It was a point which lifted Carlisle United out of the relegation zone but their 0-0 home draw with Oldham Athletic was sadly lacking in quality.
The lowly positions of both combatants hardly suggested it was going to be a classic and rarely lifted spirits on a grey day which matched both the weather and the mood.
Oldham recently had a sit-in by protesting fans in the centre-circle and at the end of this colourless contest the home fans were shouting “sack the board.”
The manager left a fortnight ago and has not been replaced and it’s clear the fans are branding the directors as equally culpable for the mess the Blues find themselves in.
They are now winless in eight games and are only out of the bottom two by a point following Mansfield’s 2-1 defeat at Exeter.
It was, however, a rare clean sheet for the Blues but it needed two fine saves by new keeper Mark Howard to keep Oldham at bay and then visitors were also thwarted by a controversial offside judgement after finding the net.
A crowd of 4,274 witnessed the stalemate and most of those will be waiting anxiously for news of the managerial appointment which has been indicated could come before next Saturday’s trip to Nothampton.
United played some nice approach work at times but clearly lacked devil and bite where it mattered in the box.
A Zak Clough set-piece offered some hope but his clip over the wall was tipped round the post by keeper Jayson Leutwiler.
Oldham almost took the lead just before half-time when Howard just managed to got his fingers to a David Keillor-Dunn shot and was able to turn it onto the inside of the post.
VAR would certainly have favoured the Oldham player Jamie Bowden as he followed-up to net only to be ruled offside.
It took another excellent Howard save to deny ex-Carlisle player Hallam Hope after he had got on the end of a deep cross with a well-hit shot.
The second-half never produced as many crucial moments although Keillor-Dunn did spot Howard off his line from half-way but the home keeper scrambled back to gather.
In all honesty neither side looked capable, or deserving, of winning the game and the final score-line just about summed-up the two sides who still sit alarmingly close to the drop zone.
