October is probably a month that most of us will want to forget. Other than the Italy England game that is. On the pitch it was a wonderfully ground out performance that nearly ended in tears with that header in the dying minutes. A bit like the Luton game, except that Luton scored !-(
However, I must take this opportunity to say a couple of things. Firstly, that little s**t Dodds deserves to have his passport revoked and have to report to a police station every time there is a big game on. Secondly, those Italian police were complete nutters and I hope that the FA finance private prosecutions against them.
The Carlisle performances have not be great of late and we were again on the receiving end of some very strange refereeing decisions. However, the one that stands out for most of us will probably be Preston's first goal from that free-kick. Over the years we have seen some weird decisions both for and against us, after all Sumo would make a good submarine captain ;) The point here, though, is that with the TV cameras there there was clear evidence that a misfustice had been done. Further to this, it came to light that the referee had been asked about this move before the game by Preston officials. The fairness of this is in doubt, but a panel of referees later ruled that the two Preston players were interfering with play and were therefore offside. This, of course was all too late for Carlisle and, come to that, most people would probably concede that Preston were the better team on the night. We won't even discuss David Reeves' gesture to the crowd.
Another incident on that Friday night was the attempt by some supporters to organise a walk-out 10 minutes before the end of the game. David Arnison figure-headed this action in an interview on Sky TV coverage prior to kick-off and had passed the request to the mailing list in the run up to the game. It must be said that the general feeling on the mailing list was that this was a bad idea and that any protest should take the form of either a sit-in or a protest outside the West Stand. Unfortunately, both these actions are illegal.
I would just like to make my views clear here. Walking out of the ground when your team is losing is hardly going to improve their morale, now is it? Similarly, chanting "Mervyn Day's blue-white army" is getting a bit beyond a joke. As I have previously admitted, I sang this at Tottenham as a protest at Day's treatment, but that was then and this is now. Mervyn Day is history and we should be concentrating on the future. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with the squad and, as has been said, good players don't turn bad overnight. However, there is clearly something wrong with the tactics and it needs to be addressed quickly. However, it is strange to note that people were complaining that Day hadn't had enough games to be judged on and yet they are after Knighton's blood after only a few more. Let us not forget how much Knighton has done for Carlisle United, so give the guy a few more games.
The final game of the month was at York. York scored first, then we had a free-kick which Archdeacon (on his way to Dunfermline?) chipped over the wall for Pounewatchy to put away. Next goal was Barr from the edge of the box. 2-1 up things were looking good for Carlisle at half-time, however early in the second half Couzens was sent off for his second bookable offence when he pulled back a York player. Now I started to fear the worst, but when McAlindon hooked in a Jansen knock-down to make it 3-1 that old saying about "the mark of a good team is to win the games that they had no right to" jumped to mind. Unfortunately, with 8 minutes to go, we entered the Twilight Zone and York scored 3 goals in five minutes to leave me shell-shocked.
So, if the mark of a good team is to win the games you shouldn't, then what does that make Carlisle now ???? I don't know, but perhaps we should look positively at this and say that with one player less on the pitch at least we made a fight of it and almost came away with the points. Roll on November, things can only get better......
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