Paul Huntington: 'It means a bit more to play for Carlisle United'

“There was [Tony] Caigy who I played with at Newcastle when I was coming through. The Mick Wadsworth era, Mervyn Day, going to Wembley a couple of times in the Auto Windscreens with my dad...

“It was the same league [as now], and they’d often go up and come back down. But to me it felt they were the best team on earth.

“That’s what I’m talking about, when I mention what it means. I have stood on all sides of the ground here. I just hope that I can do everyone proud now.”

Huntington was seven when watching Wadsworth’s heroes do their thing in the 1990s. Today he is 34, in the final laps of an eventful and durable career as a central defender, spent mostly at higher levels than League Two.

Huntington has signed a one-year deal with Paul Simpson's squad (photo: Amy Nixon)

He is also, as a former Kingmoor Junior and Trinity School boy and Yewdale Pegasus childhood player, a boy of this city. Carlisle’s defence is about to be marshalled by a Carlisle man, under a Carlisle manager in Paul Simpson.

The move suits Huntington, who recently moved back to the city with his young family. Yet any place can also be a goldfish bowl for a player who grew up near the ground where he plays.

Was this a consideration, before he agreed to join the Blues? “I would say so. It’s that rough with the smooth kind of thing.

READ MORE: In pictures - Paul Huntington's path to Carlisle United via junior football in the city, Newcastle, Preston and more

“The manager, when we had a chat, said the same. He didn’t have to come back, after having had a successful time here before. His reputation was kind of on the line, coming back. But he wanted to work – and I want to keep on playing.

“It came into the thinking. I get that it can be very fickle, and it’s the same everywhere you go. Fans want to judge you. Thankfully at Preston most of them thought I was half decent.

“I’m hoping to take that forward. I want to do well here. It [being a Carlisle player from Carlisle] comes with added pressure, but when you’re on the pitch you’re just focusing on trying to win a game of football.

“I’m hoping everyone will be behind me to do well.”

There is no point tiptoeing around the fact that Huntington, many years ago now, saw his relationship with Carlisle fans affected by the way he celebrated a goal for Leeds against the Blues.

He has spoken of his regret about that Elland Road incident before and hopes that, now he is wearing the Carlisle shirt, people can leave it well in the past. It happened 14 years ago, in 2008, when he was 20.

“I would like to just concentrate on [the here and now] and for them [the fans] to get behind me,” he says. “I was a young player then, naïve and whatnot. You look back and cringe a bit, really.

Huntington says he is a different player and person to the young Leeds player who notoriously celebrated in front of Blues fans in 2008

“Time moves on. I’m certainly not the same person or player I was then. I rarely celebrate goals now anyway! I prefer to conserve my energy because I’ll probably need it in the 94th minute..."

Given his background in Carlisle, his CV in the Championship and League One, and the fact he ticks so many obvious boxes for what Simpson needs right now, it’s likely most in the Blues fanbase will give Huntington a positive welcome and hearing.

He certainly got a fond send-off from his last club, Huntington having amassed 306 appearances over a decade with Preston. His Deepdale departure, at the end of last season, put him into the relatively unknown territory of being a free agent.

What were his expectations at that point? “All I’d really thought about was about playing as high as I could as long as I could,” he says. “At that early stage of the off-season, I went away on a couple of holidays – I hadn’t been with my young daughter away on holiday, we haven’t been anywhere for three years with Covid and whatnot - and at first it was just enjoying that time, as I have since with family and home.

"In terms of my next stage in football, I had a few options in terms of playing and, in the second year, going into a coaching role, at some previous clubs, like being an over-age player at Newcastle, which is something a lot of teams are now doing.

“I had a chat with Lindsey, my wife. Some options were, for the levels, good money, down south. You weigh it up – would I be fully invested in it or just be going for the wrong kind of reasons?

“This option [at Carlisle] came up early summer, and it wasn’t quite right at the time, but now it just feels a better fit. I felt I would feel more pride and passion in it.

“I’d still give my all wherever [I went], but it has a bit more meaning to be from here.”

Huntington says he had a range of options to consider after leaving Preston (photo: PA)

Huntington says he could have gone much further afield than Carlisle, had he been inclined. “In terms of options, it was like here, there and everywhere. You’d get a call one day, asking from the other side of the world…it’s totally random, which I haven’t really experienced for a long time, being out of contract, especially when the season starts.

“A few things even this week came up. But I had another chat with my family and they just said, ‘Go for it, enjoy your last few years’. I just hope I can do myself justice, and my family, and my friends who support the club, and my team-mates, and the fans here.

"I’m just hoping to have a successful time and this can kick me on for my last few years.”

READ MORE: Carlisle United complete signing of Cumbrian ex-Preston North End defender Paul Huntington

Huntington says that, having taken the time he did to weigh up where he would be happiest, is all the more settled with his decision to come home now.

“I’m at ease with it. I was more motivated by this opportunity than other things that came up. And having spent the summer at home, being around for my young daughter growing up, it was something that worked.

“For the last year, or two or three, I would have gone wherever. It [location] wasn’t the be-all and end-all. Glenn Roeder told me at Newcastle, when I was a young player there, [it should be a case of] ‘have boots, will travel’.

“I was always going to come back here [to Carlisle] after football, but the opportunity until this off-season has never kind of presented itself.”

Huntington, from early May until early August, has had to stay motivated to keep himself ready for his next opportunity. “It’s involved doing fitness each day,” he says of his summer. “That makes you feel better, in that your base fitness is there.

“I knew it would then be a case of getting football fit, wherever I was to go. Day to day, it’s been a case of being a dad, doing my fitness…and gardening! We’ve just moved into a house at Christmas, and the garden is taking quite a bit of maintaining, so I might have to get a part-time gardener or my dad on the phone...

“That’s something I won’t miss…[especially] when you don’t know what you’re doing!”

Huntington says he is looking forward to being an experienced head in Carlisle's defence and team (photo: PA)

After tending the lawn and plants, Huntington will be charged with nurturing Carlisle’s defence. It is not a Blues squad heavily stocked with experience and Simpson, at an early point in the summer, openly wanted to address this.

It did not prove an easy search, but Huntington appears the ideal man for that defensive and wider role. “It is quite a young squad, although maybe not in terms of experience games-wise. They’ll have a better idea of the level.

“Having spoken to Jack Armer quite a bit, over the summer [the two were colleagues at Preston], he said it’s more of a battle, and it’s about having that quality, when the chances come along, to take them.

“That was often the case at previous clubs – that’s why we didn’t quite get to next levels or score enough goals. But at the same time, my focus will be on organising at the other end, and trying to keep clean sheets, and help and organise others along the way.”

Huntington was at Brunton Park on the opening day of the season, watching Carlisle up close in their game against Crawley. The move was not in the offing at that point, but it gave him useful insight into Simpson’s team and one of their 2022/23 fourth-tier opponents.

His start with Carlisle at training today will still, he says, be a case of “the first day at a new workplace”, and it comes quite some time since, as a junior talent with Yewdale, Huntington could have gone on to be a Blues player for several years.

“At a very young age, maybe nine or ten, I remember coming to an induction evening in Foxy’s [restaurant at Brunton Park] to sign for the academy," he says. "At the time I didn’t know, but afterwards my dad told me there were quite a few teams who wanted me.

“He asked me what I wanted to do, and in the end I didn’t really get that close to signing here. I signed for Newcastle and came through there, and in hindsight I probably should have hung around [there] longer than I did.

Huntington started his professional career with Newcastle (photo: PA)

“I hastily rushed out and the manager that came in and wanted experienced players didn’t last that long. They ended up getting relegated and a couple of lads out of my youth team in Tim Krul and Andy Carroll ended up getting a chance in the Championship.

“They came straight back up and they ended up making their name, but it’s easy with hindsight. It’s a fantastic club, the academy was great and it gave me a good grounding for my career.”

Huntington played in the Premier League with Newcastle, before building a first-team career with Leeds, Stockport, Yeovil and Preston. There have been times when he has been linked with the Blues, but this has happened most persistently since he left Deepdale in May.

“If I had £1 for every time one of my mates had asked me if I was signing for Carlisle over the summer I would be rich,” he laughs. “Hopefully the fans will take me on my merits and get behind me as they do with the rest of the team. That’s all I want.

“When the crowd get right behind you it makes you feel 10ft tall. I need to get fit and work hard to get myself into a position to affect the team in a good way.”

Huntington mostly played reserve football last season as part of a large Preston squad. As such, he says he will not kid anyone that he is ready to play at his peak without any sort of build-up now. A couple of weeks, he says, and then first-team action can be fairly considered.

“It’s a balance. When I was younger I’d have just gone along with it when you’re getting pushed into it. But now I’ll know if it takes another few days, and I’ll know to not just throw myself in and not do myself justice,” he says.

“If it takes another few days’ training, or a bounce game, or a cup game, [so be it].

“The manager also needs to look at me, and speak to me in terms of how I’m feeling. Knowing my body, the older I've got and the more games I’ve played, you kind of know how long it takes you.

“It will be a build-up. [But] I’m not going to take forever. I want to get into the games and get match fit, and then the training takes second fiddle to that."

Huntington says, at this point of his career, that he prides himself in “leading by example”, by talking and organising, and assuming the responsibility of being an older player. “I think you can be calmer and listen a bit more, and I’ll be looking to help the younger players on the pitch, which will hopefully help them in their careers going forward," he says.

“But I’m not wanting to be a coach, I’m very much a player and just want to help the rest of the lads along the way. I’m looking forward to that responsibility.”

Huntington says Preston, whom he helped to play-off success in 2015, will always be a “big part of my life”, yet now it is time to do something he says he had never ruled out all along his journey – and play for Carlisle.

“It’s not so much about putting the shirt on – I want to have the winning feeling at 5pm,” he says. “That feeling of coming off the pitch, and knowing everyone can come away having a nice weekend...

“I know that’s not always going to happen, there’ll be ups and downs, but hopefully in the majority we can give the supporters something to shout about.” Supporters like Huntington was himself, back in the day at Brunton Park.