Oh no, not again!

Carlisle 3, Athletic 3

ATHLETIC and their fans must be sick of the sight of Brunton Park.

For the second successive season, Paul Dickov's men surrendered a healthy lead and left Cumbria with a solitary point .

Last time, when a commanding two-goal advantage was squandered, the visitors were hurt.

But on this occasion they were downright distraught after producing their best 44 minutes of football of the season so far and racing into a 3-0 lead only to throw it away and eventually concede an equaliser deep into stoppage time.

When Zander Diamond and James Wesolowski suggested in the build-up to this encounter that a top-six place was the target this term, they may have provoked a few raised eyebrows, such has been the inconsistent nature of the campaign so far.

But make no mistake, until their opponents got on the scoresheet Athletic looked every inch the genuine article.

The hosts simply had no answer to the verve, swagger and energy on show and the three-goal cushion - courtesy of two Shefki Kuqi strikes, the first of which was a penalty, either side of Tom Adeyemi's flying header - was more than justified.

But the alarm bells started quietly ringing when danger man Lee Miller headed in a corner on the stroke of half-time and the volume increased no end as substitute Francois Zoko netted five minutes after his introduction at the interval.

Zoko levelled in the fourth of six added minutes and the full-time whistle saw Athletic players sink to the turf, clearly stunned and struggling to process the dramatic turn of events.

Dickov opted to stick with the same side which produced their own valiant comeback in the midweek 3-3 draw at Preston. Filipe Morais, fit again after a tight hamstring, replaced Carl Winchester on the substitutes' bench.

The away side certainly looked comfortable in the early stages, but the game did not fully burst into life until Robbie Simpson's standing leg was taken away by Miller in the penalty area and Kuqi coolly despatched the resulting spot-kick with 23 minutes on the clock.

A 20-minute spell jam-packed with confidence and purpose saw Simpson and Chris Taylor go close.

Carlisle didn't know quite how to combat the constant runs from Adeyemi and it was he who doubled the cushion.

Simpson whipped in a perfect free-kick and the midfield man flung himself at the ball, which looped into the top-right hand corner.

How the travelling supporters lapped this up. 'Ole' came the cry as Athletic zipped the ball around the pitch and ran rings around their dazzled counterparts.

It was cloud-nine time soon afterwards.

Taylor produced a superb bit of skill down the left before feeding David Mellor on the overlap.

He picked out Kuqi, who chested it down and blasted past goalkeeper Adam Collin from 12 yards. What a goal.

What followed was a costly piece of self-destruction. Had Athletic not conceded from a corner, which was the last meaningful action of the first period, it is highly likely they would have gone on to win the match.

But concede they did, Miller nodding in James Berrett's in-swinger. Both managers had a matter of seconds to revise their half-time team talks.

Striker Zoko, on for midfielder Tom Taiwo in a 4-3-3 reshuffle, pounced just four minutes after the restart. Berrett's clever dinked pass fooled Jean-Yves Mvoto and the substitute clipped the ball over Alex Cisak into the net.

Cue the onslaught. If Athletic were going to leave with three points, they would also be taking home the kitchen sink.

The premature exit of Wesolowski due to a knee injury did not help matters. He was replaced by Morais.

Dickov's team were under almost constant pressure save for rare breaks which mostly involved Morais, the best of which saw him shoot when a square ball to Adeyemi would have been wiser.

Liam Noble, Berrett and Jon-Paul McGovern all gave Athletic cause for concern without carving out that crucial final pass.

As the game crept into injury time, Noble appeared to catch Dean Furman with an elbow as the players jogged towards the centre circle.

Referee Andy Haines missed the initial clash, but took exception to the skipper's protests and showed him a yellow card for dissent, to the disgust of Dickov.

With time running out, Collin was sent forward for a corner. A mad goalmouth scramble saw Berrett smash the ball against the left-hand post before full-back Peter Murphy squared to Zoko, who bundled home from point-blank range.

As the rest of his team-mates celebrated with the jubilant home contingent, Noble - obviously peeved at Dickov's reaction to the Furman incident - ran half the length of the pitch to slide in front of Scot, tongue out, to rub salt in the wound.