Cumbria Beckons

Saturday 14th January 2023: League Two: Brunton Park: Carlisle United vs Newport County

A fortnight before my abortive trip to Barrow in South Cumbria I headed to the north of Cumbria and their mortal rivals, Carlisle United. The Cumbrians, sitting pretty in the playoff positions, welcomed The Exiles to their Brunton Park home for an international showdown in the driving wind and rain of the North Cumbrian winter.

Graham Coughlan’s Newport County made the trip north from the south Welsh valleys on the back of 4 consecutive draws and having not won since December 2nd 2022. Having not won in over a month, lost a slew of loan players returning home in the transfer window and languishing in 18th place, it was unsurprising that they could only tempt 168 of their fans to make the trip with them. All the signs pointed to an easy victory for the hosts.

Once the hosts, in deep blue, got the game underway however the reality was as far from expectations as the positions of Tony Stark and Steve Rodgers in Captain America: Civil War.
County hadn’t made such a long journey just to roll over and have their belly tickled. The visitors established an iron grip on the ball and challenged their hosts to take it from them.

The Ironsides’ iron grip on both possession and territory almost bore fruit less than 120 seconds into proceedings. Tomas Holy miscued a goal kick straight to the Offrande Zanzala 10 yards from target but, luckily for the Cumbrian’s keeper, the resulting shot flew the wrong side of the left post with an open goal to aim at.

Just how much that gloriously spurned chance was down to the abysmal weather conditions both teams were having to battle more than their opposite numbers will never be known. One thing that quickly became obvious though was that neither side wanted to adapt to the conditions.

Newport kept trying to break through the home defence by blasting long balls over the top, where the wind would invariably sweep it away from it’s intended landing zone. This tactic did have the desirable side-effect of hemming the hosts into their defensive third. All they could do on the rare occasion the ball broke to their feet was attempt a similar long ball blast upfield, with predictable results.

The only player on either team who didn’t succumb to this punt and pray playing style in the first half hour was John-Kymani Gordon, Carlisle’s January loan signing from Crystal Palace. Getting the ball down on the turf then surging forward with it surgically attached to his boots was more his style. Unfortunately without any support he found himself consistently being forced down blind alleys by the visiting defenders.

Not that he had much chance to try out these innovative ideas much in the first half as it was all hands to the pumps for the hosts in their efforts to prevent Newport keeping the ball forever.

After all surely if Newport had enough time on the ball they would finally find a way to get the scoreboard ticking over. The closest Newport would come to doing so was from a cross deep on the left that was headed agonisingly over the bar at the back post, before the hosts took the lead.

Carlisle had barely been in the game at all before they opened the scoring in the first of 2 added minutes at the end of the regulation 45. The goal itself was one fitting for the quality of the match so far and owed far more to the conditions than the efforts of either set of players.

Carlisle punted the ball into the Exiles’ area and in an attempt to clear the ball a defender misjudged the flight of the ball let it dribble off the back of his head to drop free in the 6 yard box. Kristian Dennis was lurking in the right place to stab the ball home from point blank range, with the final touch of the half, to hand the hosts the leads on the stroke of half-time.

In a show of confidence Newport were out first for the second half and when they got us underway again the visitors went straight back to hemming Carlisle back into their area. This time however, the hosts were unwilling to simply surrender to their fate and, with the goal providing motivation, they set about showing their visitors why they’re the ones challenging for automatic promotion.

It fell to their newbie, John-Kymani Gordon, to double their advantage as the game ambled towards the hour mark. Picked out on the left touchline he bought the ball down with sartorial elegance and tied the opposition in knots with his mazy run into the box, before sweeping the ball under Joe Day in the Port goal.

Gordon carved Newport open with the consummate ease of a player plying his trade 3 divisions below the level he trains at. He is certainly one for the future with his parent club and hopefully when he returns to them next season he will get the chance to test himself at the top level.
In a show of confidence Newport were out first for the second half and when they got us underway again the visitors went straight back to hemming Carlisle back into their area. This time however, the hosts were unwilling to simply surrender to their fate and, with the goal providing motivation, they set about showing their visitors why they’re the ones challenging for automatic promotion.

It fell to their newbie, John-Kymani Gordon, to double their advantage as the game ambled towards the hour mark. Picked out on the left touchline he bought the ball down with sartorial elegance and tied the opposition in knots with his mazy run into the box, before sweeping the ball under Joe Day in the Port goal.

Gordon carved Newport open with the consummate ease of a player plying his trade 3 divisions below the level he trains at. He is certainly one for the future with his parent club and hopefully when he returns to them next season he will get the chance to test himself at the top level.

The host’s second goal arrived in the 57th minute and from there Newport’s defiance was broken. It looked like Carlisle’s strikers could now simply fill their boots and boost their goal difference to aid with their promotion push. It was not to be.

The final half hour would pass without either goalkeeper facing further tests. The closest either keeper came to being beaten was 10 minutes from time when Jack Armer burst into the box to collect the ball in the left channel, but even with the Day prone and powerless Armer managed to guide the ball into his gloves.

Carlisle had to be content with just a 2-0 victory as they closed the gap on Northampton above them to just 4 points with a game in hand, providing a huge boost to their hopes of automatic promotion.

Newport were done with this game as soon as the host’s second crossed the line, but they were unfortunate not to leave with a point for their first half efforts as they remained in 18th place. The gap to the relegation zone was still a healthy 7 points, but both teams currently in the zone had games in hand over them.

Carlisle won this battle between England and Wales now all that remains for them is to head up the football league. On the evidence of today’s game they shouldn’t have a problem with that. Teams on the way to promotion or titles always find a way to win when not at their best and that’s what The Cumbrians did here.