CUMBRIANS CLIMB OFF THE ROPES
KEITH CURLE compared his Carlisle side to a champion boxer after they produced a knockout performance to down rivals Hartlepool in a thriller at Brunton Park.
Jabo Ibehre put the Blues ahead early before striker Shaun Miller was dismissed just before the hour, and goals from Lewis Alessandra and Padraig Amond either side of a Danny Grainger rocket appeared to set the visitors up to hunt a winner.
Yet it was to be the spirited ten men who snatched the points, when Michael Raynes headed home with 11 minutes to go.
The result leaves Curle’s men the only unbeaten side in the Football League’s three divisions, and he was rightly delighted.
“If you are a boxer, and you get smashed, then that is when you are at your most vulnerable,” said Curle. “The lads I’ve got in there got smashed twice, and they jumped back up and battered them.
“The atmosphere in there at fulltime was really good. The message we then pass onto the players is, ‘Something is building here, so embrace it and keep going with it’.
“When I first came into the club, there was a word being used a lot: unlucky. Our motto now is: ‘The harder you work, the luckier you get’. We’re seeing the rewards of some tremendously hard work from all parts of the club.”
Hartlepool had the better of the first half, and Nathan Thomas wasted a couple of promising opportunities from mid-range.
Carlisle went ahead against the run of play, when Miller peeled out left and produced a sparkling cross for strike partner Ibehre, who blasted home from six yards.
Miller went from hero to villain at the start of the second period however when he picked up a second yellow card for an innocuous foul, a decision his manager labelled ‘possibly harsh’.
It rejuvenated the visitors, and Alessandra fired them level when he rifled into the top corner after a scramble.
Carlisle were in no mood for lying down and regained the lead in style when skipper Grainger drilled a 25-yard free-kick into the bottom left corner.
Pools responded once again, Amond tapping home Alessandra’s cross, but the ten men had the last laugh with centre-half Raynes looping an excellent header beyond Trevor Carson before his team bravely held on. Hartlepool boss Hignett was understandably frustrated. “I can’t fault the performance overall, because we did control the game and looked the better team,” he said. “However, we talked at length about set-pieces and I’m annoyed that we didn’t do our jobs properly and professionally. “This isn’t just one point lost, it is three points dropped. It’s frustrating to put on a performance like that and not get any rewards.”