It was a decisive return to the side for Archie Mair, who played a big part in United’s victory with his first-half penalty save from Salford’s Ryan Graydon.

The goalkeeper, on just his third appearance of the season and fourth outing in total for the Blues, guessed correctly as he dived to his right to keep out the 37th-minute spot-kick.

Yet it was not the 25-year-old’s first rodeo when it came to penalty heroics, it’s fair to say.

Mair, after all, has kept out spot-kicks on a bigger stage than the FA Cup first round, having been Notts County’s shoot-out hero in the 2023 National League play-off final at Wembley.

He saved two Chesterfield penalties that day as the Magpies were promoted – while Mair has three other spot-kick saves on his record in league football.

Archie Mair was United's penalty hero in the first half (Image: Ben Holmes)

Before Saturday’s feat in the FA Cup, his most recent non-shoot-out save was in March 2023...against none other than Regan Linney, during Notts County’s 2-0 win at Altrincham in the National League.

In January 2021 Mair was also successful when facing Dagenham & Redbridge’s Mitch Brundle for King’s Lynn Town from 12 yards, also in the fifth tier.

Wealdstone’s Danny Parish also failed to get past Mair from the spot three months earlier in the same campaign.

It is now four saves from the last 13 penalties he has faced, shoot-outs aside, while his first-half stop against Salford was the first penalty save by a Carlisle keeper since Gabe Breeze saved from Tamworth’s Ben Milnes in the National League last November.

The Warwick Road End had the perfect view of Mair’s stop on Saturday – although it is quite some time since United’s home end has been close-up to such a penalty save.

Mair’s was the first non-shoot-out spot-kick save for the Blues in front of the Warwick in over a decade, the previous one being Mark Gillespie against Wycombe Wanderers’ Joe Jacobson in a 1-1 draw in League Two in March 2016.

Several have occurred at the Waterworks End since then, from keepers such as Breeze, Mark Howard and Jack Bonham, but home was truly where the heart is for Mair.

2 TRUE TO FORM

Carlisle’s recent record is highly impressive, while their FA Cup upset was also true to form.

This is the third season in which they have been a fifth tier club – and in each campaign they’ve knocked a higher-ranked opponent out of the cup in the first round proper.

In 2004/05 they accounted for fourth-tier Bristol Rovers, while last season third-tier Reading fell to the Blues.

Stephen Wearne had a key part in United's opening goal as the Blues chalked up another FA Cup upset (Image: Ben Holmes)

Now Salford join the list of higher-up victims when United happen to be playing at their current level.

Since Carlisle became a Football League club back in 1928, meanwhile, they have now enjoyed 11 different FA Cup wins when they have had to bridge a gap of at least one level.

Then there is their current sequence of results which, the Blues having risen from the ashes of that infamous Woking game in late September, is increasingly impressive.

It is now seven wins from eight unbeaten games – and five victories on the spin in all competitions.

That exceeds their best winning runs under Mark Hughes, who oversaw a pair of four-match winning streaks last season.

It also surpasses their best runs under Paul Simpson, who engineered runs of four wins in 2022/23 and 2021/22, but never five. Chris Beech, in 2020/21, also had a four-win period.

For the last time Carlisle had a winning sequence to match this one, you have to go back to the 2018/19 season, and a spell of six straight wins from December to January, the first five of which were under John Sheridan and the latter under caretakers Tommy Wright and Paul Murray.

Beat Boston United next Saturday, then, and Rob Elliot’s resurgent Blues will match that feat. It will be some going to get to the next landmark – eight consecutive victories by Keith Curle’s 2016/17 team in league and cup – but that United are in the ballpark for such stats highlights just how impressively they are ticking along right now.

3 TIGHT AT THE BACK

Carlisle were leaking far too many goals earlier in the season but we are seeing some better signs now on a defensive front.

There could be no doubting United’s resolve in the way they held Salford off on Saturday, and their defiant display added to a recent upturn in that department.

It was a fourth clean sheet of the season, and the fact these four have come in Carlisle’s last eight games highlights how they are raising their game when it comes to protecting their net – and how much room for improvement there was following 2026/27’s initial months.

Carlisle battled well to fend off Salford's threat (Image: Ben Holmes)

In particular things at home are in more reassuring shape given that this was a third shut-out in their last four matches at Brunton Park, only Tamworth’s Riccardo Calder breaching the Blues in this otherwise obdurate spell.

Much better, it has to be said. Carlisle’s base-line defending was very good when required against Peter Cklamovski’s Salford, with Morgan Feeney, Brad Nicholson and Toby Mullarkey all contributing well in the centre of defence.

There was a good spirit about their efforts in other positions too while Elliot, for the latest time, used his substitutions well to alter the tone of the second half at a point when things might have got somewhat suffocating for Carlisle.

The likes of Jonah Lowes, Josh Williams and Luke Armstrong added some focused energy to the closing part of the game and it must be said United are finishing halves and matches well at the moment.

This is reflected in a game-management streak of good substance, bearing in mind that, in their last eight unbeaten games, they have been behind just twice (at Solihull Moors and Altrincham) and on both those occasions they came back to win too.

Of their last 720 minutes of football, Carlisle have been trailing for only 64 minutes – 8.9 per cent of all the playing time in this period.

They have, happily, evolved into a side capable of avoiding setback – and, when the odd one comes along, they are able to overcome that too.

Long way to go, and all the other usual caveats. But these are undeniably positive signs.