A Frustrating Night in Burslem as The Valiants are Forced to Settle for a Point Against Carlisle
Carlisle made the trip down to Vale Park on an overcast night in Burslem and they had the first chance of the evening on five minutes, Tristan Abrahams shot from outside the area went wide of Lucas Covolan’s goal. The Brazilian was tested a minute later when right-back George Tanner had a crack from 25 yards which was punched behind by Covolan for a corner.
Our longest serving player Nathan Smith came close on 11 minutes from a Dan Jones long throw. The ball bounced up nicely for the centre-half and tried a bicycle kick which hit the top of the crossbar and out for a goal-kick. Five minutes later Tanner tried again from the same range, this time shooting wide of the far post.
New signing Ben Garrity started back-to-back games after being on the bench at Northampton on the opening day, he too almost opened the scoring on 24 minutes. He made a great run into the box and met the header well but his effort went over the bar. Danger for the Valiants seven minutes later with a four on one against Dan Jones, he did extremely well to pressure Abrahams whose shot wound up comfortably in the arms of Covolan.
The last real chance of the first half came from Jamie Proctor, yet another cross into the box found a man in white but Proctor could not get his header on target which went out of play for a goal-kick and meant the game remained goalless at halftime.
The visitors had the first chance of the second half, a short corner routine three minutes after the restart eventually made its way to Abrahams who turned on the ball quickly but his shot went well wide. Carlisle came again five minutes later, a good run from Joe Riley cutting in from the left and striking a shot low towards the front post from 20 yards was saved well by Covolan.
55 minutes on the clock and the men from Cumbria were having a good spell, Joe Mellish found himself in a great position as the ball was crossed in low but his shot went closer to the corner flag than the net. Ten minutes later Riley went on another run on the left and struck another shot towards the near post but this one rolled wide.
Brad Walker came close with 15 minutes left to play, his looping effort over the keeper just dropped wide of the post. David Amoo made a huge impact when he came on and almost scored the winner on 81 minutes. His shot was saved as he drove into the area, Magnus Norman spilled it onto the post and it was cleared away.
Substitute Brad Young got himself on the ball in the area but at a tight angle his shot went over the ball. A scrappy stoppage time meant neither side could find a winner as the game remained 0-0.
Port Vale: Covolan, Jones, Walker, Legge, Smith, Worrall, Garrity, Benning (75’ Amoo), Proctor (67’ Wilson), Rodney, Pett
Subs not used: Stone, Cass, Martin, Johnson, Politic
Carlisle United: Norman, Tanner, Armer (84’ Feeney), McDonald, Riley, Guy, Alessandra (65’ Clough), Dickenson, Mellish, Abrahams (78’ Young), Whelan
Subs not used: Jensen, Charters, Mampala, Bell