Carlisle United

Carlisle United FC is a football club based in the furthest north west of England in the county of Cumbria. A local club, Shaddongate United decided at their meeting in May 1904 to change their name to Carlisle United, originally playing their home games at Milholme Bank in the west of the city.

United joined Division Two of the Lancashire Combination in 1905-06 as the club moved to Devonshire Park, before facing eviction in 1909 when they moved eastwards to Brunton Park on Warwick Road.

The following year United joined the North Eastern League, where they were crowned champions in 1920-21 under manager George Bistow. In 1928 the club were elected into Division Three North of the Football League to replace Durham City.

The team generally finished around the middle of the table and added a few FA Cup third round appearances. In 1949 Bill Shankly took up his first managerial role at Brunton Park, after taking over from Ivor Broadis, without rally showing a sign of future greatness.

United were placed in Division Four after League restructuring in 1958, where they remained until they won promotion in 1961-62 with Ivor Powell as manager. United were relegated the following season but successive promotions were secured in 1963-64 and 1964-65 to reach Division Two under the tutelage of Alan Ashman.

Ashman’s talents were recognised by West Bromwich Albion as he was replaced by Tim Ward and then Bob Stokoe. West Brom defeated Carlisle in the semi-finals of the League Cup in 1969-70 before Ian MacFarlane took over as manager prior to the return of Ashman in August 1972.

In 1973-74 Carlisle clinched promotion to the top tier which former boss Shankly described as "the greatest feat in the history of the game." United even led Division One after three games, but were subsequently relegated at the end of the season.

Their team included Chris Balderstone, who went on to play Test cricket for England alongside the likes of all-time club appearance record holder Allan Ross, Ray Train, John Gorman, Joe Laidlaw, Hughie McIlmoyle and Bill Green.

A further relegation came in 1976-77 with Bobby Moncur in charge of the side before Stokoe returned in 1980 and led the side to promotion in 1981-82 as Malcolm Poskett banged in the goals while Tommy Craig led from midfield. United fell just short of returning to Division One in 1983-84.

Carlisle went back down in 1985-86 before Harry Gregg’s side dropped down to Division Four in 1986-87. Clive Middlemass was appointed as the new manager, as the team narrowly missed out on the play-offs in 1989-90.

The club was taken over by Michael Knighton, who had earlier hit the headlines after his failed attempt to buy Manchester United. Knighton would leave his indelible mark in Cumbria as he announced his plans to take United to the Premier League.

Aidan McCaffery had a spell in charge of the team before the appointment of a managerial team of David McCreery, Mervyn Day and Mick Wadsworth. Big money signing David Reeves scored the goals to fire United to the play-offs in 1993-94, which ended in semi-final defeat to Wycombe Wanderers.

The team romped to the renamed fourth tier Division Three title in 1994-95. They also reached Wembley for the first time but went down to Birmingham City in the final of the Football League Trophy.

The following season saw an immediate relegation, but The Cumbrians rebuilt and went straight back up in 1996-97, winning the Football League Trophy in the process against Colchester United, with youngsters such as Tony Caig, Lee Jansen, Lee Peacock and Rory Delap starring.

However, another relegation was suffered in 1998 as Knighton installed himself as manager after sacking then manager Day. The following season was another huge battle, which saw United survive and keep their League status deep into injury time on the final day in dramatic circumstances.

 

Nigel Pearson had been appointed as manager. A goal from Jimmy Glass, a goalkeeper signed after the official deadline, against Plymouth Argyle saved Carlisle and sent Scarborough down: see the paragraph of the bottom of this page for my thoughts and recollections.

Martin Wilkinson was I charge of the United side that once again saved on the final day of the following 1999-00 season thanks to a defeat to nearest strugglers Chester City. Ian Atkins took charge in 2000-01 to be replaced by Roddy Collins.

The team had another close scrape at the wrong end of the table as Knighton sold the club following growing disquiet from the supporters. Paul Simpson was appointed as manager during the 2003-04 season, which ended up being the one in which they were finally relegated to the Conference.

Carlisle won promotion at the first attempt in 2004-05 via the play-offs with wins against Aldershot Town and then Stevenage Borough at the Britannia Stadium to regain their League status.

Their success under Simpson continued as they won the Division Three title in 2005-06, before the boss left to take up the reigns at Preston North End. He was replaced by Neil McDonald, who in turn left for John Ward to take over.

Ward built an attractive side as the club was bought up by a local consortium of businessmen and gates and profits increased. The team lost out in the 2007-08 play-off semi-finals to Leeds United.

A very poor start to the following season saw the departure of Ward, with Gregg Abbot taking over. He settled the side and led it to the 2009-10 Football League Trophy Final where United lost to Southampton. Undaunted they returned to lift the trophy in 2010-11 with a 1-0 victory over Brentford.

In September 2013 Abbott was sacked to be replaced by coach Graham Kavanah. He couldn't save the side from relegation to League Two in 2013-14. After a poor start to the season Kavanah was sacked after a year in the manager’s job.

The new manager was Keith Curle who took his team to the play-offs in 2016-17 where the Cumbrians lost to Exeter City in the semi-finals. John Sheridan arrived as manager but only lasted six months before he was replaced by Steven Pressley in January 2019.

Chris Beech was appointed as Carlisle manager in November 2019, with the side ending the Coronavirus disrupted 2019-20 in eighteenth place on a points per game basis. Keith Millen took over from Beech in October 2021, lasting just a few months before the appointment of Paul Simpson in February 2022. 

The former club hero rebuilt the side with the goals of Kristian Dennis taking United into the 2022-23 playoffs. Bradford City, and then Stockport County on penalties were defeated to seal promotion. The club was then purchased by Castle Sports Group. 

Carlisle went straight back down by a sizeable margin twelve months later, but the board stuck behind Simpson throughout.

Carlisle United will play in the EFL League Two in the 2024-25 season.

My visits

Carlisle United 4 Scarborough 0 (Division Four) Saturday 26th October 1987 (att: 2,693)

A bit of a wake up call for Boro and for some of us as fans. Our introduction to the FL had been serene away from home. United, including a veteran Mal Poskett who had tortured us years earlier at Whitby Town, hammered us 4-0. I went on a mini bus with some lads who I'd drank with for years and seemed to be having a decent day. 

We stopped in Penrith on the way home as we had at lunch time only to encounter an unpleasant atmosphere. A gang of locals started following us from pub to pub and made it quite clear that fighting with us would be on their menu later. We decided to get away. 

The mini bus got a severe battering but virtually all of us were unbruised. Undaunted we stopped at every pub on the A66 for a beer, which included playing some locals at quoits. We eventually ended up in Thirsk around 10pm where we bumped into some hardcore Middlesbrough casuals. They were on their way home from Blackburn and we all got on superbly, swapping badges and stories. 

We were quite rowdy but the pub landlord was a former footballer so he was fine. However, a gang of army squaddies next door decided they didn't like us. The Middlesbrough lads told us to stay put and look after the beers. 

We ended up making a second getaway of the day on the insistence of our new found friends, giving a couple a ride to the edge of town to avert them from repercussions, as everyone was a little too jaded to make witness statements to the local constabulary. A long day!

Carlisle United 0 Scarborough 1 (Division Four) Saturday 5th November 1988 (att: 2,617)

A decent sized Seadog following saw a dour game. Boro were in their play off season while United eventually ended up finishing mid table, despite being woeful on this day. I was on the Gas Club mini bus and got back on after the game next to Trev. I commented what a poor second half it had been and he lost it with me. 

Apparently he had been ejected at half time. Lots of Seadogs were taunting their hosts by making sheep noises. The police had enough and just randomly grabbed Trev and thrown him out. He got lots of stick for the rest of the season. We ended up having a drink of the previous seasons proportions in Pickering on the way home.

Carlisle United 2 Scarborough 0 (Division Three) Saturday 26th February 1994 (att: 4,270)

I didn't travel to Cumbria for a few seasons as I was either playing or was fed up with the chairmanship of Mr Richmond. The league name had changed but it was still the bottom tier. By now I had gone into the line of running mini buses to away games for the lads who drank in the Commercial before home games. 

I had the assistance of the legendary Crusher along with some expert driving, mainly from Mr W. We had a good band of regular lads and had many memorable trips. This game was in doubt owing to a frozen pitch and our journey required travelling through thick fog on the hills.

 

Mr W was easily wound up for a change as his back seat drivers told him "to get a grip" occasionally. We stopped at Penrith for lunch and all was going well before Bunner had one of his many classic moments. Some lads were ordering bar meals but Bunner was going spare, saying there wasn't enough time. 

Everyone ignored him but he just got madder. He was telling everyone that there was no way we could make it as it was now half past two. It was at this point that someone calmed him down and explained that the correct time was 1.30pm. 

Bunner had come back from holiday in Spain the week before, put his watch on for the first time, and failed to reset it to British time! Bunner had fond memories a few seasons previously of Carlisle when driving a mini bus full of fans. His vehicle was the lead in the police escort out of town. He misread a signal and took several buses full of fans into a cul de sac building site!

We got in the pub opposite the ground before the game to hear that short term Boro Chairman, Dave Simpson was about to sell the club to a local businessman and everything was going to be alright. How we rejoiced at the news of John Russell. How little we knew! 

Boro were pretty ordinary as was the norm of the period. We were joined in the away end by some good natured Partick Thistle fans whose game had been called off so they wanted a day out. The journey saw a miraculous effort in consumption by Mr C who polished off a full bottle of Bailey's between Penrith and Scarborough before depositing the empty bottle in Crusher's front garden!

Carlisle United 2 Scarborough 0 (Division Three) Saturday 27th August 1994 (att: 5,720)

It was quickly becoming apparent that the Boro team were going to struggle after chairman Russell had employed former playing hero Billy Ayre to replace the mega popular Steve Wicks. We set off on a lovely day on the mini bus to stop off at a pleasant country pub on the A66. one of our number, Mr K, had a bad gambling habit. 

He would often lose all his money on the fruit machines before even arriving at the ground. Bunner and myself decided to give him a pep talk in one last attempt to offer an incentive after numerous others had failed. We told him if he kept off the machines all season we would pay for him at the last match for his travel, admission, beers and anything he wanted to eat. 

He was really grateful for the help and said he would mend his ways. In the pub, I came out of the loos ready to collect the bus fares. I couldn't find Mr K until I found him in the corridor losing his money again!

We ended up drinking at the rugby club by the ground as United were doing well, so with gates improving, the pubs would not admit away fans. Boro were completely outplayed by a United side that went on to win promotion. It was that bad that we left before the end, despite my protests.

Brunton Park housed away fans down part of the side opposite the Main Stand. This consisted of open terracing and The Cowshed, which offered some terrible views if there was a large away following. 

The Main Stand was in three parts over a large open terraced paddock. To the right was a small open terrace called the Peverell End while the Warwick Road End was a large covered terrace with an unusual multi span roof.

Since my last visit the terracing and Cowshed have been replaced by a large all seated East Stand. This stand is out of line with the pitch as Mr Knighton was going to have the whole ground rebuilt for Premiership football!

That Final Day

It was Saturday May 8th 1999 and I had moved to London to try and find work and make my way in life a few weeks earlier. I could not afford to travel back to North Yorkshire to watch the vital Scarborough v Peterborough United clash. Boro had to win to secure their place in the Football League, while in Cumbria, Carlisle had to better Boro's result to stay up.

My only way to keep up with events was to find a pub willing to show the excellent Sky Soccer Saturday. This was not as easy as it sounds in South London. Many pubs were only interested in showing the afternoons horse racing as the Championship (as it is now) and Premiership games weren't been played until the following day.

Eventually the bar manger of the Prince of Wales in Brixton pulled down his big screen for me after I assured him he would get plenty of trade. A few lads at the bar wondered what this manic madman was doing pacing up and down and sporadically shouting at the screen. I explained what was going on and within minutes I had enrolled five temporary Seadogs.

Boro went 1-0 down after seven minutes but I calmed down as news reached me via the reporter and Jeff Stelling that Darren Roberts had equalised for Boro. The second half dragged as never before because there were so few games being reported on from elsewhere. 

I really perked up as Plymouth went one up before Carlisle equalised on the hour, causing a pitch invasion which put their game back which would turn out vital later. Still this wasn't a real problem.

Eventually the games were coming to a close. The cameras went live to the McCain Stadium, Scarborough, where the game had finished and fans were invading the pitch. Chairman Russell and his wife were popping the champagne corks in the directors box as fans celebrated. 

My new found friends in the pub were delighted for me, but I knew it wasn't all over. Call me a cynic or just an experienced sports fan, I never take anything for granted until all games have finished, even later than that as a Seadog in later years while certain individuals were at the helm.

Then it happened. Stelling was screaming with amazement as news broke that Jimmy Glass had scored with the last kick of the game. The cameras panned back to Scarborough.

My friends were fed up for me and couldn't believe how calm I was. Just a few minutes earlier Boro were safe and joy of joys, York had been relegated meaning the North Yorkshire Derby could recommence the following season.

I went on for a few more beers before going to my brothers flat. I was angry. Not angry with the Boro team but angry with Richmond and incondescent with rage at Russell. I tried to get through to 606 but couldn't which was probably just as well in hindsight. Surprisingly enough, I had no emotions towards Carlisle apart from the fact they were allowed to sign Glass, but that was the Football League's fault, not there's.

I have probably got more upset whenever the footage of that Glass goal is scored (although I've no grudge against him. Good luck to the lad. he was only doing his job. If it had been Chris Marples who had scored the goal, I'd have been scouring Yellow Pages for "hit men") which is often, especially when I see what happened to my beloved club in the years after that.

It is never dull being a Seadog!

Click here, here and here for footage and reports of the day.


The pictures on this page of Brunton Park have been taken from various sources on the internet.