Carlisle 3 Charlton 1

Am I the only one a little bemused that Steve Bruce even had image rights, never mind that apparently Birmingham City held them? No doubt Parkinson will have mulled over such detail before putting pen to paper on his one year extension on Friday. The timing of this new deal, and Reading's apparent interest will not be coincidental, so at least some cash will come our way if the Berkshire club do indeed follow up with an offer to him. I somehow doubt they will though, given todays performance. Indeed, how many times do we need Millwall to do the business on our behalf, this time against Colchester, when we are seemingly incapable of doing it for ourselves?

Ikeme, and Omozusi, now join Mooney and Holden in the loanee ranks. Although Parkinson dislikes the use of loan players, he really has no choice this year. I have been struck by the fact that most clubs, even in the third division, have bigger squads than Charlton, so it looks as if we will find out which of the two "P's" is the better judge of a loaner, Unlike the latter two, both Ikeme, and Omozusi were named in the starting lineup this afternoon, in the third game on the spin, where Parkinson has opted to start with a 4-4-2.

I wonder what Randolph has done to be overlooked for Ikeme?, and I can only put it down to the fact that we have the FA Cup to deal with, so an injury to Randolph in a league game will leave us with only the very young Ja Ja to stand between the sticks. I care about the FA Cup this season, only marginally more than the paint pot trophy. A bit of revenue, but that's about it as far as I am concerned.

In a first half full of grey and dull, the last five minutes came as a bit of a surprise. We really do have a problem with our front line. What is it about Charlton and strikers? Not content with drawing blanks at the right end, Burton fashions a chance at the other by giving away a penalty. Although Ikeme saved the spot kick, the ageing Harte followed up to put the Cumbrians 1-0 up. Not finished yet, Burton then won a penalty of his own, courtesy of a foul on him by Kavanagh. Duly despatched, this time without the need of a rebound, and the teams went in for their cup of tea at 1-1. Parkinson was already enjoying his, having been sent to the stands after the award of the Carlisle penalty.

In the same way that Burton made amends for giving away a penalty, by creating one as well, Kavanagh not to be outdone, thumped in a 25 yarder to restore Carlisle's lead in the 62nd minute, oh and did exactly the same thing 20 minutes later, from a similar distance. Before that, on 70 minutes Parkinson threw the dice for the first and last time with a triple substitution, Mooney, Shelvey, and Basey, coming on for Semedo, McLeod, and Omozusi. It made no impact whatsoever. Much of this defeat has to be down to the thinness of the squad, but a lot of it has to sit on the shoulders of the man with a new extension on his contract. The team were lacklustre today, and Carlisle made them pay the price for it.