“Roll up! Roll up, Ladies and Gentlemen for all the fun of the fair. Carlisle Women’s first team are back in town. Be prepared for an exciting gyrating ride as they face the might of the Lancashire Coasters Fylde.The Cumbrians are seeking revenge for their narrow away defeat before Christmas.”

And so it began on a merry-go- round of delights which would become tinged with twists and turns and not a little jeopardy.

Carlisle were fast out of the blocks led by the quicksilver Katie (Scream if you want to go faster!) who drove into the opposition circle with less than thirty seconds on the clock and gained a short corner. This came to naught but the tone was set. The Cumbrians continued to hurtle forward like a runaway train and from another short corner Bex planted the ball in the bucket to open the scoring.

More pressure turned the Fylde defence into an unfun house. The visitors’ keeper was called upon to perform heroics to keep the rampant Cumbrians at bay with Kamikaze saves but after pulling off yet another save she could not prevent Lucy from following up to score Carlisle’s second goal.

The Hayride continued through the remainder of the first half with Carlisle giving their opponents a rollercoaster ride who valiantly and successfully avoided suffering any further damage.

Just after the second half restart the pendulum was to shift due to an unfortunate injury to Carlisle’s Amy. The resulting reshuffle unsettled the Cumbrians and gave Fylde renewed hope. For a period nearing a quarter of an hour Carlisle’s play became a madhouse as if trapped in a mirror maze in dodgem cars. The Cumbrians were thankful for keeper Kristian for making scrambled saves and on one occasion the ubiquitous Bex stopped one ball on her own goal line.

When patched up Amy eventually returned this heralded a greater semblance of calm for the hosts and normality was back on the agenda with Carlisle reasserting a level of control.

There was, however, one further twist. Carlisle had survived the Helter Skelter period early in the half but Fylde managed to smuggle in a goal three minutes before full time. The Lancashire side tried to press for an equalizer but Carlisle calmly negotiated the final few minutes and suppressed what could have been a cliffhanger.