Carlisle United turn blue skies grey at Brunton Park
Carlisle United turn blue skies grey at Brunton Park
The Cumbrians are in a bad way but all is not lost
Erik ten Hag, then. Losing to West Ham United was one low too many for Manchester United so they scratched ‘May’ from his termination letter and inked ‘October’ in its place. It’s for the best.
I’m not sure there’s a great deal to learn from Ten Hag’s time at Old Trafford about either him or United. The whole exercise didn’t get anyone anywhere.
They won the FA Cup and the League Cup together but United don’t seem to be any better or worse positioned to return to past glories than they were in April 2022 when Ten Hag’s appointment was agreed.
Consequently, it’s difficult to predict where either of them turn next.
Don’t miss this week’s Beefy Bites!
Carlisle United turn blue skies grey at Brunton Park
Life has an inherent ability to kick you up the arse and you never know when it's going to happen. There is no recourse, only readiness. Work hard. Save money. Avoid expensive habits and addictions.
Live in such a way that you can weather any storm as best you can. That's all you can do but I didn’t read the brief. Without the responsibility of parenthood, risk doesn't hold the same fear.
I've never been motivated by money and never been all that bothered about promotions and progress. My priority has always been to enable a modest existence that makes my family happy and to be good at what I do, not celebrated for doing it. More fool me.
It might be said that football is trivial. It's not. The result of any given match might mean little in the grand scheme of life but I can say without exaggeration that without football in the last few months, I truly don't know if I'd have the stomach for the grim realities ahead of me.
Football is release and relief. It gives me entertainment and focus. It gives me a reason to get out of bed and go outside when there isn't another. It makes me write. It makes me right.
It was no accident that I planned a football trip to coincide with the start of the fall but it was by fluke that I ended up watching League Two in England instead of the Scottish Championship.
Partick Thistle's match against Falkirk was rearranged away from a visit to Scotland but my Saturday plans at home changed too. I took the opportunity to break up the journey and take in a new ground south of the border instead. I'm glad I did.
Welcomed to Carlisle by beautiful sunshine, I pulled into a car park off the main road and took a moment to shake off the cobwebs of a four-hour drive. A quick sandwich and a bag of crisps later, I wandered back up to the road and a few blocks along to Brunton Park.
As I arrived, Morecambe were drawing at home against Chesterfield at half time in one of the day's early kick-offs. Carlisle United were bottom of the Football League. 24th out of 24 in League Two. 92nd out of 92.
Despite that inconvenient development, the atmosphere around the stadium was positive and welcoming. Autumn sun will do that to a football match. For the loyal Cumbrians supporters, the football match is the part they dread. By 3.00pm everything felt darker.
Brunton Park opened in the autumn of 1909 – 115 years and a shade under two months before my visit. According to Wikipedia it's the largest football stadium in England to still have traditional terracing. It's been through some history, no doubt about that, and it stands unapologetically as an old ground with old values. I adore it before I'm through the turnstile.
Once inside I was seated close enough to catch a spray from the sprinklers and directly opposite the longest of three terraces, which runs the entire length of the West Stand. It’s topped by three symmetrically arranged blocks of seats and punctured through its heart by the players' tunnel.
The pitch at Brunton Park is pristine, its choice of floodlight configuration unusual to say the least. The place is stunning. I was immediately and wholly partisan from the start. Come on you Blues.
Carlisle are in a spot of bother. Irrespective of their game in hand over Morecambe, they started the fixture against Cheltenham Town three points and a full ten goals’ worth of goal difference behind Swindon Town, about to start life under Ian Holloway, on the other side of the dreaded dotted line.
This is their 120th season. Their 100th was played in non-league. The singular aim is that their 121st, like their 101st, will not be. This time last year the Cumbrians were in the third tier with the best kit in the country. Football moves fast.
Irritated supporters have already identified a tactical mismatch between Mike Williamson, who took over as head coach only a month earlier, and the players available to him. There’s some truth in that, on the evidence of those few weeks, just as there’s truth in the fairly obvious fact that a team unable to stay in League One was transformed prior to Williamson’s arrival into a team that might prove unable to stay in League Two.
This is a club that adapted rather too naturally after dropping back down a division. They look a little too much like they belong in the lower reaches they now occupy.
Morecambe were beaten 5-2 in the end, presenting Carlisle with a precious afternoon of looking up the table – slightly – rather than down. It was a pressure they couldn’t harness. A single Cheltenham goal beat them while Swindon drew to take another small step away from the bottom two.
Cheltenham’s small band of travelling supporters dipped the attendance below Carlisle’s average but the stand opposite mine and the terraced end to the left were well populated. The south end terrace was empty and there were unused seats behind me but my viewpoint gave the illusion of a mostly full ground.
The nerves at Brunton Park jangled long and loud from the first whistle. Cheltenham controlled the possession for the first few minutes and the Cumbrians immediately appeared nervous.
The players settled nicely only for Cheltenham to take the lead in the 17th minute when Ethon Archer’s tame shot was dealt with poorly by goalkeeper Harry Lewis. He got a hand to the ball but it flipped upwards and he grasped in vain to stop it spinning into the net behind him.
Now behind, the urgent demands from the home supporters to get the ball forward revealed a fan base that isn’t being allowed the luxury of patience. Relegation to non-league doesn’t bear thinking about but it’s becoming a distinct possibility and that understandably puts people on edge.
Despite the gloom in the air, and contrary to post-match commentary from supporters walking back along Warwick Road to their cars, there were some positives they might have taken away were the result not the be all and end all in desperate times. Centre back Terell Thomas was all but immaculate and AFC Bournemouth loanee Dominic Sadi was their biggest threat on the right wing and later in the hole.
The weaknesses were obvious too. The goal was a sickener. Taylor Charters on the left was a promising outlet with the ball but ineffective without it, presumably influencing Williamson’s call to withdraw him at half time. Striker Luke Armstrong wasn’t able to get into the game. Cheltenham’s Scott Bennett had his number from the word go – stay close to him and then get in front.
Carlisle captain Charlie Wyke was Charters’ replacement. The former Sunderland and Wigan Athletic player’s introduction at centre forward moved Armstrong back into the number ten position but the plan was sadly short-lived.
After a foul by Luke Young on the hour, Wyke was stretchered off at the end of a long injury delay. His yells suggested it was serious and they won’t leave me for a while. I wish him a full and fast recovery.
The supporters rallied after the injury and the elevated atmosphere was matched by a big response and greater sense of purpose on the pitch. It’s been lost in the anger at the result but Carlisle were very good in the last quarter of the match. Had one of their close calls gone another way, the city would have been a happier place on Saturday night.
But the moment never came. For all the improved possession and attacking purpose, the teeth just weren’t there. That’s going to be a problem and the tangible absence of a workable strategy isn’t going to do them much good either.
League Two is a division full of footballers who are, in the grand scheme of things, exceptional. Yet the matches in the bottom half especially are often a strange combination of competent and attritional. In this particular battle, Cheltenham got themselves ahead and then wasted a lot of presentable chances. Ultimately, Carlisle’s evident limitations meant they didn’t matter.
In all likelihood I'll never see Brunton Park again. It's too far from home and Carlisle United are not my club to experience. Some football loves are fleeting.
Next time Carlisle play at home I won't be there but thousands of supporters will, supporters who left the Cheltenham match frayed and frustrated, shocked and yet not by their team's precipitous slide back to the bottom of the pile.
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