U's 1-0 Carlisle: Reset Button

United took to the Abbey turf for the second time in a week as Carlisle followed Portsmouth to try their luck in CB5. @vinylperez returns from a short break to report on the game.

It's been a few weeks since my last match report, with work and general apathy of some dreadful U's performances getting in the way of me writing anything meaningful about our recent predicatment. The less said about the Cheltenham game the better, but it seems to have been a bit of a marker for United to hit the reset button and realise their levels have dropped somewhat from where they should be.

The week started with Pompey coming to town, unbeaten all season and on an incredible run. United however had other ideas showing a resilience to secure a point, despite not being a 10/10 performance (we'll go into a bit of that later). As is often mentioned on the podcast, clean sheets are a platform to build on and United built on the blank against Portsmouth with a decent three points against Carlisle, keeping, yep, another clean sheet.

There were a few surprised faces come 2pm as Mark Bonner decided to name an unchanged side - there's a piece of wisdom against not changing a winning (or drawing) side, but anyone there on Tuesday would have been disappointed to see Gassan Ahadme keep his place, but he ended up having a much better game on Saturday.

United endured a slightly shaky start, with Carlisle testing Liam Bennett in particular, but he soon rose to the occasion and got back to his old best. It's no surprise the assist for the goal came from him. He's had a difficult time lately and I'm sure he'd be the first to admit it, but the last couple of games have shown why he's being touted as one of the best right backs in the league.

As much as there's some bright sparks coming through this side including the likes of Ryan Bennett and Jordan Cousins being class and calm on the ball, the latter allowing Paul Digby to force himself into the number 10 role that Lankester seems incapable of playing there's still some concerns around the side - Brophy, as great as he is, is so predictable with the ball, it's no good beating your man down the wing if you allow them to catch back up when you take a few seconds to cut inside on your weaker foot. Ahadme plays aspects of his game well, but as the focal point of the attack you need someone who's going to be able score goals and he doesn't look like he has that in him. Lankester, as before, I like the guy but he was mostly anonymous again, nowhere near creative enough for a player in his position, and it took Digby to take the game by the scruff and get forward into that second attacking position.

I'm sure by now we've all seen the goal - marvelling at how the two shortest players on the pitch combined to send a header past a 6'9" goalkeeper - Thomas has deserved that goal since losing his place in the starting XI and he's responded with a real class.

Once again, the subs changed the game and that's something we've seen all too many times this season. What we need to do is find out a way to impact the game from the first minute and not the 60th. At this level there's little time for experimentation and the bigger teams will exploit any indecision straight away. We need to get this right quickly, and hopefully the completion of the new training ground will give the players some comfort and familiarity during the week and we'll begin to see the fruits of that soon.

Man of the Match: Ryan Bennett or Paul Digby. Bennett has so much quality we don't always notice it as he gets on with his job so competently and quietly. Digby always ensures our levels don't drop and this was his second MoM performance in a week.

Soundtrack of the Match: The The - Uncertain Smile

Unsung Hero: Tomos Holy, for not going up for that last minute corner.