Carlisle United: Notts County have taught Mike Williamson more than one lesson - View | OneFootball

The Blues were shown what a class act League Two side looks like on Tuesday night.

Notts County handed out another painful blow to Carlisle United in their midweek clash, but the defeat should certainly have taught the Blues and their new head coach Mike Williamson a thing or two.

Just like Saturday's loss to Grimsby Town, Carlisle's defeat to County was a game of two halves. Actually, you could probably break it down into quarters.

Even though Alassana Jatta gave the visitors the lead in the 10th minute, thanks to a huge lack of concentration from Terell Thomas, they were by no means controlling the game at that point. Carlisle were the ones on top.

Dominic Sadi forced a good save from Alex Bass, who had a fantastic game between the sticks, and Luke Armstrong headed just wide from a Jordan Jones cross.

But, as the first-half progressed, County grew more and more into the game, and Dan Crowley started to dominate proceedings. It was his ball into the box that found Kellan Gordon at the back post, who knocked it back for Scott Robertson to finish into the roof of the net to make it 2-0.

The second and third quarters of the game were dictated by the away team. Carlisle showed good fight towards the end, and were unlucky to not score at any point, but it was a lesson by Stuart Maynard's side in how to be a ball-dominant League Two side (what United hope to be under Mike Williamson).

Notts County's 2-0 schooling of Carlisle United

The Blues' relatively strong start was quickly nullified by the well-oiled machine that Maynard has put together over the last 10 months.

They displayed just how to carry out two of the key components of how Carlisle ultimately want to play under their new head coach: ball retention and pressing.

United's centre-backs were allowed a lot of the ball in the first 20 minutes, but the County players knew what their trigger was (when the ball went into one of the wide defenders) and they kept their shape immaculately while initiating the press.

Williamson took the fall for Carlisle's disjointed attempts to win the ball back high up the pitch in the first 45 minutes, specifically with regard to Robertson's goal, which came from Notts easily bypassing the Cumbrians' press.

"For me, the first-half, that's on us. It's on the coaches," said the head coach to CUTV. "We need to work together and we need to put the detail in.

"It's going to be a slow process but we got caught and then through that sheer willingness to press and get the ball back, we got caught again and that is the detail.

"That's the moments where we have to be patient. We have to be aggressive in our press but we have to be patient in our shape."

We do have to keep in mind that Williamson and his staff have only been working with this Carlisle team for less than a fortnight, so there are going to be aches and pains as he tries to implement his style. What he's trying to implement is exactly what his counterpart did.

Notts County are what Carlisle United are trying to become

There are certainly some positives to be taken from the match. The number of chances that both teams created in the match reflects better on Carlisle than it does on County.

The differential between the two teams was Notts' clinicality in all departments was what gave them the edge; that and the performances of Bass and Crowley.

What the Blues were up against on Tuesday is what they hope to be some time down the road. A team that can dominate and dictate games in and out of possession, all while having that cutting edge in both boxes.

If they didn't have it already, County have given the United players an image in their heads of what Williamson is trying to turn them into.