The Great Escape

Brighton& Hove Albion 1-0 Carlisle United
Saturday 6 May 2000

Did anyone else notice that when Cheltenham scored against Chester that their heads dropped like stones. They all looked drained. Same thing with Shrews their heads went down and didn't come back up.

When Darlo scored Carlisle heads did drop but nothing like that of the players of Shrewsbury and Chester. If we can play again this saturday like we did against darlington we should have no problem against Brighton. I just found a bit of the News of the World from Jan 10th 1999 one of the games was Brighton v Carlisle, United won 3-1 with Dobie Finney and Patterson scoring CUFC's goals.

Peter Keens record is getting better each match it now read 5-4-4-2-1 for goals conceded, his two saves on saturday and shouts of keeno must give him loads of confidence.

I also think that Chester and Shrews fans are starting to get a little nervous ahead of saturday. Exeter aren't the best of teams but Shrewsbury have to win so that might leave them exposed at the back to Exeters attacks, which could be their weakness.

Another point Barry Fry says the Posh are concentrating on the play-offs, i would have thought the best way they can concentrate on the play-offs is to go and beat Chester, this would give his players a boost going into the play-off games which can only be good, if they lose that would be 3 or 4 games without a win, which doesn't look very good for them going into the play-offs does it?

COME ON CARLISLE

Mark (wish saturday would hurry up)

My mate is a Shrewsbury fan, to be honest things have been a little awkward over the last few weeks.This weekend he's off to Exeter and I'm stuck at home trying to score imaginary goals with a pair of socks.

It will help our friendship if Chester go down, the plan is to to meet up half way between Exeter and Stoke for a few beers if Chester City are relegated.

To be fair he came to the Carlisle v Chester game and enjoyed Dobie's goal as much as me.We were both impressed with Tony Hopper who sat in front of us and joined in with UNITED! UNITED! after the goal until prokas gave him a funny look, top banana.

I think Shrews will win, Chester and us draw so we stay up and in the evening I'll win the lottery and buy the club

REMEMBER JIMMY

Nick Williams

I can really sympathise with this, as my best mate (I think I might have mentioned before) is a Hull City fan. Last season when they beat us at Boothferry Pk she said "Its OK, becasue we need the points more than you anyway" she regretted saying that by the end of the season when Hull were safe and United were bottom of the table, but right up to the last day she kept repeating "You are not going to be relegated" (this became quite frightening as sometimes we weren't even talking about football).

This year she says the same, and apparently as she was right last time shes going to be right again. I'm happy to settle for that. (Although its not helping me sleep much easier in my bed!)

Good luck everyone whose going tomorrow, shout on the lads for me.

Anne Bezant

Well it is just under 28 hours to kick off, nice to see Barry Fry say he will help again. I knew he would have to win against Chester. Me and my dad were talking about it after the Darlo game. The posh need to win so that they get home advantage in the second leg of the play-offs. If not it makes their task harder. So they should be going out for the win tomorrow. Then again that won't matter if we win at Brighton

Mark Mandale

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Rog.

Just thought you might want to see this...

THE day of destiny is here for the Football League's bottom clubs. Never have so many clubs been so tightly packed together above the trapdoor to non-League football. Shrewsbury Town, Chester City and Carlisle United all need to win on Saturday. But if they all collect three points then Shrewsbury's triumph will feel very hollow indeed, because they will go down after 50 years in the 'big time'.

OK, Division Three is hardly the big time, and once they have got used to it, life in the Conference may not be that bad - or last that long - but for the time being, fans of all three clubs are in a desperate state.

Bottom club Shrewsbury go to fourth-bottom Exeter, Chester host play-off contenders Peterborough and third-bottom Carlisle are at mid-table Brighton. Nothing less than a win will do for the Shrews, while Carlisle know that if the bottom two win and they only draw, they could be relegated on goal difference (they are currently four goals worse off than Shrewsbury).

"We know what we've got to do - win. It's as simple as that," Carlisle defender Shaun Teale told Football365. "It's not like a draw will do us, so we will go out looking for the goals to win the game. I'd rather us win and look after ourselves than depend on anyone else. All three are hard games - teams won't lie down and die in their final home game of the season. Last week's performance picked everyone up - we were ten minutes away from beating Darlington and they are one of the division's top sides. To only draw was an anti-climax, especially as the other two both lost, but we would have settled for a point before the game."

Teale has experienced Wembley glory with Aston Villa and Conference football with Weymouth, and he knows which one he prefers. But the 36-year-old, who joined Carlisle on a short-term contract after being sacked by Motherwell in February, is adamant that they will be in the Football League next season, whether he is there or not.

A year after on-loan keeper Jimmy Glass scored an injury time winner to keep the Cumbrians up and send Scarborough down, Carlisle are back in the same mess. But Teale said: "The onus is on Shrewsbury. They've got to win. As long as we play well, we should do it. I've been through too many situations in my career to get nervous and some of the lads were here last year. They are still young but they have had to cope with this twice, which should help them - they know what the tension will be like. If we are drawing 0-0, we will be in the hands of everyone else and it could get a bit jittery then!

"The fans have talked about how we are in this position again, asking: 'Why has the same thing happened?'; but the players haven't discussed it much. It's been difficult for a few of us who only came here in February when they were in a dire position. We've had a few good wins since then but the consistency is not there. That's partly because there's not enough experience in the team. We have some very talented young players but you need a blend. I think they've realised that now."

So has this year's keeper, Peter Keen, been practicing his shooting?

"Nah!," scoffs Teale. "He's been going through his normal routine but not over-exerting himself because if he gets injured we're up s*** creek without a paddle! He's done really well and given us a lot of confidence."

But will he be coming up for corners in the dying minutes?

"I doubt it," said Teale, "but you should never say never."

Matt Hudson

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