Carlisle United 1 Charlton Athletic 1
That was definitely two points dropped today.
Almost a 1,000 Addicks made the longest journey of the season, to a ground that holds so many great memories, and they watched a superior Charlton unable to make it count in front of goal, and then let slip a lead after conceding another poor goal.
The first half opened with patient build up play from us with some good movement around their box with the Cumbrians sitting back allowing us possession. The game then became very scrappy and there were chances at both ends towards the end of the half.
CBT, who was in one of his threatening moods, rattled the bar with a cracking shot before Hector gave the ball away, as he did a few times, but AMB made a good save with his legs.
We began the 2nd half with real vigour, and our energy was rewarded with a lovely goal.
The move started with McGrandles, who was picked to start. He played in Alfie May, deep on the right hand side of the pitch, who picked out the overlapping Tennai Watson.
Watson did superbly to get past his man and to the byline, then pull the ball back for the on-running CBT to finish.
I think at that point the 1,000 Addicks plus those at home thought our supremacy would see us through, but we were to be undone again by sloppy defending.
Minutes later it was ex-Addick Sam Lavelle who scored from inside the box unmarked. Still just three league clean sheets all season.
After that it was a frustrating watch. We lacked any killer instinct and our final pass lacked any punch. Our set pieces were poor, and despite their keeper spilling half a dozen efforts we never had anyone close enough by to make him pay.
Just a stingy three minutes of injury time saw us have to defend a point as Carlisle pumped long balls into the box, which we dealt with so a point is was, but it should’ve been three.
McGrandles and Fraser controlled the midfield for big chunks of the game, but I thought the game was calling out for the earlier introduction of Louie Watson.
CBT carried a real threat, but it didn’t quite work for either Leaburn or May today, who was unusually docile. Dobbo too was surprisingly not his normal self.
MoM: I thought Tayo Edun was excellent.
Appleton of my eye: A promotion bound team would have found a way to win today. We couldn’t. Maybe better set-pieces would help?
Elsewhere: I think Bolton are the best team in the division and they went top tonight after beating Exeter 7-0. Pompey had a bad day losing at home to Blackpool 4-0. Peterborough put 4 past Burton and Tuesday’s opponents Cheltenham beat Oxford handing new manager Des Buckingham a defeat in his first match.
We still lack the killer-punch to win this sort of winnable game if we are serious about a six place finish this season.
How many times have we dropped points due to naivety?
It’s gonna be a long frustrating and disappointing season.
Definitely two points dropped.
The sloppy defending would have been ok if we already had a couple of goals on the board. We really need to shift on a few players in January and get in a central defender to clear those sort of passes, it was criminal to leave an unmarked player in our box like that.
At the other end – we had plenty of possession and created some pressure but we just needed that bit of luck.
Carlisle just being bought out meant that a few players were keen to create a good impress
Mid table mediocrity. Said the same last season, and the season before and the season before that………. That means no investment in January, maybe a couple of duff loans which is our forte. Issue really is a complete lack of goals from midfield – 2 to be precise. No hope and Bob Hope without at least one goalscoring midfielder.