Carlisle United succumbed to their first defeat in 10 league games as goals from Jamie Andrews, Tunji Akinola and Aiden O’Brien cancelled out Junior Luamba’s opener to give Woking a 3-1 victory and move them to within 4 points of the National Leauge play off places.
United came flying out of the blocks and almost opened the scoring in the first minute as Josh Williams found Junior Luamba with a ball down the right flank before Luamba cut back and found Chris Conn-Clarke, whose first time effort hit the near post and bounced out much to the relief of Will Jaaskelainen in the Woking goal. Mark Hughes’ side were unable to maintain the relentless start for long however and were largely subdued by the Cardinals in the opening 10 minutes, with a long range Harvey Macadam effort that sailed comfortably into Jaaskelainen’s hands being the only real notable moment.
The Blues were enjoying the lion’s share of the possession but the visitors got a grasp on the game after 15 minutes and had a decent chance in the 20th when Josh Kelly neatly backheeled into the area and into the path of Olly Sanderson, but the forward’s effort was tame and trickled into the hands of Gabe Breeze. The hosts bit back quickly and took the lead after Williams intercepted a pass in midfield and drove towards the box before slipping the ball right to Luamba, who fired his shot high into the goal to give Carlisle the lead. Luamba was substituted following the goal after appearing to injure his hamstring while chasing a ball moments earlier.
Carlisle were well on top for this stage of the game and two minutes later Macadam received the ball on the edge from Conn-Clarke before the ex Morecambe man fired a shot towards goal that was deflected before Jaaskelainen did very well to tip the bouncing ball over the bar. United knew that they would go top of the National League with at least a point tonight and had another great opportunity to increase their chances as Regan Linnney played a one-two with Conn-Clarke before his initial effort was saved by Jaaskelainen, the ball fell back to Linney but his effort blazed well over the bar. Linney was involved moments later as a quickly taken free kick caught Woking napping and his excellent ball in narrowly avoided the head of Aaron Hayden.
Woking were unbeaten in the league since a 1-0 loss to Boreham Wood in late September and they drew themselves level in the 43rd minute when a deep free kick wasn’t dealt with by the United defence and fell to Jamie Andrews on the edge of the box before the ex West Brom graduate fired a brilliant left footed strike over the head of Breeze and into the top right corner. Carlisle looked rattled by this equaliser and almost gifted the visitors a second a minute later when Hayden gave the ball away to Josh Kelly but the Woking man was forced wide as he ran through 1 on 1 and his shot went harmlessly away from goal.
The hosts hadn’t learned their lesson from this warning shot however, and Woking took the lead in stoppage time when another free kick wasn’t dealt with properly, the ball dropped in the area, Hayden thumped it against his own man Georgie Kelly in the area and the ball fell to Tunji Akinola who fired past Breeze to give Neil Ardley’s side the lead going into the break.
HALF TIME: Carlisle 1 – 2 Woking
Carlisle laboured to find an equaliser in the opening 15 minutes of the first half but failed to create any real chances of note, Woking showed excellent discipline, closing down the space and making it hard for Carlisle to gain any real ground while their centre backs were comfortably dealing with any long balls towards Georgie Kelly.
The home fans were starting to get irate as Carlisle’s performance really dipped in this second half and their worries intensified as Josh Kelly burst through the United defence but fired his effort low past the left hand post. The Blues had won the reverse fixture 2-0 on the opening day of the season but looked nowhere near as comfortable as they were on that day.
Hughes made changes and introduced Luke Armstrong, Stephen Wearne and Jordan Jones into the fold but ultimately it would make no difference as the visitors would put the game beyond all doubt in the last minute of the game as a long kick from Jaaskelainen sailed all the way through to the run of substitute Aiden O’Brien, who capitalised on hesitation from Williams and Harper at the back to get onto the ball and slot home past Breeze to send the Woking fans into raptures and the team home with 3 points.
FULL TIME: Carlisle 1 – 3 Woking: Luamba (25′) – Andrews (43′), Tu. Akinola (45+2), O’Brien (90′)
United: Breeze, Harper, Hayden, Feeney, Williams, Gilliead (Armstrong 69′), Macadam, Linney, Conn-Clarke (Jones 79′), Luamba (Ajiboye 27′(Wearne 79′)), G.Kelly. Unused Subs: Lewis, Ellis, Mugabi,
Woking: Jaaskelainen, Tu. Akinola, Okoli, Odusina, Richards, Drewe, Andrews (Turner 91′), Beautyman (O’Brien 79′), Ti. Akinola, J.Kelly, Sanderson (Boatswain 49′). Unused Subs: Osude, Verga, Ward
How Did United Perform?
This was a real kick in the teeth of a performance after what has largely been a very positive couple of months for us. Admittedly we started the game quite well and had a decent opening half an hour but largely after we scored the goal our performance levels dipped and then went completely to pieces after we shipped the equaliser.
There was both a massive lack of quality and a lack of desire especially in the 2nd half, far too many wayward and hopeful passes and long balls forward and the body language of a few players was very concerning as they showed no real fight in an attempt to claw their way back into the game.
Huge credit to Woking as they looked every bit the team that their unbeaten run indicated they would be, they were well drilled, well organised, got the ball into the channels quickly and utilised the pace they had up front too. That said, our defending especially at times was kamikaze as nobody really took charge at the back and the two first half goals came from a complete inability to deal with free kicks into the area. Hughes also will have some question marks after tonight as he probably waited too long to reshuffle the pack when we were really struggling in the game.
There’s no huge need for panic as this was our first defeat in quite some time, however the manner of it was really unacceptable and we have big issues to address over the next couple of weeks if we want to sustain our charge towards the top of the league, including navigating a potential banana skin next week against high flying Harborough Town. Play like we did tonight against Boreham Wood in a couple of weeks? We’ll get trounced.
United Player Ratings:
Breeze: 4 – Hard to directly blame for the goals but his distribution was dreadful and he really lacked any control of his area from set pieces.
Williams: 5 – Started off really strongly with Luamba in front of him but dipped when Luamba came off, really poor defending for the Woking 3rd.
Hayden: 4 – Had a good opening 40 minutes then completely went to pieces, gave the free kick away for Woking’s first goal, gifted Josh Kelly the ball moments later and then flubbed a clearance leading to Woking’s second, massive question marks over his place in the team after Blackpool and tonight.
Feeney: 5 – Looked like he needed another game’s rest after his illness, some erratic passing and didn’t take charge of the backline as he’s normally capable of doing.
Harper: 4 – Deliveries into the box were dreadful and defensively he got caught out by the likes of Kelly on a number of occasions. Consistently inconsistent.
Gilliead: 6 – Actually thought he did okay, helped out with some good recovery runs and was quite positive on the ball but struggled to properly influence the game, unlucky to be subbed still.
Macadam: 5 – Similar to Gilliead however his passing in the second half was woefully inaccurate and hopeless, always looks a goal threat but needs to tidy his all round game up.
Conn-Clarke: 4 – Arguably his weakest showing in a United shirt so far, shrugged off the ball on a number of occasions, overhit a good deal of his passes and turned back towards his own goal more often than not when he’d actually gotten past his man.
Luamba: 7 – Had a very bright start to the game and finished superbly considering he was injured, shame he had to come off.
Linney: 4 – Has been our talisman for the majority of the season but hasn’t found the net in a while and his body language is telling, was snatching at a lot of chances, being overly selfish and neglecting to track back when needed. Got bags of quality but he needs to kick start his form again.
Kelly: 5 – Largely ineffective against a good solid backline, lost out on most of his duels especially against Okoli, didn’t get the greatest of service but needs to do better when the ball does get to him.
Subs:
Ajiboye – 4: Was mostly anonymous after his early introduction and whenever he did get on the ball, he was far too negative or simply gave it away.
Armstrong – 5: Ineffective but received no service to work with.
Wearne – 5: Game had already drifted away from us by the time he came on.
Jones – 5: As above.
Please note these are Craig’s opinions and nothing official!
A Message From Paddock Perception
Thank you everyone for reading Paddock Perception, your support means everything! Please don’t forget you can follow Dan and Craig on X for more football content:
@dan_batemannn
@CraigWL1997
You can also watch Dan every week hosting on The National League Lowdown podcast on YouTube or you can listen to the podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
https://youtube.com/@nllowdown?si=ewflhDiWZvXGV_eR
https://open.spotify.com/show/0IfZPnOcMp5pnIYzMExQ1x?si=jZppV9jqQgq8pW3bBbjK1A
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/national-league-lowdown-the-football-deck/id1760793410
Paddock Perception 
Leave a comment