ROCK BOTTOM CUMBRIANS
Carlisle's sorry season plummeted to new depths at the Withdean Stadium, as their all too familiar defensive frailties leaves them looking up at the rest of the Football League from 92nd place.
The Cumbrians more than matched the high flying home side for long periods of the game, but their unwillingness to attack balls in defensive areas again cost them dearly.
Thirteen goals conceded in their last four games clearly points to the root cause of Carlisle's current demise. Unless Ian Atkins can bring in defenders with a ball winning mentality the Cumbrians are now looking a sure bet for the Conference.
The Carlisle manager knows what is needed but his actions are stifled by the off the pitch activity surrounding the proposed buy out of the club by the current Board of Directors from owner Michael Knighton.
Atkins said: "I know the problems, I've known that from day one. Because there are so many areas you have to do it bit by bit. If I could make the changes lock, stock and barrel I know what I'd do on Monday and I know who would be in and who would be out but we haven't got that facility so we've just got to keep plugging away."
The early stages of the match were devoid of incident with the Blues looking comfortable in all departments when the game sparked into life after 18 minutes when home keeper Michael Kuipers needed a double save to keep out Stuart Whitehead's header from Mick Galloway's corner.
Three minutes later the Seagull's wing back Paul Watson gave the home side the lead in farcical fashion. His innocuous cross from the right saw Bobby Zamora feign a header but it was sufficient to put off keeper Peter Keen as the ball rolled harmlessly into the net.
John Inglis almost got the Cumbrians back on terms when his 31st minute header from Connelly's flick on from a Galloway corner hit the bar.
Three minutes from half time Carlisle deservedly drew level with a little bit of good fortune of their own when Kerry Mayo sliced a Galloway corner into his own net.
Four minutes into the second half Brighton got back in front when Peter Keen could only parry Richard Carpenter's header allowing Zamora to force home the rebound with the Carlisle defence sleeping.
On 61 minutes Richard Prokas gave away a penalty for pushing Matthew Wicks and Watson stepped up to slot away his second of the match.
Four minutes later it was all over as the ball broke loose from Mark Birch's tackle on Zamora for Lee Steele to turn into the net.
Mike Corry
We were pap. Halliday only on bench. Dobster and Stevo up front. 5 at the back with 3 in the middle, 1 of whom (Connolly) is meant to be a winger. Galloway wondered where he was and Prokas battled. Dobster went in a bit rash and was not seen afterwards. We were in it until the pen (dubious) and after that it was 1 way traffic. We were caught in a practise fire evacuation after the game so we couldn't get in the pub or the gents to get rid of the cold burger and the pints. Stewards couldn't see sense, even when i offered to p*ss on the fire. Anyhow, rumour on the bus was that Atkins has resigned.
Chris McFarlane
Lee is a great player. As a Brighton supporter I was hoping he wouldn't play because our defence are not too good with people like Lee running at them. I was surprised Atkins didn't make any substitutions either. Even at 4-1 he may as well have changed something. He set out to frustrate Brighton and when we went in front, Carlisle didn't have a great deal to offer going forwards.
Stick with it and things will get better.
Keep the faith
Gary Bebbington
Cheshire Seagull
Knighton/Wilkes/Halpin, Pearson, Wilkinson, Atkins - what have they all got in common ? I'm sorry, but its easy to blame the manager for it all, but they've all failed - who the hell do you want? Do you really think that Atkins wouldn't have done better than Wilkinson on last years budget ? Alex Ferguson wouldn't do anything with this lot. As for McCall - okay, he's from Carlisle, but he's got no managerial experience - we've had enough YTS managers in the past. And if Darby got the job, then presumably he'd pick that useless git in midfield, whats his name ? Oh yes, Darby.
We'd all like to see David Lee play more (I've sort of picked up the general feeling), but he's not going to solve anything on his own - the defence don't want to die for the club. We need a Dean Walling type, prepared to throw himself at anything. As it is, we concede far too many goals -David Lee won't solve that. Atkins wants a big centre forward to hold the ball up - then Lee would be useful on the wing.
Dobie and Whitehead ? Oh yes. If you watch the goals from yesterday, watch the referee before the penalty. You'll see him watching Dobie who is the wrong side of his man and who hauls him back to try and get goalside - looked a blatant penalty to me, and its the second he's given away in a fortnight.
Atkins keeps saying in his post match analyses that he keeps trying to coach certain players to defend, but they won't listen to him - wonder who he could be talking about ? As for Whitehead - he was brilliant in his first season, but now he's nothing special - too used to playing in a losing team.
Keen seemed to be at fault for the first two goals - he could have come for both of the crosses - especially the second one. Before anyone says it, Weaver is just as bad on crosses - we could do with an experienced goalkeeper, who'll command his box a bit better.
I agree about Inglis, he's a ponce - I suspect that if Winstanley hadn't been injured, then Inglis might have gone, but as it was, what choice did we have ? I do like Winstanley, he's been our best player so far this season.
I think that its unfair to slag Birch off (although I do it myself at most matches) - he's too inexperienced to be playing in such a bad team - look at Clark and Pitts last year - they were just as bad.
As for Karl Heggs, everyone needs a villain. I just don't think he gives a toss - when things are going badly, he's the first person to give up. His past record shows that he can't be that bad - but I agree he's playing like it. Halliday is a great signing based on last years performance, but he did nothing at Doncaster - maybe he's not fit yet ? I'd have preferred to see him play rather than Stevens.
But, we've got to stick with Ian Atkins. He's the best manager we could ever hope to get in our present situation - and the best we've had at Carlisle since Wadsworth, and look at how much he had to spend initially to turn a poor team around. The sale of the club needs to go through quickly and then we'll see what Atkins can do with a realistic budget - Connelly and Galloway got the highest marks in yesterdays paper so presumably they are a step in the right direction. However, remember, we are so bad at present that Mark Tinkler preferred to go to Hartlepool and Tate prefers Orient - we aren't exactly a good career move for any decent footballer at present - and how many clubs will want to loan us good quality young players to play in a relegation team ?
We have the perfect opportunity over the next couple of weeks to get a win if we can only get a couple more players in - especially Woking who are in the bottom six in the conference. Surely no- one expected us to get a result at Brighton - they are a different class to us at the moment.
I'm as pissed off with whats going on as everyone else, but you've got to be realistic about things - we won't get a better manager. There is no depth to the squad and no quality in important areas. Okay the present run is the worst in the clubs history, but is the club in its worst position in its history ? Even if the budget was worse in the season before Knighton when we nearly went part time, at least the club had a squad (albeit of poor players) - it hadn't just released them all to get the wage bill down.
As for playing the kids ? Would you want to see a team of kids playing in the present situation ?
See what response this gets....
Regards,
Andrew
Yes, the London Branch are still alive and well. There was a good turn out at both Torquay and Brighton. By the way, it was good to meet David Atkinson at last, and see Neil Nixon at a Carlisle game. Good to see Chris and Lee as well.
It's just that I've been working hard for the last few weeks. I was in Houston, Texas, last week and left at 7pm on Friday night to fly to Gatwick arriving at 10am so that I could get to the Brighton game - so you can't criticise my commitment! Did anyone travel further to get to the match?
Yes, Keen was at fault for the first two goals. The second one was an inswinging free-kick which he chose to stop with his foot. Any keeper who does this in his own six yard box has to expect the worst and we were rightly punished for it. I didn't see who gave the penalty away although I didn't think it was Prokas, even though he led the protests. Birch gifted the fourth goal when he pushed the ball past Keen who was coming out to gather it.
I am sure that Atkins is a good manager, but I fear that he may have lost the plot. His body language says it all. He spent most of the game leaning dejectedly against the dugout as he did against Torquay. I knew David Wilkes and Martin Wilkinson well and they both reached a point where in conversation with them you could tell that they had run out of ideas, in fact they couldn't get it together enough to make a decision. Atkins seems to have reached that point already. He gets subs stripped off and then fails to bring them on. He looks harrassed and seems to have lost the confidence needed to motivate the players. If £300,000 were to be made available next week, would you actually trust this man's judgement to spend it wisely?
Malcolm Fawcett
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