Did anybody else go? I didn't see anybody I recognise. After taking a wrong turn, I turned up with 10 minutes played. The gates were locked into the supporters club, so I found another door open and wandered upstairs, found a lounge which was dark except for a large screen with the game on. I parked me bum and watched the last 35 minutes, hearing the old buggers sitting around me complaining about how poor both teams were and how they should be several goals up by now against such a poor team. There was so much slagging off Carlisle/Cumbria/The North I was tempted to bite back several times, but I didn't want to blow the gaffe, especially as I could just make out a poster that said the room had been hired out for the night at £35 a head.
At half time, everybody wandered into the bar, and i realised all the others were dressed very formally. I waited until the lounge was empty, and then wandered in dicreetly, seeing a spread had been laid on. I didn't want to be too obvious (pretty hard wearing jeans and a jumper when all and sundry were in suits). As i took my seat, a man followed me and asked what I was doing there. When I told him, he picked up straight away that my Lambeth Walk had been a phoney and my Apples and Pears and Britney Spears (now apparently Cockney slang for 2 pints of beers) were just a little too Northern. I asked him where the 10 quid entry was, and I was directed to the supporters club, where I eventually got in and looked around. The place was full of about 200 Orient fans, and no Carlisle fans. I stood, listened to all the chants of "Taylor Out", listened to them all saying they should have been 4 up and how can they not beat poor teams like us, not realising our form of late has actually been much better than theirs. The hardest bit was still still to come.
Mick Galloway floats in the free kick, it curls away from the far stick, and up pops the Dobster to stick it in the onion bag (goal online at around 1pm Thursday - see sig at bottom). 199 people stand in stunned silence. One of those silences so loud you could hear it miles away. "YYYYEEEEEE......." Oh shit!!!! I didn't quite get the "SSS" out, but the sentiments remain the same. I didn't actually shout it that loud but it was loud enough to feel like I had been dealt 4 aces and all around me were playing dominoes. I thought very quickly and somehow managed to add a little onto the end of the word to cover my arse. "YYYYYYEEEEEEE.........Stupid *&^%$£ buggers!" or words to that effect. I had tried to make it sound like "You stupid bloody buggers" It must have sounded quite plausible, because a couple of blokes around me were in total agreement. I just nodded and shook my head, but had to look down has i had a wide grin on me mug. Now the abuse was directed at Tommy Taylor, so i could rest easy.
Has anybody else had a near death experience?
Chris MacFarlane
Burnley at home 91/2! 8,000 clarets taking over brunton park! scary!
Adam Sheridan
Remeber it well. Pleased I was in the Warwick and not the Watreworks end of the Paddock.
Mike Corry
It reminds me of the game at Everton in the First Division. I went to the game with a Liverpool supporting friend of mine from Birkenhead who had never been to Goodison. He took me to an entrance and said "I think this is the away end". WRONG!!
We ended up in the middle of the home end, but didn't expect it would be a problem what with Everton being top of the league and expecting to stuff us. There was a message read out on the tannoy to someone in the London Branch, and the announcer said something to the effect of "I bet they must meet in a phone box."
With the score at two each we were surprised but happy, but when the third Carlisle goal went in there were several thousand stunned Evertonians and two Cumbrians who leapt in the air. We didn't actually say anything, but could make out that there was a general movement in the crowd towards us. We hastily slipped down the terraces and then peeled around to arrive at the back hoping that no-one would spot us, leaving the neanderthals scraping their knuckles on the empty space in the terracing where we had been standing.
At the end of the game we got into Ian's car, locked the doors and shouted "YEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!" as loud as we could. Them were t'days.
Malcolm Fawcett
During my Wilderness (Rugby playing) Years of 1985 to 1991 :
My brother Bob and I found ourselves in York one Saturday when Carlisle
were playing there. We decided to go and watch and didn't pay too much
attention to where we were queuing up, but went in one of the stands.
When Carlisle scored I jumped from my seat and screamed "YES!!!!!" only
to have a couple of hundred York fans all turn and look at me !-)
Having said that, no harm came to me.
Also, there is the infamous AWS Northern Final at Stockport.
Dave Atkinson
2000, at the Chester match, my son and I had tickets for the Home stand, luckily we managed to get transferred to the already packed Carlisle end.
My son is a policeman so that helped to convince the stewards. It might have been near death if we had still been in the home end when we were down to 9 men and scored.
I met a fan from Wales at the match, Cardiff I think, if you read this I would like to get in touch.
Jim Kirkbride
Me and me dad went to see CUFC at Chelsea in 1982-83. We wandered over to the ground and didn't know which end was which. We asked a friendly local bobby (as you do) if it was safe to go in the entrance nearest to us, as we were from Carlisle. We went in and lo and behold found ourselves in the middle of the Shed, peopled by some of the hardest hooligans in living memory.
We lost 4-2 (I was almost glad) and it was very difficult having to politely applaud a brilliant Paul Haigh goal with modest clapping. To be fair, it drew applause from other Chelsea fans around us, most of whom spent the afternoon slagging off their team.
Al Woodcock
I went to see Burnley v Carlisle at Turf Moor in the 1995-6 season with a female Burnley-supporting friend and her uncle.
I knew in advance there was next to no chance of me getting in the away section so it was with reluctance but no great surprise that I found myself taking a seat amongst the Clarets season ticket holders in the Bob Lord stand.
After 5 minutes Warren Aspinall was sent sprawling in the area and I instinctively leapt to my feet, arm outstretched, yelling "That's a f***ing penalty!!".
Sadly, it wasn't and I took my seat again with my sense of outrage making me oblivious to the stares I was getting.
My aghast companion then whispered to me that her uncle "didn't like people swearing".
Carlisle went on to lose 2-0 with Reeves getting sent off and I spent the rest of the game in a sullen silence and fell out with the Burnley fan on a permanent basis shortly afterwards.
Mark Graham
In the mid 80s I was living in Wigan, skint, with no car. So I travelled to Darwen on the train and caught the bus to Blackburn. We were stuffed 4-1 IIRC but Blackburn were stuffed off the pitch if you get my drift....
Anyway, I came out of the ground and stood at the bus stop. Whereupon I was accosted by some Blues who could not understand how someone in a blue and white scarf, standing at a local bus stop and with a broad Lancashire accent could claim to be a Carlisle fan. Fortunately they had heard of my Dad and the Lonsdale. Close.
Not sure about near death but Dave A and myself were close to being hit by coins in the East Stand when we last played Burnley competetively.
I once got taken to Old Trafford with some ManUre fans and stood in the Stretford End to watch (mighty) Liverpool win 3-0 (in the days of Crazy Horse). Chris Mac - I know what its like to hide your smile in your coat..... LOL
Rob Scott-Buccleuch
I remember being pelted with coins, the odd chain, apples and goodness knows what else in the Kippax at Man City, when we beat them 3-1 in 1984-5. Can't really blame the Man City fans too much though: there were appalling chants from the racist scum that made up a lot of the crowd following Carlisle that day, aimed at black lads in the Kippax, standing just a few yards away and separated by shoulder-high fences.
David Ashbridge
Wasn't me but my younger brother who, foolishly some might say, decided to make the trek down to the smoke a couple of years ago to see the boys away at Millwall.
The story I heard is that having arrived at a nearby Tube station he and his mates were spotted by a bunch of other lads who shouted at them with Brummy accents(?) and charged them. My brother and his mates soon got the message and quickly ran.
They mostly got seperated and my brother says that after about 20 mins of running he managed to hail a cab and promptly returned to the hotel where they were staying, thus missing the game. Unfortunately one of the lads was caught and ended up in hospital.
Don't know how the Brummy accent fitted into the scheme of things but I can reassure that my brother is not the type to go looking for trouble.
One of my own was away at Sunderland, the second time we played them in the cup double era. We left the ground and in high spirits made our way back to the car. Walking down the side streets to the car we were approached by a couple of meatheads who casually said something along the lines of "Hope you're not Carlisle, f**king hate them Cumbrian b**tards!". To this I replied "Nah man" in my best Mackem accent and they duly left us alone as they continued walking down the street smashing up cars with Carlisle regallia in!
Lee Gardner
Talking as we have been of close encounters, I remember standing in the old scratching pen in the 1968/69 season and watching CUFC take on Glasgow Celtic with their European Cup winning side. This was the second attempt at the fixture, the first had been abandoned due to a waterlogged pitch after 30(?) minutes of play. It should never have started but the ground was full, and largely coloured green.. On the second occassion, the ground was, once more, full to bursting with, once more, the blue and white colours of Carlisle overwhelmed by the green and all around sounds of Glaswiegan accents.
Carlisle were for the most part under pressure, and then wonderfully broke through the middle with Tommy Murray scoring from outside the penalty area in front of the Waterworks End. The goal was met with a vast bank of silence from around the ground and heads turning sharply to view the celebrating Carlisle support......
Needless to say Celtic equalised and there was no famous victory that night but the team had held together well and it was a wonderful occassion.
That match was a lifetime away but still the excitement of watching CUFC draws me and now I stand with my son in the Warwick Road End on the regular trips up from Chester
Robin Tasker
I was at that game, with a couple of mates in the paddock. My abiding memory is of the 4 Celtic fans standing just behind us with crates (yes, crateS) of bottled beer. One of them had the job of taking the caps off the bottles with his teeth. He then had a swig of beer and passed the bottle to one of his mates in turn. This went on for best part of 2 hours. They were all somewhat the worse for wear by the end - the bottle opener worse than his mates - but didn't cause any trouble.
John Tilley
I was in the Paddock for that one. IIRC we won 1-0. I remember all the shops being boarded up but it still didn't stop the Celtic fans getting in the Co-op on Botchergate and having a custard pie fight!
Over the years, we've had some "interesting" visitors to BP. I remember the kung fu stars, ammonia sprays (Blackpool), the Cup match with Boro with fights in every part of the ground, the League Cup match with Chelsea when Bonnetti got bricked. It all seems so quiet now - thankfully.
Rob Scott-Buccleuch
Incidentally thinking about the Chester game reminded me of one of several near death experiences I had following the lads through the 70s and 80s, including once being kicked completely unconscious by Everton fans for having the temerity to walk past them after we'd beaten them 3 - 0 (what do you mean "that explains everything?" :) ) The reason that Chester game was played after the final day of the season was because the first game was abandoned just after half time.
My mate Morgan Armstrong and me were down from Ormskirk where we were at college. After the game was abandoned we were walking away from the ground when some local boys caught up with us and landed a few blows to Morgan's head before I yelled loud enough to alert the nearby bobbies.
The thing was, we were both travelling on motor bikes and sensing trouble Morgan had already put his crash helmet on, so some daft sods would have spent the rest of the night cursing their bruised knuckles!
Mike Brown
I went to see the Blues against Liverpool, I think it was the league cup. I had my Blue scarf on, climbing up the steps so I could get into the Kop. I dont know why I went there. I got loads of looks, not surprisingly. They were quite friendly really, mainly cos Keegan was running everyone ragged everytime he got the ball, they were just taking the mickey really. I think we lost 5-0, it might have been 5-2 I cant remember.
I also went to the Blues Man Utd replay at old trafford (the one after Greenough was sent off at Carlisle) We lost 4-2 (!) but I remember turning around to the Man U fans behind me who had shouted at Man U players everytime they lost the ball. Bugger the fact that a Blues player had made a great tackle, so I reminded him that there were 2 teams on the Park, not just his lot!
Peter
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