Carlisle City won a classic game of two halves at Gillford Park against Redcar Town, collecting the points from a 3-1 victory.
Buoyed by a County Cup win in midweek against Workington, City were playing their first home league game since 27th November and this was the first-ever visit from Redcar, Northern League newcomers.
Following his first appearance against the Reds in mid-week City gave a league debut to veteran centre-half Kyle May.
Redcar’s Clark was to show strongly throughout the game and his first run in the 4th minute showed how dangeroud he could be. The corner he won was eventually cleared.
City keeper Murray was then twice in action with a double save from Bennett but it was a controversial corner awarded to Redcar which was to lead to the first goal on 17 minutes.
The initial cross was cleared by Holt but as the ball came over again, Lee rose highest to head the visitors into the lead.
City were really struggling to gain any momentum in the game, not helped by being frequently caught offside. A wild attempt from Simpson flew wide on 32 minutes and a good run from Kerr two minutes later was followed by an attempt off-target.
In the 36th minute, City’s Olsen was sin-binned after his reaction to conceding a free-kick.
Bowman had to be alert on 41 minutes to stop another Clark run and the City defender also blocked Chapman two minutes later. Bennett fired well wide as half-time approached.
City won the first corner of the second period which was headed wide by May. The game was held up briefly following a clash of heads and, when play resumed, it was City who drew level on 52 minutes.
A fine right-wing cross from Palmer was deftly flicked past keeper Algie by Irving and five minutes later the game swung completely.An excellent cross from the right by Simpson was converted by Irving, for his 19th goal of the season.
City then scored their third goal in nine minutes as Kerr’s low shot from just inside the box beat the desperate dive from Algie.
It was now all City as Palmer fired wide and Algie collected Olsen’s 66th-minute cross. Kerr then won a corner which posed some difficulty to the Redcar keeper. Kerr was enjoying a fine second period and his 69th-minute cross flew over the Redcar six-yard area.
Great play from Holt on 75 minutes created a chance for Palmer but his shot was saved by Algie and then another great Kerr run was foiled by Algie, as he came off his line.
An 80th-minute corner was headed wide by May and Redcar won a rare second-half corner with four minutes to go but this broke to Irving who made a superb break up-field to win a corner at the other end.
Irving was then unlucky to see his shot hit the far post with the rebound bouncing wide off Johnstone.
