It was my intention, that if we lost this game today, I wouldn't mention the fact that Carlisle are our bogie team and that it was just a well due defeat.  I'll have to though and also go a bit further and say that Carlisle are the Freddie Krueger of our nightmares.

You could see right from the first ball that we were playing as if we were terrified of what was to come but it wasn't Carlisle that we should have been scared of.  It was the referee.

I shall have to own up here because I have a kind of relation, the wife's uncle, who lives near Blackpool and is also called M Cowburn.  Our Mr Cowburn's a good man though.  Not like his namesake who I think must come from a rough part of Blackpool and hasn't seen his father since the day he was born.

He made some bewildering decisions today including giving Utd a dubious penalty, some OTT bookings and allowing a goal that was thought by most people, including Utd fans, to be offside.  On top of that he sent three players off in a game that was never dirty until the last few minutes when all hell broke loose.

As I said earlier the game kicked off with Carlisle looking more up for it than we were.  In the opening two minutes Carlisle forced two corners that both came to nothing until Baldacchino had a shot from outside the box that was just pushed over by Stuart Brock.

Carlisle continued to pressure a very suspect looking Harriers defence that seemed lacking in confidence and the ability to talk to each other.

A quarter of an hour into the game and Cowburn awarded the Cumbrians that dubious penalty.  After a poor clearance from Stuart Brock the ball fell to Osman and as Lee Ayres came in to clear the danger Osman jumped over his legs but didn't jump high enough.  If it was Bo it would have been called a dive.

The ref, who didn't have a very clear view of it, immediately pointed to the spot ignoring all protests from Lee Ayres.

Craig Farrell easily converted the spot kick sending Brockie one way and putting the ball the other.

More poor defending from the Reds back line almost saw Osman increase the lead three minutes later, but Brock saved well as he also did when he pushed a 25yd drive from Shelley over the bar.

It wasn't all going Carlisle's way because Drewe came close with a shot that had goal written all over it.  Well, it would have been if it had rolled a bit faster.

Just after that Scott Stamps got his marching orders.  He had been booked earlier for holding the ball in a menacing way and had now tackled a player from behind.  Even though he had taken the ball cleanly the player concerned had collapsed in a heap at the feet of Mr Cowburn and Scottie became the first dip his toe in the bath water.

We went in at the end of the half with our tails between our legs to face a roasting from Ian Britton.

The roasting had worked and we came out with guns a blazing right from the off.

Melligan had a shot saved and had another pair of chances that only just missed while Sam Shilton also went close.  At the other end Osman, on loan from Everton, was still at the heart of every Carlisle attack.

Ten minutes after the restart Brit surprisingly took off Danny Williams and replaced him with Sean Parrish.  The feeling was that Danny was making quite a few mistakes and Sean had been bought on to tighten things up a bit.  Problem was he hardly touched the ball once he came on.

In reply Carlisle bought on Richie Foran and he immediately made an impact when he won a free kick after being fouled on the edge of the area.  It took Brockie two goes to stop the free kick.

On 65 minutes the Harriers fans erupted when Sean Flynn pulled us back into the game.  It was a goal out of the blue and a goal to remember when the time comes to recall 'the greatest goals scored by a Harriers player'.

John Melligan found Ian Foster out on the right and he pulled the ball back to Sean Flynn who was standing 20yds out.  He hit a volley that looked to be going well over until, at the last second, it dipped and went over Matt Glennon's head and landed in the net with a vicious thud!

The Reds stepped up a gear then and it would be only a matter of time until we took the lead.  It never happened though.

Ian Foster, who was having a non-descript kind of game, came close as did Lee Ayres but it was the visitors who scored next in controversial circumstances.

It was that man Osman, again, who latched onto a poor clearance from Kenny Coleman and chipped the ball over Brock, substitute McDonagh pushed the ball home from a yard out amid protests that he was suspiciously offside.  The ref was having none of it and Brock was shown the yellow card for protesting too much.  Or was it for arguing with Lee Ayres?

With time running out for us the game suddenly degenerated into farce.  There had been three minutes added time and in that three minutes we saw a fight, two sendings off, a penalty awarded and a penalty missed.

The fight started when Carlisles McDonagh went in hard on Sam Shilton and with the crowd calling for his head both sets of players got involved in a pushing match that saw Sean Flynn seemingly strike out at McDonagh.  For the first time in the game Cowburn did the right thing and sent off, first McDonagh and then Flynnie.

Flynn stormed off and threw his shirt down in front of Brit as if to say it was his fault.  Not the way for the captain to behave.

From the free kick the ball was sent straight into the heart of the United area only for a Carlisle defender to stick a hand out to help it out of play.  Again the ref did the right thing and immediately pointed to the spot.  The normally assured Ian Foster stepped up to take it and blasted it.  Straight at the diving keeper.

Carlisle went away with their third away win of the season and we went home after seeing our third defeat.

Scott Stamps and Sean Flynn will both miss the Oxford game in a few weeks time and the two after that too.  They will also be dreading coming into work on Monday morning.