Super Blues do it again

Carlisle United cruised into fifth place in League One with a comfortable home win over Cheltenham Town this afternoon. From the outset, Blues played the better football and always looked capable of splitting the Robins defence at will. Hawley and Gall both went close before finally, Kevin Gall headed Blues ahead with a good finish from a precision Simon Hackney cross.

Before a home crowd of 7248, Carlisle continued to pressurise the visitors and missed other chances. Derek Holmes went close as did Hackney and again Hawley, before the latter put Blues two up right on the stroke of half time with a finely executed half volley.

In the second half, it continued to be all Carlisle, with Gall and Raven in particular linking well on countless occasions. However the final finish was absent, not helped by some poor refereeing decisions when Blues were in with a chance of a goal scoring opportunity. Typically, Simon Hackney and Zigor Aranalde worked well, controlling and commanding everything that came at them.

In the closing ten minutes or so, Blues seemed to sit back to often as the Robins pushed on. Without any real conviction to their firepower the visitors were unable to capitalise on what at times looked to be ‘sloppy` play in defence. Simon Hackney who looked a class act throughout was the brunt of some tough tackling, was replaced on 85 minutes by Luke Joyce on his debut.

In the closing minutes chances came at both ends. On 88 minutes, Cheltenham were denied a goal when Keiren Westwood pulled off two excellent saves to maintain Blues clean sheet. Moments later, Hawley fired from distance forcing Higgs in the Cheltenham goal into a flying full length save. Carlisle again pushed on as three minutes of injury time were played out.

All in all, a good and deserved victory in a game where Blues were clearly the better side.