Another tight game but we fully deserved the victory. Up until the penalty incident I thought we had more of the play and Carlisle had the better of the chances, although most of them were not clear cut. However, Scott's save and Micky's substitutions gave us a massive lift and we were rampant in the last fifteen minutes.
As so often this season we started the game really brightly, and were well on top for twenty five minutes, testing their keeper with a few decent efforts from range. There was then our equally customary lull, and we rode our luck on a couple of occasions, with one looping header dropping on to our crossbar, albeit Scott had very little to do overall. However, in the second half I thought we were well in control even prior to the penalty and a one-nil defeat would have been very harsh on us. Carlisle played some tidy football at times but did not look any better than us, and today's game just reinforced my view that there is very little difference in ability between most teams at this level, with the possible exception of the top two or three (Lincoln, MK, Exeter).
Individually, I thought all of the back four were excellent, particularly McNulty and Zoum. Caprice had an ok game but produced an absolutely delicious cross for the opening goal, which was undefendable: one of our forwards would have tapped it in if the defender had not sliced it into his own net. Monthesaurus was solid again, but was over-confident on a couple of occasions, playing in the wrong areas.
The midfield duo were much better than last week, but I was more impressed by McCullough than Banks today. He does the simple things really well, keeping the ball moving with ten yard passes and making interceptions in front of the back four which often go unnoticed. Jennings worked hard defensively but, again, did not offer that much going forward. DMH was ok, making a couple of good runs and putting in some decent crosses, but does not offer anywhere near as much as Smith at this level. I would guess Johnny was dropped to encourage him to up his game after a couple of below par displays.
The substitutions made a huge difference. Smith gave us more quality on the right hand side and the Carlisle defence could not deal with him, and Mullin offered twice the energy of Stockton. I thought Cole started the game brightly, similar to last week, and forced a good save from their keeper with a shot from distance. However, he then faded and there were a number of occasions in the second half when we got into good areas and I thought with more conviction he could have made something happen. I am not his biggest critic, but he always seems to offer 6 out of 10 performances, and is not proactive enough. Mullin by contrast was a constant nuisance to their back four and took his goal really well.
There was another brilliant Rovers following of 800 who sang throughout and played a big part in the victory in my view. The last quarter of an hour was as good as it gets watching Rovers away from home.
Man of the match, Steve McNulty.
Newport up next.