Carlisle United 0 Norwich City 1

Oct 11 2009 by Mark Douglas, Sunday Sun

Carlisle were building momentum and Harte curled a free-kick narrowly over the bar from the edge of the box on 25 minutes, but their progress was checked by Hoolahan’s opener.

Korey Smith supplied the ball on the right-hand flank and when he drove a low cross into the box it went through both Harte and midfielder Graham Kavanagh’s legs before Hoolahan pounced.

Carlisle were looking for a big effort in the second half, but despite bossing most of the possession they could not find a way through.

Anyinsah had the best opportunities when he bustled past Gary Doherty twice but his finish was not up to scratch on either occasion.

It left Abbott cutting a disconsolate figure as Carlisle slid down to 19th – just a point clear of the relegation zone.

“I just want to have a good old swear. I’m trying to smile but I can’t,” Abbot admitted.

“I’m more than a bit frustrated. The crowd clapped us off even though we’ve been beaten and that tells you that you must be doing something right, but we’ve lost again and we’re starting to slip down the league, which is concerning.

“We’re up against some big clubs in this division and competing against them is difficult. I don’t want to come out with that ‘big club, small club’ stuff because we have some good players and we caused them problems.

“We’re disappointed that we haven’t got anything out of it – even for all of our spirit and endeavour we deserved something.”