I don't get to many away games with so many other commitments and in the past I have limited myself to those I could get to easily such as York, Burnley, Preston et al. This season I thought I would be more adventurous and try to make more of an impact on the Blue contingent by going to far flung places. Consequently my first away game of the 1996/97 season was Brighton and Hove Albion.
Because of the distance involved (and the desire to drag my "Workington Reds" raised elder brother along) I drove down to brother Bob's at Burnley on the Friday night. I arrived just in time to join him at the Burnley Town Twinning Association's race night. OK, call me a traitor for lending financial support to a "Claret and Blue" organisation, but he's family, what could I do? The fact I did not win on a single race raised fears in my mind for the game the following day.
We left Burnley at 06:50 and arrived at Hove at 11:50, so not bad going there considering a stop for brunch on the M40. We almost didn't make it though, there was a multiple pile up in the middle and outside lanes on the M40 just ahead of us but Bob managed to get into the inside lane safely and we just missed hitting one that was shunted from the outside lane. After a quick wander around the shops in Hove we settled into "the pub with the long name" for a couple of drinks while awaiting the other Carlisle fans. In particular it was nice to meet Phil and Bryan and in general put faces to names. Then it was onto the match.
The match went OK, they got a goal, we kept our cool and got one back. At this point I have to confess that I missed Pounewatchy's first goal for Carlisle. I was in the disgusting little shack that was the B&HA excuse for a toilet. Bummer. Still the game was good overall and Carlisle looked in charge. Special mention must be made of Sumo's goal, a stunning run through 5 players for over half the pitch before he slotted it home past the 'keeper; and to think I was slagging him off prior to that for his dreadful passing.
A lot of coverage has been dedicated to the ownership problems at B&HA, but through all this the team has struggled to stay the distance and on the performance they put on against us they may well yet manage to avoid the drop.
Considering the drive back to Burnley we had decided to stay in a Travel Lodge. Unfortunately my brother hadn't booked a room and the nearest available that night was at Oxford, so we had to drive to Oxford. I got home on Sunday afternoon after just getting over Shap - it was down to one lane because of the snow, 40 mph and with the usual load of "I can still drive at 70 mph in the middle lane slush" plonkers. After a couple had spun, the others gave the weather more respect.
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