Harrogate Town 1 Carlisle United 0: Sam Folarin fires Sulphurites into second round of Carabao Cup

A cultured Sam Folarin strike was enough to fire the League Two Sulphurites to a second 1-0 win in as many matches this term and leaves them undefeated in eight clashes with the Cumbrians.

Simon Weaver made seven changes to the side that edged out Doncaster Rovers in Saturday’s season-opener, but the hosts still had enough to seal their place in the competition’s second round.

Both sides made a fairly tentative start to proceedings, and it took until the 16th minute before the game really came to life.

A lovely bit of skill by Harrogate winger Abraham Odoh saw him break free down the left before cutting the ball back for Matty Daly, whose first-time strike didn’t have enough on it to beat Tomas Holy in the away goal.

Just over a minute later, Carlisle should have broken the deadlock.

Dylan McGeouch’s left-wing free-kick was cleared only as far as Jon Mellish, who fired an effort across the face of goal and picked out the unmarked Jack Armer, though he could only smash the ball over the cross-bar from just a couple of yards out.

The Cumbrians were made to pay for that miss midway through the first half when Folarin broke the deadlock with the classiest of finishes.

The hosts turned the ball over in midfield and Matty Daly wasted no time sending Town’s lone striker one-on-one with Carlisle’s last man, Sam Lavelle.

With the big centre-half clearly worried about the space in behind him, he tried to show Harrogate’s lightning quick frontman inside, but this only afforded Folarin the opportunity to stroke a gorgeous 25-yard finish beyond the despairing dive of Tomas Holy and into the bottom corner.

On the half-hour mark, Folarin threatened again, forcing Holy to palm away a well-struck shot from the edge of the box following some delightful link-up play down the left involving both Odoh and Matty Daly.

As pleasing on the eye as a lot of their football was, the Sulphurites were again fortunate not to concede in the 35th minutes as the visitors broke in numbers and Mark Oxley was forced into a good one-on-one stop to deny Luke Plange from a narrow angle.

Undeterred, Town continued probing away, and when the lively Folarin won a free-kick just outside the box, George Thomson’s inviting delivery from the left found Warren Burrell, whose back-post header drew an instinctive save from Holy.

Then, a minute before the break, Carlisle passed up yet another glorious opportunity to get on the score-sheet.

Oxley’s poor clearance resulted in Mellish being gifted a clear run on goal, but the Town custodian redeemed himself, producing an excellent sprawling stop, diverting the ball onto his bar before the covering Kayne Ramsay tidied things up.

Clearly unhappy with his team’s first-half efforts, United chief Paul Simpson made four substitutions at the interval, though those changes didn’t initially make too much difference.

It was Harrogate who created the first chances of the second period, Levi Sutton stabbing wide of the near post from Folarin’s right-wing cross before Thomson curled a free-kick just over the top.

As the evening wore on, Town began to drop progressively deeper, with Carlisle starting to enjoy far more possession.

The hosts rarely looked in any real trouble, but the 75th minute saw United awarded a spot-kick when the advancing Oxley brought down Taylor Charters inside the box.

Harrogate-born Ryan Edmondson took responsibility from 12 yards, and although he sent Town’s goalkeeper the wrong way, his spot-kick failed to even hit the target.

That miss seemed to knock the stuffing out of the away side, just as they had started to look as if they might be building up a head of steam.

The closing stages saw the Sulphurites begin to threaten on the break, with substitute James Daly twice firing high and wide.

With six minutes of stoppage-time up, there was one heart-in-mouth moment for Town as Oxley miscued an attempted punch clear, but Carlisle were unable to capitalise.