Myles Weston again struck twice to condemn Carlisle to their second 3-1 defeat at the hands of Brentford this season.

With a few changes in and out of the squad since our last match back in December against Charlton, there were inevitably a couple of changes to the side. Wojciech Szczęsny returned in goal in the place of fellow loanee keeper Lewis Price, which Tommy Smith filled the void in central defence left when Ipswich teammate Pim Balkestein returned to their parent club. Up front Charlie MacDonald returned from suspension to partner Ben Strevens in the place of the injured Rhys Murphy, now back with Arsenal, and Myles Weston was preferred to Sam Wood on the left hand side of midfield.

Apart from an early Strevens cross that couldn’t quite find MacDonald in the middle, Carlisle had the best of the opening half hour, although they couldn’t carve out any clear-cut chances. A couple of efforts from around the edge of the area were well saved by Szczęsny, the second of which was a particularly good save, getting down very quickly to save a shot that was going right in the bottom right hand corner.

There was also a shout for a penalty for the away side when Richard Keogh went down under a challenge, but the referee wasn’t giving anything. This didn’t seem to please Keogh too much as the defender picked himself up and went in very late on Leon Legge, a challenge that on another day with another referee could perhaps have earned the Irishman a red card. Instead he got a yellow and was booed for the rest of the afternoon by the Bees fans. Fair enough really.

The home side did have their moments though. Ryan Dickson and Weston were looking threatening down the left, using Weston’s pace and Dickson’s trickery to create crossing opportunities. One particularly good Dickson run saw him breeze past two defenders before putting a low cross in that was cleared, but the Ball fell to Kevin O’Connor whose shot from the edge of the area was blocked, giving Carlisle the chance for a quick break that Smith thwarted with some good defending.

It was a bit of quick thinking that broke the deadlock. Strevens was fouled in the air around the halfway line on the right and John Bostock took a quick free kick, releasing MacDonald. The striker cut inside, then out, then in again and then out again before squaring perfectly for the onrushing Weston to tap in from close range. The goal was probably against the run of play as up until then Carlisle had had most of the play, but after the goal we seemed to settle down and had the better of things after that.

Another bit of quick thinking put Weston away down the left and his deep cross found Bostock at th far post, but although he was able to control the ball well, he couldn’t quite get the shot away and the chance was gone. We did get a free kick shortly afterwards though when Bostock was fouled, and Graham Kavanagh, who had been constantly whinging and moaning about every single decision that had gone for or against Carlisle until that point, finally talked his way into the referee’s book. His mouth nearly got him in trouble again before half time, with his captain being called over to help shut him and his teammates up at last.

The opening minutes of the second half were dominated by Brentford, or by Bostock in particular. The youngster started cutting inside a bit more and looked threatening with the ball at his feet, sending MacDonald clean through with a delightful through ball through a defender’s legs, but Charlie ran into another defender’s path and the chance was gone. Bostock also started fancying his chances from long range, cutting in off the right hand side to shoot left footed with one effort going high and wide, but a second forced a good save from Adam Collin, who could only parry the ball straight to Carlisle’s nemesis Weston, who stroked the ball home right footed from the edge of the area.

At 2-0 Carlisle decided to push for a goal that little bit more. Richard Offiong came on and looked a handful, a couple of runs from the substitute looking dangerous, before a Keogh cross/shot found Tom Taiwo in the area only a few yards out, but his shot was magnificently saved by Szczęsny. It was a proper world class save, the Pole diving low down to his right, putting his outstretched right hand onto the ball on the line to both stop it going in and to stop it bouncing straight out to Taiwo or any of his teammates who were lurking with intent.

However, Carlisle were given a lifeline when the referee awarded them a penalty. Scott Dobie burst through the middle, and sandwiched between Danny Foster and Legge he went down. My initial reaction was that it was probably a foul, but as I was in line with the edge of the area I felt it was outside the box. Furthermore, having seen a replay you can clearly see that Legge wins the ball and that’s it’s a wonderful tackle. Instead, the centre back received a yellow card for his excellent tackle and Ian Harte sent Szczęsny the wrong way to pull one back for the visitors.

You might have thought that Carlisle would subject us to a barrage of balls into the box and push for the equaliser, but they never really threatened to do anything like that. Perhaps this frustrated them as Offiong stupidly followed through when Szczęsny picked the ball up in the area and caught the keeper in the face, but the referee deemed this to only be worthy of a yellow card.

Nevertheless we, and Szczęsny, got our revenge when Dickson ran onto a ball on the left hand side, steamed into the area, cut back onto his right and put a ball across the area. His cross wasn’t the greatest and hit a defender, but fortunately it rebounded straight back to the left back who slammed the ball into the net from close range. Szczęsny then showed that as well as being a top class keeper, he’s also got a bit of a personality as he ran to the other end of the pitch to celebrate the goal with his teammates, right in Offiong’s face. The keeper got a yellow card for his over exuberance, and the Pole reacted to the referee by sarcastically bowing. Good stuff.

In the end it was a deserved win, as although Carlisle had a lot of the ball in the opening half hour, they never really did anything with it, and when they actually got a shooting opportunity they found a keeper who was determined not to be beaten. We moved the ball around quickly, using Weston’s pace on the left to good effect, and were worthy of the three points.

Star man for me has to be the Pole in goal, Szczęsny. Last year I was a massive Ben Hamer fan, but Szczęsny makes Hamer look a bit rubbish. How on earth he is only fourth choice at Arsenal is a mystery to me. He’ll be in their first team within a couple of seasons, trust me. Until then, hopefully we can keep him on loan for the rest of the season as he’s a massive player for us. Without his saves early on we could have been a couple behind, and his save in the second half was just tremendous.

I do however want to make it clear that everyone else had a great game as well. Dickson’s goal was just desserts for a tireless display, and fellow full back Foster had a good game, coming close to his first goal for the Bees with a strike late on. Legge and Smith combined well in defence, Legge winning everything in the air and Smith dealing with everything that came his way well. O’Connor and Marcus Bean had their best games for a while, with the former winning every tackle, picking up all the loose balls and getting the ball to the attacking players quickly so we could counter. Strevens and MacDonald worked hard up front without ever really threatening to score goals themselves. Thankfully Weston had his scoring boots on today, with his pace frightening the Carlisle defence and he could have had his hat-trick had he taken a couple of the other chances that fell his way.

The best thing about the match though was that it actually happened! We haven’t had a match since 28th December, and to be treated to a genuinely exciting match was great. Roll on another good match at home to Doncaster on Tuesday!