It has been the best Carlisle United season for some time – and, whatever happens to their promotion challenge, 2022/23 deserves to be remembered for many good reasons. Here are ten of the best (other than the obvious: winning a lot more)...
1. Strength in numbers. At Brunton Park, it has been the best term for home crowds since 2007/8. On the road, it has also been a campaign to admire and applaud.
Example: on Monday morning, busloads of Blues fans will hit the motorway at 3am in order to be at Sutton for the last game. Four-figure backing will be there, as it has at other far-off and near places across 2022/23.
At HQ, how good has it been to see Cumbrian feet on the old Waterworks End terrace again too? This season, fuelled by the Simmo factor, has indeed “stirred something”, as the manager said. Above all, Carlisle’s supporters have made this a campaign which has always felt alive.
2. The kids are alright. Another one about supporters – this time a group who have in their own way revitalised Brunton Park.
The Warwick Road End is a suddenly more youthful and colourful place, thanks to a team of teenagers who have made it their business to spruce it up and, in various other ways, make United’s home end feel as bright and boisterous as it should, but often hasn’t over the years.
Their loyalty and dedication is just what the Blues need to underpin their future. They have helped transform the present too.
3. Faith in the dugout. Well, this is an obvious one, isn’t it? But we’ve had too many years of uncertainty in this respect for this to go unmentioned.
While United have had their flirtations with success in the intervening time, Paul Simpson is surely the manager most trusted by the Carlisle fanbase since…Paul Simpson.
This matters. It gives you a sense of control, a feeling of gravitas, the knowledge that the bloke improving the team is also doing his damnedest to lift the club in many other ways – and who wants to embed himself here for the long duration. And he’s one of our own. Which brings us to…
4. Marvellous Moxon. This is one of the best individual player stories we’ve had at Brunton Park for years, all the better because it’s chimed with a season of collective progress.
Owen Moxon isn’t just the midfield star of this Carlisle team and someone, as the Watterwucks put it, we certainly hope doesn't gan any time soon. He’s an example to any talented player who, for whatever reason, doesn’t make the cut at a younger age.
Having played his way back here, Moxon has stepped up from part-time football with Annan superbly. It’s a tribute to United’s recruitment, to Peter Murphy’s wise counsel and to all those who’ve roared the Denton Holme favourite on. But mainly it’s a tribute to the man himself.
5. Milestones at last. Carlisle’s lack of a 20-goal man since 2006 was in some ways an emblem of their wait for genuine success since that time.
And yes, it’s a 17-year stretch with caveats, since there are some who would have got there had they not left mid-season (Charlie Wyke in particular).
But Kristian Dennis getting over that line has nonetheless scratched an itch. It has restored the value of a pure goalscorer to an attack which, over the years, has often carried every quality but. United’s high-scoring wins in the first half of the season were highly refreshing too – and let’s also ring the bell for their clean sheet record of 20 (so far) – the joint best in Carlisle’s league history, and another big stride away from last year’s struggles. All these things are symptoms of improvement.
6. All hail the ever-presents. Going from start to finish isn’t the easy task some may assume, given that, come Monday, only two Carlisle players will stand the chance of doing it.
One is goalkeeper Tomas Holy. The other is Jack Armer. In an injury-hit United campaign, starting all 46 feels particularly noteworthy.
In Armer’s case, the praise can be limitless given the fitness demands on the position (left wing-back) he plays, and the consistency he has applied to this. United recently, and smartly, gave the 22-year-old a longer deal. At a still early stage in his career, he’s proven to last the course.
7. Embracing the legends. It shouldn’t be the case that a club making a fuss of its greatest players deserves a mention, since it ought to happen as a matter of course.
At Carlisle, though, it hasn’t always been the case, as Paul Simpson noted upon his return to the club. This season has been an extremely welcome shift in the right direction, with stars of the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s and beyond all welcomed back.
That this has gone in tandem with fan-led initiatives, like the renaming and refurbishing of bars in honour of great individuals and United times, is also significant. A club fully respectful of its past can face the future in the right way.
8. United at heart. Generally speaking, it doesn’t matter if a man or woman comes from Mars if they are doing something to make Carlisle United fundamentally a better team or place.
Yet there is still something nourishing about Cumbria’s leading club being staffed to a decent degree by Cumbrians, who have a rooted feel for the place and aren’t just passing through.
Local players such as Paul Huntington, Owen Moxon, Taylor Charters and Jack Ellis lend this to the team. In Paul Simpson, Gavin Skelton, Chris Brunskill and Geoff Haugh, the immediate footballing staff has this core. Others from beyond the county, such as Greg Abbott, have an established feel for the place too. Cumbrians, or honorary ones…it certainly helps.
9. Fan engagement. Two words that risk being a cliché unless there is substance to back them up. At Carlisle they are providing it in many respects now.
The dissemination of information by Nigel Clibbens is unmistakeably thorough. The initiatives led by supporters' groups (CUSG) are increasingly apparent. The proactivity of a good supporter liaison officer in Simon Clarkson is plain. Early signs of the modernisation of CUOSC, after the Unita Fortior shake-up, are visible. Things like the new fan zone are clear victories.
Transparency, then, is enjoying a good spell at Brunton Park. Gaps still to fill include the very top table returning to face some/any media scrutiny, and the Purepay debt situation - whose cloud continues to hang over all good things - finally reaching open conclusion.
10. A dash of spice. Yes, it’s true that, by the time the fixtures are over, many of us feel we could do with a long sabbatical from Carlisle United v Barrow AFC or vice versa, given the tiring social media spats, to-and-fro of interview counter-claims, partial reading of incidents and heat frequently dominating light.
At the same time…if it’s not a derby in the strictest sense, it has otherwise been behaving very much like one because of the above.
And when we take a step back, don’t we relish a bit of this - this needle, this spectacle of Blues and Bluebirds going at it, of Wild saying this and Simmo saying that, of “no love lost” and so forth? This doesn’t include firework throwing and other genuine misbehaviour – but a bit of enmity is what the game’s about, is it not? The six points, for Carlisle, were very helpful too.
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