Carlisle United took a massive hit to their promotion hopes tonight as they suffered a comprehensive 5-0 defeat to fellow league favourites York City. Goals from Malachi Fagan-Walcott, Alex Newby, Josh Stones and a brace from last season’s top scorer Ollie Pearce saw the hosts run out comfortable victors at the LNER Stadium.
Carlisle were looking to make it 5 consecutive victories going into tonight’s game but got off to the worst possible start, conceding after just 4 minutes. United failed to properly deal with a set piece as the ball was cleared out to Mark Kitching on the left flank, his cross was headed out to the right by Sam Murray to Jack Ellis, who showed poor awareness and was robbed of the ball by Joe Felix, who fired a great ball into the area that was flicked on by Ollie Pearce and simply finished by Malachi Fagan-Walcott to give the ex Tottenham youngster his second goal of the season.
York continued to press their advantage and Kitching was involved again, picking the ball up deep in the United half and driving into the area past a parting Carlisle defence but his effort was comfortably tipped over by Gabe Breeze. The visitors looked well and truly rattled by the opening 20 minutes of the game and struggled to find any kind of rhythm, with Jack Ellis looking incredibly sloppy since his mistake leading to the York opener. Regan Linney looked like the only player capable of making anything happen but he faded along with his team mates as the half went on.
The Minstermen were a constant threat from set piece scenarios with Carlisle struggling to properly deal with the balls into the box, and they almost doubled their lead as a great ball in from Alex Hunt was met by the ever threatening Kitching, and his glancing header found the foot of the left hand post before eventually being cleared by United.
Stuart Maynard’s side were looking to bounce back from their surprise defeat to Solihull Moors on the weekend and weren’t to be denied a second for much longer, winning themselves a spot kick in the 39th minute of the game as a ball over the top by Tyrese Sinclair took United’s defence completely out of the game and found Pearce, who ran through on goal before being taken down by Breeze after attempting to round the goalkeeper. Pearce dusted himself off and slammed his penalty straight down the middle to double York’s lead.
Mark Hughes’ side looked well and truly all over the place and almost shipped a third moments later as Felix broke past Murray down the right hand side before firing an effort at goal, but his shot was just about turned behind by Breeze. The shots kept coming thick and fast at Breeze, as Carlisle again showed an inability to defend set pieces as one found Sinclair unmarked at the back post, but his low drive was again saved by the young Carlisle keeper.
A third goal really seemed inevitable and it came just before the brek as a corner again was only cleared as far as the edge of the area before being chipped back in over the head of Ellis and falling to the feet of Hiram Boateng, who drilled the ball across the six yard box and it was met by the head of the ever lethal Pearce to notch his fifth goal of the campaign so far.
Pearce could and should have bagged his hat trick in first half stoppage time as York again caught Carlisle short at the back and found Felix who once again found himself clear of Murray before playing a low cross that flicked off the heel of Terrell Thomas and fell to Pearce, but he dragged his shot wide of the left hand post to somewhat limit the damage for Carlisle. The Blues did half a half chance moments later as Armstrong was found inside the area, but his swivelling shot was tame and comfortably into the hands of the goalkeeper.
HALF TIME: York 3-0 Carlisle
The hosts started the second half just as they did the first and created an early half chance as Sinclair latched onto a ball over the top after outmuscling Davies and volleying towards goal from long range but it sailed comfortably into the hands of Breeze. United had a great chance to give themselves a glimmer of hope in the game in the 48th minute as an erratic punch by Harrison Male in the City goal went only as far as Stephen Wearne, but he fired wide of the goal from 25 yards with the goalkeeper stranded.
The nervy moment at the back did little to unsettle York and they made it 4-0 as Joe Grey got away down the right flank before outmuscling Thomas and whipping a cross into the near post that was met by the head of Alex Newby, and the former Altrincham man found the top right corner to really put the game beyond any reasonable doubt.
The second half largely fizzled out from this point on with York happy to let Carlisle keep the ball while keeping them at arm’s length, United did have the best chance in this period however, as a lovely ball in was met by the head of substitute Morgan Feeney, but his header was superbly clawed away by Male.
Despite the lull in the game, York still managed to catch Carlisle out in the 85th minute as substitute Josh Stones’ pressure forced an error from Bevis Mugabi before Stones beat an on rushing Breeze to the ball and just about squeezing the ball under him which led to the ball trickling into the far bottom right corner to make it 5-0 and put a real exclamation point on the game for the hosts.
York threatened with a couple of long distance efforts before Carlisle again had a couple of chances to snatch a consolation goal, with Male again failing to claim a cross after coming a long way out of his area which led to the ball dropping to Callum Whelan, but similarly to Wearne earlier, he couldn’t find the back of the net with Male in no man’s land. Substitute Georgie Kelly had a great chance in stoppage time but Male redeemed himself for his error and produced another excellent save to keep York’s clean sheet safe and ensured they became the first side this season to stop Carlisle from scoring.
Full Time: York 5-0 Carlisle: Fagan-Walcott (4′), Pearce (39′ pen, 44′), Newby (49′), Stones (86′)
York: Male, Kitching, Howe, Fagan-Walcott, Boateng (Batty 61′), Hunt, Sinclair (Brookes 61′), Newby (Banks 80′), Grey (Fallowfield 73′), Felix, Pearce (Stones 73′). Subs Not Used: Palmer, Sykes-Kenworthy
Carlisle: Breeze, Murray (Jones 65′), Thomas, Mugabi, Davies, Ellis (Kelly 56′), Gilliead, Linney (Whelan 66′), Macadam, Wearne (Feeney 66′), Armstrong (Luamba 82′). Subs Not Used: Grant, Lewis
How Did United Perform?
I don’t think it can be overstated how much of a real eye opener this will have been for Carlisle and their fans. As positive as our start to the season has been, there was always the question mark as to whether we’d actually played any truly good sides at this level yet, with Boreham Wood the only side in the top 8 that we’d faced up to this point.
Sadly, tonight is what happened when we played a truly good side. York were better in every single department, out passing, out muscling, out paceing and out thinking us and full credit has to go to them for doing that. We lacked even any hint of control of the game in the midfield with Ellis in particular looking miles off it especially after his early mistake.
All the confidence that had been built up in the partnership of Thoams and Mugabi took a massive blow as they looked completely incapable of dealing with York’s attackers, and as a team we showed an inability to do the basics as we constantly failed to stop York getting balls into the area and kept leaving men free from set pieces.
Questions have to be asked of Mark Hughes as well, after an abject first half display he made no changes to the side at half time, and we shipped the 4th goal very early on in the half before York really took their foot of the gas and went into game management mode.
With another huge game coming up on Saturday against Rochdale, who have only dropped points in one game so far this season, a massive inquest is required into what went wrong tonight otherwise we could be in for another horrid display at Brunton Park.
Carlisle Player Ratings:
Breeze – 5 (MoTM): It’s a damning statement in most games when your keeper is getting a man of the match nod after conceding 5, but he made some decent stops to keep the score down and it’d be tough to blame him for most of the York goals, although he could perhaps have done better for the fifth.
Davies – 5: One of the least offensive performers but struggled with Sinclair down the right hand side and could have been more switched on to prevent the Newby goal.
Mugabi – 3: Part of a defence which shipped 5 goals which is bad enough, but looked a shell of his usual commanding self, never looking comfortable with the ball and failing to deal with a ball over the top which led to York’s fifth. Also showed a lack of desire to get back into position for both the 4th and 5th goals.
Thomas – 4: Marginally better than Mugabi but still had plenty of nervy moments, almost getting caught on the ball and got severely exposed when defending 1v1 on a couple of occasions.
Murray – 3: Similarly to his debut, once again looked far out of his depth and was beaten on multiple occasions by Felix, this area is a massive question mark for Hughes at the moment due to Cameron Harper’s also inconsistent performances.
Ellis – 3: Despite really growing into his midfield role in recent weeks, Ellis looked completely like a fish out of water in this game, showing a total lack of awareness for the opening goal and then being sloppy in possession on multiple occasions afterwards.
Macadam – 4: Put a couple of decent challenges in in the second half but the game was already gone by that point, totally failed to influence the game when it mattered, i don’t think we can play with both him and Ellis in the midfield as they’re far too similar in styles.
Gilliead – 5: Didn’t honestly do a whole lot wrong but also wasn’t his usual influential self.
Wearne – 4: Should have scored when the chance got presented to him, some sympathy for him as he’s ineffective out on the right as was also shown in the game away to Sutton.
Linney – 4: Showed glimpses early on but went into his shell very quickly and gave away the ball away cheaply on multiple occasions including some silly free kicks, was due a bad game and hopefully he’ll put this one in the rear view mirror quickly.
Armstrong – 5: A thankless task up front and looked very isolated at points too, worked hard as he always does but was beaten in the air regularly by York’s centre backs.
Subs:
Kelly – 6 : Unlucky not to score late on but never really influenced the game before that point.
Jones – 5: Tough when the game was all but gone, but didn’t have much influence
Feeney – 6: Also denied by a great save, maybe questions as to whether he should start the next game after tonight’s rotten defensive display.
Whelan – 6: Similarly to Wearne, missed a great chance to bag a goal, seemed to make the midfield tick along a little more but most of the pace had been taken out of the game at this point.
Luamba – N/A: Not on long enough to judge fairly.
Please note these are Craig’s opinions and nothing official!
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