The reality is it was a good performance this afternoon, and if it had not been for a rush of blood by MacDonald and an appalling official we would have comfortably won the game.
In the first thirty minutes I thought our passing and the tempo of our play was good, and Carlisle were lucky to be only one goal down at that stage. Patrick was a constant threat on the break but we were the better side, with Morris making a huge difference to the quality of our attacking play.
In the second half we generally coped admirably well when down to ten men, and credit has to go both to the players for the spirit they showed, and also to Mellon for keeping both strikers on the pitch, which ensured we still maintained an attacking threat. Carlisle huffed and puffed but created little apart from the deflected equaliser, whereas we continued to look dangerous when we broke away.
My first reaction to the MacDonald incident was that it was a red card because he was out of control when making the tackle; no idea why he flew in like that in the opposition half. The straight red for Morris was an absolute nonsense, and I was not even convinced the challenge was a foul.
After the second goal it seemed we would relatively comfortably, and deservedly, see the game out, but the second red left us hopelessly outnumbered in the box in the closing stages. Even then, their second equaliser was as cruel as can be imagined, with a speculative thirty-yarder rebounding off the post and falling to their man.
I agreed with the sponsor's choice of Kane Hemmings as man of the match, and it was good to see both strikers scoring excellent goals, after all the debate about the front men.
Time will tell how costly the two lost points are, but of greater concern is losing MacDonald and Morris for three games, particularly the latter.