Legend Bobby Owen's Carlisle United and Manchester City memories

I have asked him to describe his favourite goal from his years with the Blues. “It was against Charlton,” he says. “The defender was a lad called Paul Went. Do you remember him? He was stood like you are, and I’m like this, next to him…”

Owen drops back away from me and turns. “The ball came to me, I flicked it over his head, went round him and volleyed it in.” He breaks into a big smile. “You didn’t get many like that…”

Owen scored a hat-trick against Charlton that day. It was not the only treble of his time at United, or indeed in his career. “Do you know how many balls I got? None,” he says.

“Every time I scored a hat-trick, and picked the ball up at the end of the game, I’d walk into the changing room and the manager would take it off me. ‘We can’t afford more of these balls, son’.”

These memories and more are tapped by the place where we are talking: a hospitality lounge at Brunton Park which has been refurbished in tribute to the great side of which Owen was an impressive part.

Owen was one of United's top-flight stars in 1974/75 (Image: PA)

The 74/75 Lounge – a supporter and club initiative – now celebrates United’s highest-flying team, who spent one season in the old First Division. It was the headiest point of Owen’s eventful and prolific seven years in Cumbria.

He is back among old friends, old pals, as one of Carlisle’s guests. Also in the lounge are Les O’Neill, United’s brilliantly industrious midfielder of that magical era, and Peter McLachlan, the goalkeeper who still looks too young to be a boy of United’s 1970s.

“It’s really good to see these lads again,” Owen says. “Half of them are older than me, but I don’t care about that. I’ve been telling people I’m 73, but when someone asked when I was born and I told them, I made a mistake and told the truth. ‘Well, you’re 75, not 73, Bob’. I tried to get away with it…”

READ MORE: Carlisle United 1974/75 legends pictured back at Brunton Park

When Owen walked into United’s newly-decorated lounge, he saw images of the match programmes from that top-flight season, photos on the walls of his fellow Blues stars – and more friendly faces. “It’s absolutely wonderful,” he says. “As soon as I came in, Helen was straight over to see me, like I’ve never been away.” Helen is Helen Ross, wife of United’s late, legendary goalkeeper Allan. She is here with daughter Ali to share in the memories this new Brunton Park facility captures.

Owen, centre, catches up with old faces including team-mates Peter McLachlan and Les O'Neill in United's 74/75 Lounge (Image: Barbara Abbott)

The lounge benefits from memorabilia donated by fans. “I’ve brought some more old photos in myself,” Owen says, gesturing to a pile on a table. “There I am on that one. Ugly sod, eh…”

He laughs again, but is glad to be here. “My wife died in November,” he says. “So it’s good to be getting back out. I’m pleased I came. It’s something totally different. And it’s lovely to come back here.”

We linger over the black and white photos of Alan Ashman’s boys of 74/75 above the bar. “There’s Frank Clarke…Hughie…Bobby Parker. There’s Bill Green scoring at Chelsea. Our first game in the First Division. Couldn’t believe it. I was in the stand, mind…”

Owen was not on the pitch that day, but was much more often at the forefront at United. He scored a heap of goals, often with great style, and was an obvious fans’ favourite. Eleven league goals came in the historic Second Division promotion season of 1973/4, Owen having scored consistently throughout his time at the club after joining from Manchester City in 1970.

“Promotion was great – we got to play against all the big boys, all the big names,” he says. “I got hit by Tommy Smith at Liverpool. He absolutely whacked me. I thought, ‘God, I’ve been hit here’.

Owen recalls being on the receiving end of Liverpool hard man Tommy Smith (Image: PA)

“I got up, and the next ball that came I jumped in the air. He was there at my side and said, ‘I’ve got you now, son…’”

Smith was among the formidable opponents Carlisle faced, yet they shone themselves in beating Chelsea, Middlesbrough and Tottenham Hotspur to top the table after three top-flight games. The slide inevitably came, yet Owen scored in First Division matches against Spurs, Newcastle United and QPR, also hitting vital goals on United’s best FA Cup run, which ended in the quarter-finals.

“They were tremendous times, really good,” he says. “I got dropped a couple of times, but that was the manager’s decision, Ashman. He was brilliant. We used to live in the same street as well. Nice bloke, and you won’t meet many managers as good as he was. The best I played for.”

Owen celebrates one of United's goals in a victory over future champions Derby in the 1974/5 season (Image: News & Star)

Owen also played in United’s sensational Anglo-Italian Cup victory against Roma in the Stadio Olimpico in 1972. “That were great. Our names were up in lights in Roma’s stadium,” he recalls of the 3-2 win.

“We beat them and Catanzaro. Blackpool were playing someone and if they lost, we were through to the final. They won 10-0, didn’t they?! They did us. But special times.”

Owen – who scored in the return game against Roma, a 3-3 draw at Brunton Park – had started out at Bury, where his managers included the future Carlisle boss Bob Stokoe. Taskmaster Stokoe helped shape Owen’s standards. “I had my shirt out, and heard this voice. ‘Bob – tuck your shirt in. If you want to play like a footballer, look like one. Get your shirt in’.

“I thought, ‘Ooh…it’s only my shirt’. He was right, though. I look at these lads now who play with their socks down. I always think, ‘I hope somebody kicks your shins’. They should be told about it. It’s dangerous. Tommy Smith would be the first one to get into them. And he would.”

Two years at Maine Road were also special for Owen, who scored twice for Man City in the 1968 Charity Shield. “I’ve got a picture at home with me, Mike Summerbee, Francis Lee, Tony Book, Colin Bell and all of them,” he says. “Colin Bell went before me, for 60,000 quid. And look at the player he was. What would he go for now?

Bobby Owen, front row second left, with Manchester City's squad in 1969. Next to Owen is Colin Bell, with other stars including Tony Book, Francis Lee and Mike Summerbee (Image: PA)

“He’s the best player I’ve played with, and the best I’ve played against was George Best. He was unbelievable. Having said that, I’ve got another photograph at home of me shooting at goal, and there’s this Man United player watching me. People say, ‘That’s not George Best, is it?’ And it is. He’s just looking at me shooting.”

He pauses. “Probably over the bar…”

The tales and self-effacing lines trot from Owen’s tongue. When he remembers playing “against the best” as the general highlight of his time at United, he recalls another brush with an icon.

“We played Nottingham Forest, and I’d started to play centre-half by then. Brian Clough walked over and said, ‘You know something, if you’d played centre-half from the start, you’d have played for England’. And that’s from Brian Clough. How about that?”

Owen in action for United against Ipswich in the old First Division (Image: News & Star)

Carlisle will always settle for the Owen they got, not the one of Cloughie’s imagination. By the time he moved on – via a loan spell with Workington Reds – he had left many illustrious memories, along with 51 league goals from over 200 appearances, plus more in the cups.

On this day of rich nostalgia, he politely declines to score another. He will not, he says, be taking part in United’s half-time crossbar challenge. “Imagine if I score by mistake,” he chuckles. “There’ll be uproar.”