“It was the biggest schoolboy match Carlisle had ever known,” says Joe Davidson, and he should know. He played in it, the big Brunton Park occasion against Liverpool illuminated by some sparkling new floodlights at United’s ground.
It was January 1973 and the fifth round of the English Schools Trophy: the cream of Carlisle’s junior talent against the top schoolboys from Merseyside.
Memories of the night have lit up in Joe's mind because United, this summer, have dismantled the floodlights under which the boys played. The game on January 17, 51 years ago, was the first youth game of any kind to be staged at Brunton Park with those lights on, and one of the first evening games under the new illuminations at all.
More than half a century on, United have been selling off the lamps for £100 each, to fans eager for a piece of the stadium’s history. Yet Joe and his pals lived that history, their endeavours shining under the 100ft floodlight pylon which was situated between the Warwick Road End and Scratching Pen terraces, as a fascinated crowd looked on.
“I remember all the schools in the area receiving letters to alert them to the game,” he says. “It was a massive thing, that the game was going to be under the new lights.”
The lights had been installed in the autumn of 1972 and United’s first-team had only played beneath them on a small handful of occasions before the best boys in Carlisle got their chance.
“It was the furthest we’d ever gone in the English Schools Trophy,” says Joe, now 66, who was representing Morton School. “Before that game, we played Hartlepool away, about a month before. That game nearly didn’t go ahead because Hartlepool's stand had been burned down two or three nights before we were due to play.
“But we did play and drew 1-1.” The Carlisle Schoolboys’ goal was scored by substitute David Geddis, from Newman School, who would go on to star for Ipswich Town. “We brought them back here for a replay at the Sheepmount, and won 2-1. That's how we went to play the next round against Liverpool.”
The star of the Carlisle side was not Geddis, says Joe, but Harraby’s Graham Mossop. “Geddis was a local star, football wise. When he crossed the ball for Roger Osborne to score the winner in the [1981] FA Cup final for Ipswich, I remember looking at the telly, with my pals and my mum and dad, and being gobsmacked.
“But between the two, Mossop was miles better. You couldn't get the ball off him. You couldn't get near him.”
Mossop, Geddis, Davidson and their team-mates were in the Carlisle Schoolboys XI that took on Liverpool under those lights. “Nobody had ever known a game like it,” says Joe. “There must have been about 3,500 there to watch it, all packed into the Paddock.”
It was a daunting challenge for Carlisle given that Liverpool were regular winners of the national schoolboys’ cup. The Merseyside team scored after ten minutes through Shallcross and held their lead to the interval, despite the midfield probings of Mossop and a missed chance by Parker for the hosts.
“I can always remember one guy for Liverpool in the middle of the park and he ran the show,” says Joe. “And we were all going, ‘Who the hell is this?’ We were just Carlisle lads playing, and it was a big game.
“To those Liverpool lads, I don't know if it was a big game. But this one bloke always stood out to me – he was only my height, and he ran it.
“Nobody else stood out, but they were just better than us. Better equipped than us as well.”
O’Halloran doubled Liverpool’s advantage, before Kenwright dipped in a third. Geddis almost forced a consolation, and the 3-0 defeat saw the Carlisle boys receive plenty of praise and acclaim for their gutsy performance and cup run.
“Another player triggers my memory, and I think it was David Fairclough,” adds Joe, thinking of the opposition's red-headed player who went on to Anfield stardom. “He's the only one that comes to mind that made the grade.
“I don’t remember him much in the game. But I can remember the left winger. He was a tall lad, and he took the **** out of me. I was a full-back in that game.
“I remember my uncle, my dad's brother, maybe a week after the game, saying, ‘You clattered into that lad a few times, Joe’. And I said, ‘Aye, it was the only way I could stop him’.”
January 17 that year was extra memorable for Joe. “My family were there, and my brother was right at the front of the tunnel when we came out. But at half-time he wasn't there and I thought, ‘We must be playing bad for him to disappear’.
“But my sister-in-law, Linda, had gone into labour, and after midnight, she gave birth to my nephew. So it's one of those times that you just don't forget.”
The Carlisle team later attended a reception at St Aidan’s School, where they were presented with trophies for their efforts. Joe has retrieved his from the loft at his home in Carlisle and holds it proudly.
The evening proved an extra significant one for one of the Carlisle players, for Liverpool FC had taken a shine to Graham Mossop. He signed for the Anfield club, where his hopes of a stellar career were hit by injury. He later played for Carlisle City and Carlisle United, having also played alongside Davidson for the Central Hall team, which was run by the legendary figure of Bill Martin.
That Central Hall side, also featuring future United player Keith Sawyers, was a force in junior football, winning the Lonsdale Cup [the county cup for junior teams]. They also had the rare experience of playing in the Royal Albert Hall, winning the Daily Express National Five-a-Side Championships.
Joe has retained the entrance ticket, showing details of the competition on May 15, 1976. “Last October, I went to see Diana Ross with my wife in the Royal Albert Hall. I said to her: ‘This is the first time I’ve been here since I played here’.
“You wouldn’t believe you could have got a football pitch in there. I can remember the trophy – it was bigger than me.”
These are memories from what Joe regards as a golden period for junior football in Carlisle. The Carlisle City team he played for in the Northern Alliance, he says, was full of players who could have had professional careers, and who possessed more “heart and fight” than many underachieving pros.
He also recalls being among a number of schoolboy stars picked to play in an international tournament in Dunoon, and also turned out for Raffles Rovers. As well as those mentioned, it was an era which also produced Kevin Beattie, Robin Turner and Steve McCall – all of whom were pointed to Ipswich stardom by the great scout, John Carruthers – plus Harraby’s Jimmy Kelly, who played for Manchester United, and Botcherby’s Bobby Rutherford, who was with Leeds United.
A certain well-known Carlisle name also features in the reminiscences. “I played with Paul Simpson’s dad, Kenny, on Sunday mornings,” Joe recalls. “He banged goals in for fun. Cracking player.
“Kenny always used to bring his sons along to watch our games. So I’m sure Paul would have been there.”
Only a select few, though, were there when the new floodlights went on at Brunton Park and Carlisle’s schoolboys stepped onto the stage.
“I saw the story in the paper about the lights coming down, and I wondered about going to buy one,” says Joe, whose own playing days ended in 1992 after an injury in the Neil Centre resulted in a knee operation.
“But I didn't go for one in the end. Firstly, I thought, ‘Well, where the hell am I going to put it?’ And secondly, I've got enough memories in my head, enough memorabilia, enough history.
“I don't need to buy the light to give me memories of them being lit up, and us playing at Brunton Park that night.” He taps his temple. “It's all in here.”
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