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The absence of Stephen Swinglehurst meant that another under-16 player, in Scott Woolnough, again started the game at centre-half, alongside skipper Tom Aldred with Simon Lakeland at right-back and Matt Duffy at left-back. Across the middle from left to right were Connor Tinnion, Jonny Blake, Liam Davison and trialist Stephen Forster, while Ryan Bowman partnered Andy Cook upfront.
Gillford Park is the new permanent venue for the lads this season and on a warm but windy morning a tightly cut but slightly bobbly pitch saw the match kick-off. Forster's cross in on seven minutes, flicked on by Cook into the path of Bowman, being the opening chance of the game as Bowman sidefooted an effort straight into the arms of the Burnley goalkeeper from close range.
Moments later, with Carlisle starting well, Duffy sent a 20-yard left-footed shot across goal and inches wide of the far-post before Burnley went close after eight minutes. A deep free-kick in seeing the visitors number six, who was left constantly unmarked in the opening period as he ran in late to the back-stick, seeing his header cleared away from the United net by Aldred, the resultant loose ball being fired wide by a Burnley boot from just outside the box.
The same centre-half was even unluckier not to score two minutes later, when again, running free at the back-post, his header hit an unknowing Aldred before being hacked away. Carlisle hit back though and on 16 minutes Forster sent a right-footed half-volley well over the top from a tight angle before United took the lead two minutes on.
A long Mitchell goal-kick up seeing a poor header back to his own keeper by the Burnley right-back allow Cook to just get there first and toe-poke the ball past the onrushing stopper and into the back of the net from 18 yards out. The Clarets though going close to equalising four minutes later when a nice move through the middle meant Mitchell had to make a sharp save from a 15-yard drive.
Carlisle though were finishing moves better in the early stages and they made it 2-0 after 25 minutes. Tinnion the orchestrater as his lovely slide-rule pass between the visitors right-back and centre-half set Cook free into the box. Cook from 12 yards out then going for the old Thierry Henry sidefooted effort into the far bottom corner, which he executed to perfection.
And that was about as good as it got for the Blues although they did have a chance to go 3-0 up just after the half-hour mark. Tinnion's shot from range being parried behind by the Clarets keeper, with the resultant corner then headed across goal and narrowly wide at the back-post by Aldred.
Again, United were struggling to defend set-pieces and from one came Burnley's opening goal on 34 minutes. A corner in being set back by a Claret to a team-mate just outside the Carlisle box, the Burnley player from there thumping a well-struck drive home just beyond the reach of a diving Mitchell.
The Blues were forced into a change after 39 minutes, when Bowman, who wasn't the only Carlisle player to get an elbow on the bonce from a physical Clarets outfit, having to be replaced by John Seaton. The change seeing Seaton go onto the left for the rest of the first-half, while Forster went upfront and Tinnion moved over to the right.
So just as we were thinking that was it for the opening period, the traditional Burnley equaliser absolutely bang on the whistle came, although this time it was at least at the very end of the first-half. Woolnough clearly bringing down a Claret in the United box for a penalty, the resultant spot-kick being well dispatched as Mitchell was sent the wrong way.
A quiet opening start to the second period, with Tinnion and Seaton having swapped back to their natural flanks, meant the first chance came on 53 minutes. It coming the way of Carlisle when a Blake header was headed straight up in the air by a defender, with Cook then being unlucky enough to see his 10-yard overhead kick chested off the line by a well-stationed Claret.
Two minutes later some slack defending by United from a Burnley goal-kick allowed one of their strikers to fire a 20-yard half-volley straight at Mitchell. Carlisle boss Eric Kinder then trying to plug the holes at the back when he brought on James Wood for Woolnough, Wood slotting in at left-back as Duffy moved across into the middle.
With 63 minutes gone Cook was fouled 22 yards out from the visitors goal on the right-hand side of the 'D' but Tinnion was only able to curl the free-kick straight into a jumping Burnley defensive wall. The visitors then making a double substitution at the midway point in the half, as a fresh right-winger and striker entered the fray.
Burnley were ending the game the stronger and after 70 minutes Mitchell took two attempts to hold onto a powerfully struck left-footed shot by a Claret from 18 yards out. Carlisle went close as well though and three minutes later Blake's 40-yard free-kick in from the left somehow missed everybody as it skipped away inches wide of the Burnley far-post.
Shortly afterwards the Burnley left-winger sliced a 20-yarder wide of Carlisle's near-post but sadly United hadn't heeded that warning as he was allowed to run on unchallenged in the 79th minute. The net result being a pacey left-footed drive from 20 yards out which Mitchell might have saved, only for the ball to bobble up over his outstretched left hand on it's way into the United goal.
So after being two goals to the good the Cumbrians were now looking for a late leveller. The 86th minute seeing Aldred and Cook combine to set up Tinnion for a difficult high bouncing left-footed half-volley which the United man could only send way over the top from the edge of the box. Aldred himself then heading a Blake corner to the Burnley back-post wide of the target three minutes later.
Pushing for that equaliser though meant that United were now becoming more vulnerable at the back on the break. That proven as the visitors had the last word in the game when a cross in from the right in the final minute was headed back into the middle for a Burnley man to side-foot a close-range shot off the legs of Duffy and past a wrong-footed Mitchell.
So, after a good pre-season, not the start that the young Blues wanted, although the Clarets are traditionally one of the stronger sides in the division. The usual utterly ridiculous vagaries of the fixture list at this level means that Carlisle now play their next four matches on the road before their next home game on, would you believe, the 27th of September.
United line-up :
Alex Mitchell, Simon Lakeland, Matt Duffy, Tom Aldred, Scott Woolnough (James Wood 59), Jonny Blake, Stephen Forster, Liam Davison, Andy Cook, Ryan Bowman (John Seaton 39), Connor Tinnion.
Unused substitutes :
Mark Gillespie (GK), Shaun Law and Mark Sloan.
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