Jasper Carrott. The Torquay fans could hardly believe it when Maddison brought the ball out of defence only to fall over on the half way line and give Torquay the ball. In the end the sporting attacker hit the ball mildly past the post, whether this was in deference to Fair Play Day or his own staggering ineptitude we may never know. A long range shot from Dobie was about all that United could muster in response to Torquay’s dominance of the latter part of the game.
Unlike most of the residents of Torquay, Carlisle managed to escape in a coach rather than a coffin, but what’s that sound... I hear the hammering of nails..
Malcolm Fawcett
Okay so we weren't great, but we certainly weren't as bad as has been painted.
Our first half performance was pretty dismal but the 2 goals conceded were mainly down to bad refereeing decisions once again. The first a penalty given for a player falling over at the slightest sign of a carlisle player near him. The second coming from a free kick that should have never been given.
We were the better side in the second half and looked like scoring each time we got a corner. It was nice to see some decent crosses coming in from set pieces for a change. The whole torquay defence went into panic mode on each second half corner for us. Lemarchand worked hard and with a bit of luck could certainly have scored. Heggs looked improved, although still a liability. There was very little answer to dobies menacing runs and Halliday looks like he could be the player we need with his forward runs and willingness to hold the ball up for others and actually shoot from outside the area.
Unfortunately our defence is still a disaster. The positioning of birch leaves a lot to be desired. Winstanley, although fairly commanding in the air, has only the long ball in his mind every time he wins his headers.
All in all it wasn't the worst performance this season and with some luck it could easily have been another away win for us. Torquay were definately not 2 goals better than us. With more composure in defence there is no reason we can't climb away from the bottom, in the next few weeks, starting with a win at Blackpool.
Doug Wilson
One step forward and two steps back sums up Carlisle's week following an inept performance at Plainmoor.
The midweek point against Cardiff had raised hopes, only to be dashed as appalling defending allowed Torquay to leapfrog the Cumbrians and dump them second from bottom of Division Three.
You have to feel sorry for manager Ian Atkins as all the hard work on the training pitch seems to desert the players on match days as schoolboy errors cost the team again and again.
Atkins said: " We do work in training and cover set pieces for and against but if people go out there and don't do it then there's not a great deal you can do and that frustrates me. We keep getting punished week in week out for something we do an awful lot of and people do not take it on board. I can't keep protecting people who don't do their jobs. At some stage the players have got to take responsibility and look at themselves and at the moment some are not doing that. Every Torquay goal that went in today I can look at an individual and say you haven't done your job."
He Cumbrians bright start evaporated in a moment of madness from Scott Dobie. The forward tracked back to cover a run from Tony Bedeau and bundled him over just inside the box with plenty of defenders covering. Tony Ford clinically tucked away the resulting sixth minute penalty.
The Cumbrians found themselves back in the game on 14 minutes when Carl Heggs smashed home a penalty after being brought down by the Gulls' Alex Watson.
Five minutes later the home side were back in front, courtesy of Paul Holmes free kick. Lee Maddison was booked for encroaching on the initial free kick and Holmes took advantage of moving ten yards nearer goal by slotting just inside Luke Weaver's left hand post.
Four minutes into the second half the Cumbrians got back on terms when Dobie flicked on a Maddison corner for Richard Tracey to head home.
On 57 minutes more inept defending allowed the home side to edge back in front, when Winstanley's clearance fell to Steve Tully. No-one closed the defender down on the edge of the box and he had time to check and thunder a shot past Weaver into the top corner.
The home sides Ryan Northmore made good saves from Lee and Halliday before the points were wrapped up on 81 minutes when mark Birch failed to cut out Ryan Ashington's cross leaving Kevin Hill unmarked to slot passed Weaver.
Mike Corry
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