Paul Simpson made a triumphant return to the Carlisle United dug-out as the Blues grabbed a vital 1-0 win at Leyton Orient.
It was a committed effort from the first team Simpson had sent out, and delighted the equally committed efforts of 700 fans to make the long trip to London.
Crucially the win lifted United out of the drop zone, which seems to become more congested by the week.
If you ignore the seemingly doomed Scunthorpe, who are eight points adrift of safety and have played more games than the others, the next six upwards are separated by only three points.
The plunging Orient and struggling Colchester look vulnerable now to the revival underway at Oldham and threatening to take off at Carlisle.
The goal that eventually proved to be the only one of the game came after just five minutes and was scored by Omari Patrick.
Former crowd favourite Jamie Devitt, back in the starting line-up, won the ball in his own half and slipped it through to Kristian Dennis. He was forced to stretch to help the ball onto Patrick who raced into the box, checked cleverly and then fired a low shot under the keeper Lawrence Vigoroux.
The Blues were almost in for a second when Callum Guy found Patrick with his back to goal but he was able to steer the ball through to Joe Riley on the overlap. Jack Armer tried desperately to get on the end of the cross but couldn’t make it.
On 26 minutes Drinan caused problems for the Carlisle defence with a great run and cross and Smith’s header bounced and just cleared the bar from eight yards out.
Smith should have done better soon after when he got on the end of an Archibald corner but from ten yards put it wide.
Patrick, who had promised to make up for his Saturday night misdemeanour last week, was certainly lively for United. He had the chance of a shot at goal near the end of the half but it took a deflection and made it a relatively simple save for Vigoroux.
The final act of the first half saw a fine run by Joe Riley causer initial problems and then Jordan Gibson took over. His cross was perfect and Armer arriving at pace was unlucky to see his volley skid wide.
Orient’s hopes of a fight-back were diminished when they had Archibald sent-off after picking up two yellow cards in the space of five minutes early in the second half for late challenges.
Armer on a late run was fed by Patrick and a strong shot was held by the home keeper. Then it was Patrick himself who fired one fierce shot in which Vigorous did well to hold onto.
Carlisle had dominated since the sending-off and it took the save of the game from Vigouroux to keep the lead to just one goal. Gibson thought he had scored until the Chilean-born keeper just managed to get his fingertips to it.
Orient had been seen very little as an attacking force and generally it was Carlisle who forced the pace abut couldn’t give themselves that extra cushion.
They almost paid the price for not adding to the early goal for deep into the six minutes of time added on. Sho-Silva had to head behind off the line after Pratley got something on the end of an in-swinging corner.
The referee’s final whistle was greeted by a huge roar from the travelling fans and the new manager’s arrival had ended a sequence of eight games without a win. ‘Simmotion’ had been created.
