A four point haul from a visit to Barnet and a tough home game against play-off hopefuls Cheltenham would have been welcomed at the beginning of the week by most Carlisle fans.
But with their relegation rivals all finding winning runs the Cumbrians find themselves slipping further adrift of the pack.
Carlisle’s lack of goals, only four in the last six games, is the root cause of their current demise. They have difficulty in putting games out of reach of the opposition with Saturday’s game against Cheltenham a good case in point.
Eleven corners to two should have been enough pressure to have guaranteed a win for the home side, particularly on top of taking a first half lead. But the Cumbrians again failed to build on their advantage allowing Steve Cotterill’s side to get back into the game and take a point.
A disappointed Ian Atkins said after the match: "To get our noses in front and then lose a goal in the second half was disappointing but I didn’t feel at any stage of the game that we had total control like we did on Tuesday night at Barnet. We are finding it a little bit easier to play away than at home. To be fair to Cheltenham they do close you down very quickly which is something we are trying to emphasise to our players. When you haven’t got the ball you’ve got to close down and work hard to do it but a lot of them can’t grasp that yet."
A seriously poor start to the first half was marginally brightened after 16 minutes when Ian Stevens latched onto a Stuart Whitehead through ball only to hit his cross straight at Robins keeper Steve Brook. Cheltenham came into it three minutes later when Lee Howells’ 25 yard shot flew over the bar.
The first shot of the match on target fell to Cheltenham on 25 minutes, Martin Devaney’s shot being blocked by Matty Glennon. Chris Banks then headed wide from Grant McCann,s cross before Carlisle took the lead on 31 minutes.
An in-swinging right wing corner from Mick Galloway looked to find Steve Soley at the near post and the midfielder did enough to force his marker Grant McCann to glance a header past his own keeper.
On the stroke of half time Cheltenham went close with McCann almost making up for his own goal with a rasping left foot shot which forced Glennon in a full length save.
Cheltenham started the second half with a little more purpose to their play with Greg Goodridge heading wide Neil Grayson’s cross after 55 minutes. Carlisle came back with a Scott Dobie header from a Galloway free kick saved by Brook. Dave Morley then had a shot blocked on 60 minutes with Stuart Whitehead firing over the rebound.
But Cheltenham soon gained the upper hand with Howells and Goodridge shooting wide before levelling on 65 minutes. A Russell Milton left wing corner saw Neil Grayson sneak in between Morley and Winstanley to glance his header passed the helpless Glennon.
Carlisle immediately responded with Dobie heading wide a Birch cross. With the match dying on its feet Carlisle suddenly found some life forcing four corners in the final minutes with Morley going closest with a header over the bar.
But the Cumbrians had to settle for a point, which on the day wasn’t good enough.
Mike Corry
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