Carlisle had a storming start to 1998 scoring 11 goals in the first two games. We also saw the introduction of a new "going home" song after the Rochdale game when some wag decided to play "Always look on the bright side of life" for the Rochdale fans as we all trooped out of the ground. We will have to wait to February for our next AWS match because the Burnley v Notts County match was postponed twice before Burnley finally beat Notts County. The draw for the semi-finals has also been made and, shouls Carlisle beat Burnley, we will have the joy of entertaining Preston N.E. at Brunton Park. Most people will be hoping for some revenge for our league defeat earlier this season, particularly since that was televised on Sky and contained the infamous "offside" freekick. There is also the possibility that, should we get past Preston, our opponents in the Northern Area Final would be Blackpool, and with Fulham the favourites in the Southern Area, there is the hope that there will be some exciting matches to prepare for.
In the League we managed to get out of the relegation zone and stay there at the end of the month, even if only by benefit of goals scored. Our January record was :
| Competition | Team | Home / Away | For | Against | Lge Pos |
| AWS 2 | Rochdale | Home | 6 | 1 | |
| League | Southend United | Home | 5 | 0 | 22 |
| League | Northampton Town | Away | 1 | 2 | 22 |
| League | Bristol Rovers | Home | 3 | 1 | 20 |
| League | Wycombe Wanderers | Home | 0 | 0 | 20 |
Nick Wright has made himself a favourite with the fans and was justly toasted when he finally got on the scoresheet in the Rochdale game. Initially it was feared that we had seen the last of him when his loan spell came to an end, but this has now been extended by Derby and with him out of contract in the summer the signs are good for a permanent move. At the time of writing, however, the transfer of Simon Coleman to Carlisle looks to have fallen through.
With pressures at work and a more active social life of late, I haven't added any features this month. There is a new Carlisle United Website, although the Official carlisle United Website still has no content and is just a frontpage. Apparently this is due to resource pressures within the club.
I also received a spreadsheet analysing Carlisle's chances of staying in Division 2 from Roger Porthouse which is in Excel format. The result of Roger's predictions are that we will stay up, and I think the majority of us are now starting to believe this, although the disappointing performance against Wycombe Wanderers will have brought back some doubts.
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