Keith Curle wants Carlisle to show more going forward

Posted Sunday, April 08, 2018 by PA

Carlisle manager Keith Curle wants his team to be more creative in the final third following his side’s 0-0 draw at Swindon.

United were under the pressure for most of the game, but held on for a point courtesy of some impressive defending and a string of top saves by on-loan Watford man Jack Bonham.

And Curle admitted that he wants his strikers to show the same composure that his defenders did to keep Swindon at bay and leave them still in the play-off hunt.

He said: “I think they had a lot of balls in the box but I think we dealt with a lot of the threats that they had well.

“Overall, we have walked out of an away game with a clean sheet, the organisation was good at the back and Jack [Bonham] was not tested that many times.

“The demands I have asked of the changing room is that, when we enter the opposition third, we need to be more creative.

“Every time we got in there, we gave it away trying an intricate pass. We did not show enough dominance in and around the final third.”

The Robins are still only two points off the play-off positions despite only getting a point as they look for an immediate return to League One after being relegated.

And Swindon manager Phil Brown lamented Carlisle’s defensive set-up after his side slumped to a third consecutive draw.

Brown said: “It is very frustrating.

“I think teams are showing us a lot of respect, regardless of who is managing or who is playing.

“They are changing systems to bolster defences, when the [Carlisle] team sheet came through, I had no idea what system they would be playing.

“Once again, we see a manager who is coming in and probably saw the threat of [Marc] Richards and [Kaiyne] Woolery and decided to put an extra [centre-back] in there.

“He [Keith Curle] sacrificed that physicality and he played a different front two that were going to cause us more problems.”