FA Vase second round: Carlisle City aim to make more history

Dan Kirkup’s side host Blyth Town in the second round on Saturday.

Should they progress, it will mean a place in the third round, which would be the joint furthest the club have ever advanced in the competition.

City, who sit 16th in Northern League Division One, take on a Blyth side who are second but who were beaten at Gillford Park earlier this campaign.

Manager Kirkup says the prospect of continuing their run in the Vase is an exciting one.

“Technically, we’re five games away from Wembley,” he said.

“It’s a competition where there are just teams at our level, so you've got to have the same chance as anyone.

“Blyth have been strong this season, I think they’ve had a lot of money put into them and their manager [Michael Connor] has just gone to Blyth Spartans  – but we’ve beaten them 3-2 at home in the league.

“We’ve relied on our home form so far this season. I would rather have had easier opposition, but it is what it is, it’s a cup game and I always fancy us at home.”

City’s league form has been inconsistent with Kirkup, in his first season at the helm, managing the challenges of player availability at certain times – but he has a full squad at his disposal this weekend.

“Recruitment was always going to be difficult after losing some of our main players from last season, and we’ve fallen down a bit,” said the manager, whose side won 1-0 at Guisborough Town in the FA Vase first round.

“One of the problems we’ve had is around the midweek away games. The commitment with some of the lads hasn't probably been what I would want.

Carlisle City reached the third round last season before going out to Charnock Richard (Image: Jordan McGrath)

“Obviously, work and all that comes into it, and I accept that. But we're actually fine on a Saturday. If you look at our results, we're like two different teams – a Saturday team compared with a midweek team.

“I'm not going to lie, it's been a lot tougher than I thought. It's been pretty much like a full-time job, on the phone all day, every day, every night.

“I don’t know…I feel like the players haven't got the mentality like they used to. It's just like any sort of excuse to miss this game or that game. I find that tough because I'm pretty old school.

“Football's football – you don't miss it for anything else. It's just trying to adapt with the younger breed. That's been my biggest challenge.

“I've spoken to people who are involved in the pro game and they're saying it's happening at their level too. With a slight knock, you would play back in the day but now it’s, like, ‘Oh, we’re out for three weeks’.

“It’s across the board today. If you give players half a chance, they'll take it off you. I've got a core of pretty hardcore players who never miss a game or a session, who will be there. Then it's just dealing with the excuses around that in terms of others.

“It shows in our results. You can't afford to miss two or three players at this level. The quality's not there to come in and replace them, that's the issue.

“Thankfully it seems like we're back to full strength this weekend, hopefully holiday season’s finished and we can give a good account of ourselves.”

City are hoping for a boosted crowd for the Vase clash.

Kirkup added: “We always hope these sort of cup games can bring those extra people down.

“We've got Carlisle United coming up at home as well in a couple of weeks' time [in the Fred Conway Cumberland Cup second round]. Hopefully that can be a nice big crowd for us too and attract a few more down in the future.”

In terms of their Vase prospects, the City boss added: “Last year, we had the best run the club had ever had, so if we can win on Saturday, it will match that and equal the club record.

“There are two games to go in the cup before Christmas, so if we can win two, it takes us past Christmas and keeps the season going a bit.

“I've been in this league for 16 years and I've seen about eight winners come from this division in the past. I've had good friends who've gone to Wembley and they probably haven't been the greatest of teams.

“Cups can inspire you a little bit away from your league form. So, hopefully that can be the case with us.”

Kick-off on Saturday is 3pm.