Christmas Carol – sorry – Car-lisle at Morecambe.

The ghosts of Christmas Past – and other times of year – visited the Globe Arena on Boxing Day when Carlisle United and their massed ranks of supporters rolled into town to face Morecambe in a league game for the first time in ten years. There was hardly an empty seat in the ground and the bars and neighbouring pub were so packed before the game that thirsty customers were having to queue outside the venues in order to get in at all.
Unusually, United found themselves in an inferior position to the Shrimps before kick-off: Keith Curle`s side were in twenty-first position in comparison to Jim Bentley`s team`s tenth. The first thing that struck at least this commentator was the contrast in physiques between the two teams when they lined-up before kick-off: Carlisle`s yellow-clad players seemed to be taller by a head than their opponents in the red strips as they all stood in line to observe the minute`s silence which was held as a mark of respect to all the thousands of unfortunates who were killed by a tsunami on the other side of the world literally as their Boxing Day Conference league fixture against each other was being played exactly ten years ago at Brunton Park. Personally, I think this was a tremendous gesture: people are still suffering the after-effects of this calamity now and they should not be forgotten.
The first half was quite an even contest and there were few chances, truth be told, but the hosts probably just about shaded it. The nearest they came to scoring was with half an hour played when Dan Hanford appeared to just about get his hand to a shot from Laurence Wilson but it could be that the ball was actually bundled off the Carlisle goal-line by the Cumbrians` defence. For the visitors, ex-YTS Trainee Brad Potts looked promising up front and – as proved to be the case throughout the game – ex-Liverpool hopeful David Amoo was a handful for the Morecambe defence.
The second half was a different matter, however. Although the line-up remained the same, Carlisle started to play with a lot more conviction than they had in the first period and noticeably pushed forward from the back in order to compress the play. The game became more of an end-to-end affair and both sides had chances but the size difference between the two teams started to become pivotal. The home side seemed to lack the wit to keep the ball on the ground and repeatedly found themselves outnumbered in any case by the visitor`s much larger defenders. Kevin Ellison – unusually for him – was ineffective throughout today and Padraig Amond`s contribution up front was minimal as well. When a goal arrived in the 50th minute, however, it was another recent stalwart who was at fault: Scott Davies allowed an albeit powerful shot from Amoo to go straight between his legs into the net. From that time on, there were half-chances at both ends and the home crowd would have been encouraged when Jack Redshaw appeared for the final twenty-five minutes. Characteristically, he caused havoc against slower and larger defenders and also characteristically, he was not shy of shooting. But one man cannot change the course of a game every week and at the end of the match, Carlisle probably just about deserved their win. They also broke the mould: cup competitions apart, every other league clash between the two sides had previously ended in a draw. Yes – all two of them…
As Carlisle`s supporters headed back to the M6 in the freezing rain at the end of the clash, their team had risen to twentieth. Morecambe, meanwhile, had slipped to eleventh.
Morecambe: 30 Scott Davies; 22 Andy Parrish ; 5 Mark Hughes (C); 6 Ryan Edwards (7 Jack Redshaw 66 mins); 2 Shaun Beeley; 3 Jamie Devitt (10 Ryan Williams 80 mins); 4 Alex Kenyon (24 Tom McCready 80 mins); 16 Stewart Drummond; 19 Laurence Wilson; 11 Kevin Ellison; 27 Padraig Amond.
Substitutes not used: 25 Andreas Arestidou; 21 Aaron McGowan; 13 Alan Goodall.
Carlisle: 20 Dan Hanford (Y); 32 Connor Brown; 34 Tom Anderson; 6 Troy Archibald-Henville; 2 Danny Grainger (C); 8 Antony Sweeney; 15 Courtney Meppen-Walter (Y); 22 Kyle Dempsey; 17 Mark Beck (Y) (12 Paul Thirlwell 91 mins); 16 Brad Potts (25 Derek Asamoah 77 mins); 7 David Amoo (19 David Symington 81 mins).
Substitutes not used: 18 Patrick Brough; 23 Sean O`Hanlon; 28 Connor Hammell; 33 Danny Eccles.