Football : Timely efforts kill off Carlisle

So much for the romance of the Cup. It bypassed Brunton Park yesterday like lorries on the distant M6 as Sheffield Wednesday progressed efficiently into the last 16 and Carlisle United were left with not a Cumberland sausage to show for a performance full of spirit and enterprising football.

There were times when the gap between eighth in the Premiership and second in the third division did not look so great. But Wednesday were never seriously stretched and benefited from the timing of their goals, early in each half.

The last time Carlisle were able to get this excited about an FA Cup tie was in 1989, when Liverpool came here in the third round and beat them 3-0. Since then the club has acquired a new chairman in the ball- juggling Michael Knighton, a name to bring a blush to the face of any self-respecting Manchester United supporter.

Knighton reproduced the party piece that made him famous in front of the main stand before kick-off, playing Keepy-Uppy on his head to the tolerant cheers of a few of the 16,000 present.

Low sunlight shone through a gap at one end of the ground and straight into the faces of the Carlisle players, but they were certainly not blind to where they were supposed to be heading. With their captain, Steve Hayward, orchestrating play cleverly from midfield and a couple of lively front- runners in Lee Peacock and Allan Smart, they were quickly into their stride and should have taken the lead in the eighth minute. But after Smart had bravely lunged beyond Des Walker to get in a cross from the byline, Peacock fluffed his shot right in front of goal.

Defending was a different matter, and when Wednesday put their minds to attack they found inviting gaps opening up before them and less than attentive marking in the penalty area. Tony Caig, the Carlisle goalkeeper, needed to scramble the ball away from the feet of Richie Humphreys, and from the corner Guy Whittingham ballooned a free header over the bar. Carlisle learned nothing from that; after 10 minutes Whittingham moved into space to meet Mark Pembridge's cross and put Wednesday ahead with a header that went in off Caig's thigh.

The goal could have killed the match. As it turned out Carlisle had the better of the rest of the first half, in which Owen Archdeacon made life awkward for the Wednesday defence with a succession of carefully flighted corners, and Hayward, after a series of shots that had been blocked, aimed one that missed Kevin Pressman's left-hand post by a yard. When, in the 28th minute, Wednesday did get the chance to give themselves a bit more breathing space Andy Booth, clear just inside the area, shot straight at Caig.

Booth rectified his miss just over a minute into the second half, rounding off a move that showed Wednesday at their slickest. Pembridge fed Ian Nolan down the left, and from his cross Booth rose to send a downward header past Caig.

Wednesday could afford to coast now. They were attacking when they felt like it, and Booth hit the post with a crisp, left-foot shot after another well-worked dissection of the Carlisle defence, for whom the highly rated Frenchman Stephane Pounewatchy was proving a disappointment. At the other end Walker remained undisturbed other then when he was booked for time- wasting.