The yearning for Paul Simpson to say he’s going to be at Carlisle United for a long time yet is understandable and logical. It’s hard to think of a future headline with greater magical powers than the one that says: SIMMO STAYS.
Let’s hope we can write it in the near future. But also, let’s not rush past the here and now in our desperation to reach that point.
Let’s pause and take a moment to drink in what is going on here at Brunton Park: one of the finest managerial feats seen at United for some time. An achievement worthy of genuine accolade, even if it doesn’t come with a championship trophy.
Mostly we measure football success in terms of winners. Sides that climb the table to 18th don’t often figure in the mental shakedown.
Let’s, though, be clear: what has unfolded at Carlisle United over the last five weeks is right up there. It might not have taken the Cumbrians up a division, but it has held off a nightmare so grim and potentially long-lasting one wonders how, and when, the Blues would have recovered from it.
A few years ago I interviewed Neil ‘Dolly’ Dalton, the legendary former United physio. He spoke about the time his emotions caught up with him on the day Simpson led Carlisle back into the Football League in 2005.
"When the final whistle went, Simmo ran five yards onto the pitch, then turned round. The tears were running down my cheeks. He ran back and gave us a cuddle, then went off again,” Dolly said.
READ MORE: Carlisle United fans salute Bristol Rovers victory
"I stood there for a second, then sat in the dugout, on my tod. Maybe it was because I'm a Carlisle lad, the team I supported from a bairn and all that lark. Maybe it was because my first child had just been born - the pressure of a married man with a kid, fear of losing my job. Either way, it all came out."
There are good grounds for saying that evening in Stoke, when United beat Stevenage 1-0 – Peter Murphy’s header, Kevin Gray’s bulging veins, Graham Westley mocked in the tunnel, and all that – was the most important in the club’s history.
It is for the reasons Dolly set out. A long stretch in the Conference would have diminished Carlisle United. It would have chipped away at their size, eroded their stature. It would, as the physio suggested, have cost jobs and livelihoods.
Had things gone badly against Westley’s team, would the Blues have made it back by now? You’d like to think so, but it’s impossible to know. And that was Carlisle under positive ownership (Fred Story) and with a fine young manager (Simpson).
READ MORE: Carlisle United 1-0 Bristol Rovers verdict: Beauty in the struggle as Blues' remarkable run goes on
Had they flunked this one, gone down under Chris Beech, Keith Millen or an alternative third choice, things would have been inescapably bleaker. The desperation in the house when Swindon ran up three unanswered goals in mid-February was felt on many levels.
Supporters left the ground fearing that their team, their club, was on an unstoppable journey to its lowest ebb. People inside the building, don’t doubt, will have lost sleep wondering what Carlisle United in non-league would have done to their personal situations.
This is the serious stuff being alleviated by six wins in seven and all the fun in the sun we witnessed on Saturday. This is what the Simpson uplift has achieved. The people dancing on the dugouts at the Northampton game two weeks ago were also doing a jig for those this run has saved.
And if the 55-year-old man at the heart of it is on record as saying he isn’t in football simply to avoid relegation, well, that doesn’t mean a medal of some sort wouldn’t still be appropriate.
Simpson has and will continue to put praise onto the players too, and he is right that without the team showing strength and quality, there is no managerial boost. Carlisle’s squad, these past few weeks, have performed with character and, increasingly, skill.
They are a side radiating belief – again, a miraculous turnaround from the pre-Simmo months. They are now in a position where they can lose their first-choice midfield pairing and still be too good for the fourth-placed team in League Two, who had won eight of their previous ten.
Those players deserve acclaim after all the misery. They have answered the doubts, the scathing criticism and the mass trepidation about a non-league plummet in the best possible way.
This, though, is more than just a spike in results and displays. It is a wider phenomenon that has brought supporters back on board, behind one popular and respected Cumbrian figure.
Goodwill, belief, enjoyment, respect - tag them all onto what can easily be referred to as the Simmo effect.
They’ve been missing at Brunton Park for some time. So has the biggest one of all: hope.
And yes – this is of course an opportunity for United’s owners and directors, having got this decision absolutely right after all the toils of before. Yes, a Simpson-led future is what everyone wants to see. Yes, this ought to be the spell that accelerates fundamental change at the top of Brunton Park.
But let’s not leap forward before acknowledging the present. Simpson won’t allow United to think themselves safe but, let’s be honest, 15 points with eight to go, plus the shoddy form of those below them...
Yeah – it’s about done. In the space of seven games. From that, to this. Seriously.
And no, it might not be Alan Ashman delivering top-flight football. It might not be an era in the second tier. It might not be back-to-back promotions, or cup finals, or wins in Rome.
In the circumstances, though, it’s still a towering feat, one that cements Simpson in the front rank of Carlisle United managers, something that has pulled his home city club out of the rising flames; a deed that should never be underestimated.
Better days, achievements with silverware, can hopefully come in due course. Yet without Simmo’s spring of 2022, we couldn't contemplate it, possibly for a generation.
He has done a masterful job, and an utterly crucial one. No man in Carlisle deserves to walk taller.
READ MORE: Carlisle United's Paul Simpson and Morgan Feeney earn League Two recognition
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel