606 - Radio 5

1999-05-09

David Mellor:Of course, amazing things do happen in football and there are few things in recent years more amazing than a goalkeeper stepping up in the 4th minute of injury time with his side about to go out of the league, a corner comes over, it gets to his feet somehow or other and he lashes it into the net. So, what an amazing thing, Liam, amazing - truly

Liam: Superb, that's the only word to describe it. I know that you are not a big fan of Mr Knighton and there were 7,000 fans there today who are not big fans of Mr Knighton. But I mean come on, he did it for us, he did it for the 7,000 Carlisle fans.

David Mellor: But he didn't do it, did he?

Liam: Who?

David Mellor:Knighton didn't do it.

Liam:He's done nothing for Carlisle.

David Mellor:Exactly. Listen, I'm very pleased, I mean I think our man said it all when he said Carlisle are a team and a place that has the support with great prospects and in would be a tragedy (it's a tragedy if any team goes out of the league), but for Carlisle to go out of the league would be a particular tragedy.

Liam: There are four of us sitting here now and we all think the same thing, Mr Knighton is going to be sick tonight. Because his plan, he's got £1.4m, he's broadcast that all week. Now he's got to spend it and he didn't want to do that.

David Mellor: Because this is the interesting point that just came out, for people who don't read the small print in the newspapers as assiduously as some of us have to do, how it was disclosed recently that Carlisle made a profit of £1.4m which was not reinvested, of any serious part of it, in the team, right?

Liam: Yeah, that's right.

David Mellor: And your point is that if there had been some sensible reinvestment then you would not have had to wait until the 94th minute of the final game to save yourselves.

Liam: Well, the ironic thing was when we were listening to the radio to try and get the Scarborough result today and the names of four players were mentioned in 15 seconds - Rory Delap (Derby), Matt Jansen (Blackburn), Lee Peacock (Mansfield) and David Reeves (Chesterfield). They were all Carlisle players last year.

David Mellor: Exactly.

Liam: And plus the fact Jimmy Glass shouldn't have been playing for Carlisle today. He didn't sign for Carlisle until after the transfer deadline.

David Mellor: So I gather.

Liam: This is Mr Knighton at his best.

David Mellor: How was he given permission to do that?

Liam: Well, what had happened was (I've just heard this on another radio station tonight) he phoned the FA up and said "Look, I'm sellling Tony Caig to Blackpool, it's something that has been taken out of my hands, I can't do anything about it. I've only got a YTS goalkeeper who has got no experience and he's injured at the moment." and the FA said "Why have you sold your first choice goalkeeper?" and he said "Oh my creditors are putting pressure on me." So they have accepted that as a reason.

[The club let Caig go and got Knight on loan as a stopgap. Then Derby needed Knight back because of their own goalkeepeing crisis and this left Carlisle with no recognisable professional goalkeeper which, under the Football League rules introduced the previous summer, allowed them to bring in a replacement after the transfer deadline day.]

Liam: I mean with all respect to Scarborough fans today, and I have got a real load of sympathy for them, said he jokingly. Erm, you know, Mr Knighton, we're not bothered about him, it's Carlisle United. We were in the First Division [Tier 1] 20 years ago, I mean nobody would have had any sympathy for us if we had gone out today, not because of Mr Knighton. Everybody says Carlisle play good football, we do. We always have done. But we are getting a bad name for ourselves, just because of Mr Knighton. Well I mean that is very, very unfair.

David Mellor: Let me ask you

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