Last updated 18:50, Friday, 28 March 2008

Swindon 2 Carlisle Utd 2: Swindon's County Ground, the first stadium in the league to use floodlights, was the wrong place to be on Saturday if you were looking for some illumination on the likely destination of League One’s promotion spoils.

Neither was Sixfields, Northampton, nor Withdean, Brighton, for that matter. Those are the venues where Swansea and Doncaster were cut down by a pair of play-off aspirants whilst Carlisle were splashing through the Wiltshire puddles on their way to a gruelling draw against the division’s 15th-best side.

So the brakaway cluster of three came back from their respective travels, turned out their pockets and a single point fell out. So much for the idea that we were finally getting some clarity on the squabble for honours in the third tier.

First, a cheer that third-placed United managed to avoid the fate that befell their biggest rivals on this bewildering afternoon, where only one team from the top eight at start of play (Southend) managed to scoop up a maximum return. Then, a furrowed brow when you realise that the Cumbrians, despite moving a point closer to both the top two sides, have now tacked on a performance of mediocrity to the drudgery of last Tuesday’s second half against Luton.

Yet would they just now swap shoes with Swansea - wobbling like a drunk after taking one point from a possible nine - or fourth-placed Nottingham Forest for that matter, who cannot buy a win despite their relative riches?

All told, the neutral would have more joy in donning a blindfold and trying to negotiate Swindon’s ‘magic roundabout’, the confusion of roads near the County Ground, than making a confident statement on which teams are going to poke their heads up into the Championship in two months’ time. Anyone who thinks the FA Cup has suddenly become unpredictable should spend a few weeks at this level of the game.

To business. There can be no attempt to argue – and there was not, to the credit of John Ward and his players – that Carlisle deserved more than they took from this game. Whatever you do, don’t file it with those bitter winter days at Oldham and Bristol Rovers, since it was nowhere near that depressing standard. But Swindon were undeniably the superior force and on Saturday’s evidence, Maurice Malpas has a highly capable but wastefully under-achieving side on his hands.

A ground where Carlisle have never prevailed wasn’t the ideal place to go looking for a record-equalling seventh straight win. History’s door duly slammed in their faces, as Swindon charged back from Marc Bridge-Wilkinson’s 54th minute opener and bashed two goals into Keiren Westwood’s net. But Peter Murphy’s late header dragged a point out of the gloom and extended United’s unbeaten sequence to nine games, a stat that many sides in the League One running would love to be able to brandish.

A brisk start from the Blues, on a sodden pitch that had to be forked prior to kick-off, too quickly descended into a performance of misplaced passes and a huge creativity shortfall, whilst Swindon grew busier and increasingly persistent.

Westwood, more of whom shortly, tipped over a dipping early cross from Anthony McNamee, while a couple of covering tackles were required to halt Simon Cox and Blair Sturrock. For Carlisle, Grant Smith fired an early sighter down Peter Brezovan’s throat, and Cleveland Taylor’s left-footed cross was almost headed into the home net by Robins’ captain Hasney Aljofree. But that was the sum total of Carlisle’s first-half offerings.

Swindon’s growing conviction then coughed up some golden chances. The first came to Cox, who bundled past Murphy onto a bouncing ball and arrowed in on goal. Enter Westwood, who saved sharply from the striker, and then denied Blair Sturrock and Craig Easton to complete a magnificent triple save - which then became a quadruple moments later when he parried a Sturrock shot after another cutting Swindon move.

McNamee, lively and influential all game down the left, and Fulham loanee Michael Timlin in midfield, were the game’s standout performers, and after a spasm of controversy at the end of the half - when David Raven seemed to floor Timlin on the edge of the box, only for the referee to dismiss home appeals - they continued to influence proceedings.

But in the 54th minute, after Murphy had blocked a brace of Timlin efforts, United mounted a classic counter-attack and took a startling lead. Simon Hackney prepared the ground with a pacy run from his own half to the brink of the home box, Smith’s delicate cross was perfection, and Bridge-Wilkinson’s scoring header a triumph of timing.

Alas, it did precisely nothing to hold off Swindon, who took eight minutes to equalise, after Westwood had denied Sturrock and Evan Horwood had brilliantly repelled another McNamee attempt. The leveller came via a Timlin corner which caused a measure of panic in the away box and ended with Cox planting the ball into the net after his initial effort had been hacked off the line by Hackney.

Danny Livesey, actively engaged in United’s determined defensive effort, lifted a far-post shot just over as Carlisle eventually came up for air.

But that only preceded another Swindon goal, which had nothing to do with their earlier snappy passing, and everything with a more basic hoof from Brezovan.

Murphy made a hash of the bouncing ball and was easily brushed off by Sturrock, who lashed the chance past Westwood.

Credit United, then – and Murphy – for quickly finding a way to salvage something. Four minutes from time, Chris Lumsdon’s deflected shot led to a corner which Hackney bent into the box and was met by Murphy, whose firm downward header skidded through the slimy goalmouth, between Brezovan’s legs and over the line. “He’s six foot four so it took him a long time to get down,” smiled Murphy, who had the honesty not to swerve the topic of his earlier mistake when asked for his post-match evaluation.

Over to the defender's fellow scorer for the sharpest appraisal of the day. “Let’s be honest - we were the second best team out there,” Bridge-Wilkinson said. “But we knuckled down and got a point. If we want to achieve anything this season, it’s the sort of thing we’ve got to do.”

His words covered the best and the worst of United’s day which, improbably, ended with them in a position of even greater strength. Not a day when they shone to anything like the necessary wattage – but still an afternoon when their shadow grew over the suddenly and strangely vulnerable top two.