The Cumbrians again decided to sit and watch their opposition play rugby for the first half, just like last week against Wirral.

Once again, it was up to head coach Gary Hewer to lead the half time talks and revitalise the squad, who put on a decent second half display to take the win.

The mediocrity of the performance to come wasn’t at all obvious from the kick off though, as Carlisle allowed Fleetwood to test their defence, using their huge pack to try and bully the visitors back into their own try line.

Carlisle’s defence absorbed this with ease, and with ball in hand managed to force a penalty in Fleetwood’s half.

Flyhalf Glen Weightman was able to take the points with ease and give the Carlisle the lead 3-nil.

Ten minutes in, an incident occurred where Carlisle’s forwards drive over a ruck, only to find themselves being berated by Fleetwood’s prop Jamie Moran.

It was Carlisle’s second row Ryan Feeney who took the brunt of his accusations, and it was him who took the headbutt from Moran.

Moran was immediately shown the red card, leaving a bemused and unscathed Feeney to continue the match, and leaving Fleetwood down to fourteen men.

This seemed to be the turning point of the first half as Carlisle began to smell a walkover victory, before being abruptly being brought back down to earth.

Fleetwood pulled together and began to work through phases, something Carlisle had so far failed to do.

Despite the sustained pressure, Fleetwood could only create a gap in Carlisle’s defence by taking out second row Mark Barron off the ball, while the referee was looking the other way.

Carlisle had little time to complain though, as Fleetwood centre Adam Crisp was able to dart through the gap to score near the posts for a converted try.

The Cumbrians were shell shocked, and it wasn’t long before Fleetwood struck again.

Despite their obvious size advantage, Fleetwood’s scrum was waning under sustained Carlisle pressure, most notably due to the return of prop Callum Hermeston from a serious knee injury last season.

Going backwards at the scrum forced Fleetwood to tap the ball back quickly, and when the scrum wheeled the wrong way, the home side’s number eight seen the opportunity and took off down the blindside.

Simple hands through their winger and fullback saw Fleetwood cross over in the far corner for an unconverted try, leaving the score at 12-3 just twenty minutes into the game.

For the rest of the half, Carlisle looked poor, though their defence tightened up considerably.

In attack, the team didn’t play through phases, and it seemed like they couldn’t get over three or four phases without players taking the ball in and becoming isolated.

Missed chances and wasted opportunities were aplenty, but towards the end of the half things started looking up.

Carlisle’s set pieces were going well, and some deft kicking from Weightman brought territory when it was needed.

A penalty in Fleetwood’s half made many of the home side’s crowd think a try was inevitable: a quick catch and drive from a lineout may have secured Carlisle’s first try.

However, Carlisle’s captain Tom Graham (filling in for the injured Bobby Sherlock) kept a calm head and asked Weightman to take the points, leaving the score at 12-6 at half-time, in Fleetwood’s favour.

Head coach Gary Hewer was again needed for his now infamous half-time team talks, which paid dividends, as the Warwick road side burst into the second half with a quick succession of three tries.

Carlisle worked through their phases, building on possession and keeping calm whereas earlier they had frequently lost their focus.

When Carlisle were close enough to Fleetwood’s tryline, number eight Lee Brumpton offloaded out of a tackle to Feeney, raced through a would-be tackler to secure Carlisle’s first converted try.

From a poor Fleetwood restart, Weightman kicked a high ball, dropping the egg neatly in the opposition try area.

Carlisle’s backline were quick to get up into their opposition and force the Lancashire outfit to pass the ball through their own try area.

Some aggressive tackling from scrumhalf Tim Hughes spilled the ball free and back rower Andrew Blaney threw himself down for an easy and converted try.

From a much improved restart, Fleetwood turned over possession and tried working some phases of their own.

They tried to move the ball wide, and a cover tackle from Carlisle’s now resolute defence again spilled the ball.

Winger Dan Holmes scooped the ball up, and found no one at home behind Fleetwood’s attacking line.

A 60m sprint ahead of the home side’s speeding backs saw Holmes take the third converted try in just under ten minutes.

Carlisle begun to ease off in attack and both sides took turns to play possession and territory, with the amount of uninterrupted phases showing a dramatic improvement on the first half performance.

The second half was not without incident, however, as Fleetwood player Dale Thompson suffered a neck injury.

In a dramatic scene, the pitch subsequently became a landing pad for the North West air ambulance.

Both sides elected to play on, and the game was moved to an adjacent pitch.

Back row Josh Holmes, not wanting to be outdone by his twin brother Dan, ran through several tackles after play resumed, and brought the ball deep into Fleetwood territory.

In the end, it was his brother who took the points, as the ball was worked out wide to Dan Holmes, who scored in the far corner.

The try went unconverted however, and the game finished 32-12 in Carlisle’s favour.

Although not the most convincing of Carlisle performances this year, to play poorly and still come away with a bonus point win on the road can only mean great things for Gary Hewer’s men.