The worst possible start happened and we gave away a penalty in the third minute. Purches dived in late on Johann Smith who was going round him causing an easy decision for referee Kevin Friend. It was a very unPurches like challenge. Danny Graham gave Moss no chance with the penalty.
Despite this early setback we still looked bright but Carlisle were very lively and an open game resulted with the home team in the ascendancy. McGoldrick was making a real nuisance of himself to the Carlisle defence, which looked rather static, whenever we attacked and he had several efforts on goal and should have done better with a couple of them. Carlisle played attractive attacking football but in the main we defended well. Another mistake allowed them to score a second in the 29th minute. A freekick was crossed in by Jeff Smith and Gowling allowed Livesey to get ahead of him for an easy headed goal.
Again we continued to try to play good football to get ourselves back into the match. At times we tried to be too clever and no real chances were made. At the other end Carlisle kept coming at us whenever they could. 2 - 0 at half time was possibly a bit harsh on us but we were made to pay for mistakes.
Bond made sweeping changes at halftime and went from 4 4 2 to 4 3 1 2. Summerfield and Walker were replaced by Pitman and Vokes. It is great to see two home grown young strikers being used to liven up our attack. They played up front with McGoldrick dropping into the hole while James went to the right side of midfield and Wilson left. The match remained open with us having a more equal share of it. In the 62nd minute we got ourselves back into the match. A left footed cross from our right by Hayter was controlled by Anderton and laid the ball into the path of Pitman who blasted an amazing shot which Carlisle 'keeper Westwood did well to pary but he did so into the path of Vokes who had slipped to the far post unmarked (as a good striker should) and he slotted the chance home with composure.
We now went looking for the equaliser. This was not helped by some poor passing, especially by Cummings who was having a stinker. The match was still end to end and eventually we paid for throwing men forward by being caught on the break in the 85th minute. Cummings was stranded upfield and an attack down our right pulled Josh out of position and Purches was left with two men from the cross. Carlisle sub Neale McDermott rounded him and easily beat Moss with a cross shot. This killed off our challenge and the match ended rather tamely. With some other results going against us it means that we are still in the relegation mix but we will be very unlucky to go down.
For the casual observer this would have been an enjoyable match to watch as both teams attacked as much as possible. This was brought upon us due to the early penalty conceded and whether we would have gone forward as much without it I doubt. It is pleasing to see that Bond has us playing football in the Bournemouth tradition ie on the deck and with crisp passing. Unfortunately some of our play at Carlisle was spoilt by poor passing at times. As already mentioned Cummings was a big culprit of this and Wilson had a poor game by his high standards.
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AFCB: Moss, Cummings, Purches, Gowling, Young, Summerfield, Anderton, Wilson, Hayter, Walker, McGoldrick, Hayter
Subs: Stewart, Broadhurst, Hollands, Vokes (for Summerfield, HT), Pitman (for Walker, HT)
Phil Nesbitt, Acocks Green