Tomorrow marks a year since Carlisle United lost 3-0 to Swindon Town: a dreadful defeat that triggered urgent and positive change at the club. At a time the current, promotion-chasing Blues have hit a spell of sticky form and need all the support going, here we imagine how differently things might have gone had they not turned to Paul Simpson after that harrowing day last February…
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The days crawl by in the wake of the Blues’ annihilation by Swindon on February 19, 2022. Everywhere supporters look there seems to be a video of Harry McKirdy laughing at them, like a particularly cruel twist on 1984’s Big Brother.
Carlisle, hollowed out and discarded by the Robins, come under heavy supporter pressure to act. Instead, they hold firm. A few days after the chilling 3-0 defeat, they decide to back Keith Millen.
David Holdsworth, the heavily-criticised director of football, proceeds unscathed too. United’s leading figures batten down the hatches. Supporters watch the following period through their fingers.
The next weekend, they go to Leyton Orient. A sense of growing desperation accompanies a loyal and, in the circumstances, impressively-sized travelling crowd. In a grim spectacle, Carlisle look like hanging on for a 0-0 draw of abysmal standard until, in the 87th minute, Orient score.
Manager Millen speaks afterwards about football’s cruel fates, yet the relegation zone is enveloping the Blues. The following Tuesday night, against Rochdale at Brunton Park, sees another occasion of high anxiety turn toxic by the end.
Another 1-0 defeat, Rochdale’s deflected first-half goal unanswered, brings a howl from the Paddock that echoes previous, bitter eras. The directors’ box comes in for home truths that cannot be repeated in polite company. After the game, United decide a change is indeed needed.
Millen goes, and Holdsworth – with the Blues mindful of his connections to Philip Day and all that debt – is once more charged with overseeing the second managerial switch of the season.
Official updates on the situation are minimal and, under normal circumstances, the appointment of Russell Slade, two days later, would not be greeted all that warmly. Given Carlisle’s predicament, though, many in the fanbase suspend their irritation in the name of backing the Blues to scramble over the line, whatever way they can.
The baseball-capped figure of Slade in the away dugout at Oldham Athletic is the surreal image of a precarious new era. Carlisle scramble a 1-1 draw at Boundary Park, where Latics boss John Sheridan leaves the pitch purple-faced at the referee over that late United penalty.
Temporarily emboldened, Carlisle then draw valiantly at home to high-flying Northampton Town before defeating Newport County on a night of unlikely defiance. As the public address system pumps out Slade songs, supporters wonder…is it on?
The remaining fixtures, though, offer little certainty, and dread sets back in when United are beaten at Barrow. The sour loss in south Cumbria has the effect of breaking a fragile spell. By the time they go to Valley Parade on May 7, it is done. They were relegated two weekends before, a 2-1 loss at that old cauldron of Carlisle misery – Harrogate Town’s EnviroVent Stadium – confirming their passage to non-league, and the final day at Bradford City simply sees the last rites delivered.
The Blue Army sing for their own sakes, rather than in faith for a plummeting club. Chairman Andrew Jenkins, the next morning, issues a solemn statement apologising to fans. In the time it takes for McKirdy’s missed play-off penalty against Port Vale to return to earth a week later, he has published 78 Instagram stories mocking his former club #wallop.
Holdsworth, in a rare interview, goes on to tell United’s website that they will endeavour to regroup in the National League – yet that ambition is rocked by a poor start to 2022/23. With downward momentum, a 4,000 opening-day crowd watches Carlisle’s overhauled team draw uncertainly with Torquay United, before losing their first away game to Dorking Wanderers.
The Brunton Bugle runs a special episode comparing the current mood with other harrowing low points in Blues history. As United flounder, winning just one of their first nine games, there is further regret at the sight of talented Carlisle-born midfielder Owen Moxon starring in the Scottish Championship, having joined Partick Thistle from Annan Athletic, rather than his listing home-city club.
Carlisle fail to progress beyond the bottom half of the table, their occasional wins surrounded by sour defeats in far-flung places. At Boreham Wood, players slip on a puddle of orange juice in the dressing room and their new loan signing from Sheridan's Oldham, who are mid-table in League Two, ruptures his achilles.
By Christmas, National League North is making lascivious eyes at United. Up the pyramid, their illustrious former boss Paul Simpson accepts an assistant manager post in the Championship, and looks with a distant regret at what the Blues have become: debt-saddled, low-slung, horizonless.
When the anniversary of the Swindon game approaches, those who felt that had been the worst of times find themselves laughing, darkly. Victory against Maidstone, where a 3,000 gate would be encouraging, would see Carlisle no higher than 19th in non-league’s top tier. On the morning of the game, there is a quote tweet from @kirdi_yahya: “This great club should have followed my path…”
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Okay, fiction over. How close, though, did United come to making that their reality?
It’s a good way of reminding us that, whatever the frustrations of the last couple of weeks, we can’t neglect what did happen instead, as well as who made it happen, and why the outlook – even after a 4-0 home defeat – is far brighter than could have been the case.
One day I hope Paul Simpson will have the time and freedom to reflect on what he has done these past 12 months; what will stand the test of time in Carlisle’s history no matter what becomes of these new adventures.
Fundamentally, he saved United: the club he used to watch from the Warwick Road End. For a second time in his career he regenerated its support, created a ripple – no, a surge – beyond the pitch, to the stands, to areas such as commercial and retail, and to the intangibles, in terms of the buzz, aura and feel around the place.
History can con us to think certain happenings were inevitable. Simmo coming home to rescue Carlisle was far from that, so when his one-year anniversary falls next Thursday I hope the hectic emotions and concerns of the current season allow us to pause, give thanks, and remind ourselves what the parallel universe version might be.
Imagine, after all, United not third in League Two and trying to get their promotion form going again, but much reduced and an infinitely more worrying concern a division down.
Simpson, backed up by his players, averted that. On some level at least, that will always be the bottom line.
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