Bluffers Guide to Carlisle
Monday, 15th Aug 2011 09:00 by Col

Carlisle United are the visitors to Spotland on Tuesday evening. We've popped off to Wiki and come back with as many facts on Carlisle as we could possibly muster.

Carlisle United FC in a nutshell..... When discussing Carlisle, it is essential to mention their brief spell at the top of Division One back in the 70's, their victory over Roma in the Anglo-Italian Cup and their massive catchment area. However, for all the talk of potential that has always followed them, it seems more often than not - especially in recent times - that they've been a boom and bust club, with off the field activities affecting what happens on it. Stability seems to have finally descended on the Blues and they can bask in the glory of being the only football team in the world that Paul Simpson can honestly claim to have been successful with. And their fans still hate him.

Who's the gaffer..... Greg Abbott has been at Carlisle now for five years, starting off as assistant manager to Neil McDonald and later John Ward, before being given the manager's job back in 2008. Since being appointed as manager he has led them to two successive years of improved finishes, tho' despite that, all is not well up at Brunton Park and fan opinion of him is very much divided as he approaches his third anniversary as manager. Whilst league positions have improved, they've not improved to the extent of being beyond midtable and Carlisle being Carlisle, it could be that same again will not be considered good enough, and the first sign of a bad run, and Abbott may well be on his way.

The current lot..... Tuesday's game will complete Carlisle's tour of Greater Manchester after trips to Oldham and Bury in their last two games. Last season was something of a nothing season for the Cumbrians. Of course, they still had what seems to be their annual visit to the final of the Johnstone's Paints Trophy, but in the League it all just meandered out without any real prospect of leaving the division in either direction. Perhaps that was sufficient given their semi-recent history of changing divisions at the end of every season. Hopes for this season will be to try and sneak into the Play Offs much as it is for 90% of teams within this division. The bookies had them at slightly shorter odds than ourselves to manage such a feat. Odds of a 1000-1 would probably have seemed too short following a battering at the hands of Notts County on the opening day of the season, but victories in the last two games will provide hope for that the Notts game was simply a one off. Their Summer signings weren't the most inspiring, and a lack of goals could be an issue once again for the Cumbrians.

Played for both Dale and Carlisle...... Again, we've managed to find ourselves enough players to make a joint Dale / Carlisle team.


	Kevin Rose

Lee Andrew	Danny Livesey	Dean Walling	Tony Gallimore

Simon Hackney	Ian Bishop	Paul Simpson	Adam Rundle

	Andy Flounders	Glenn Murray

and on the bench: Simon Grand, Peter Hampton, Jeff Smith, Damon Searle, Kevin Stonehouse, Gary Madine

Youtube Golden Moment.... For me, this is one of the greatest sporting moments I've ever seen on TV. This is as beautiful a footballing moment as anything Barcelona have ever produced. Four minutes into injury time, and you're going out of the Football League

class="storytext">He was a bit good..... Whilst the world's greatest supporters will wax lyrical about his two spells with the barcode wearing Toon Army, Peter Beardsley had in fact three spells with Newcastle United. However, the first one saw him rejected as a teenager releasing him before he came anywhere near the first team picture, and it was Carlisle United who gave Beardsley his first opportunity to play professional football. He was an immediate success with the Cumbrians, spending three seasons at Brunton Park helping them win promotion to the second tier of English football. His starring performances for Carlisle won an unlikely move to the North American Soccer League, joining Vancouver Whitecaps. He might have soured his memories in the eyes of the Carlisle supporters by publically backing Michael Knighton a few years back, and praising his accounting. Stick to football and modelling Pedro.

Try not to mention..... Michael Knighton - the man who announced a takeover of Manchester United in the most public way possible before scurrying back under the nearest stone when it transpired he didn't have the money to do so. You'd have thought after that, he'd have called time on his footballing ambitions. But no, his next great plan was to take over the team in 92nd place and lead them to the promised land. Unfortunately, he only managed to lead them to administration. Mind you, if it had just been that, then fair enough, but there were further embarrassments along the way, including sacking the manager and putting himself in sole control, and announcing to the world that he'd seen UFO's back in the 1970's. That said, the UFO story was still more plausible than his plans to take Carlisle to the Premiership.

Carlisle's famous five: