Well, what can I say? March was a horrendous month which saw us tumbling, à la Norman Wisdom, towards the bottom of Division 3 and a future in the Conference. Or is it? Rumours surfaced from north of the border of plans for Carlisle United to merge with the nomadic club Clydebank. Clydebank Chairman Sandy Moffat had the following conversation on BBC Scotland Sportscene:
Rob McLean: (Sportscene):This is Brunton Park, home of Carlisle United. Clydebank have had no joy so far in their application to the Scottish League to play home games there. That was a sounding out exercise, what they really want is a merger with Carlisle to keep the Bankies alive.
Sandy Moffat: (Clydebank chairman): That is a possible solution with Clydebank and it is something we have thought about. Michael Knighton, the chairman of Carlisle seems to share a number of views that we do on the future of football. He runs a very successful operation there. He has an excellent pitch. In fact he comes from Edinburgh and we think that there is a great deal of synergy there. He has a lot of travelling distances playing in the English Third Division, he's been to Bournemouth and Plymouth and Swansea and places like that, and the distances from Carlisle to most of the Scottish First Division are significantly less.
These are all good points and on paper it would be good for the club, that is why in the recent vote run by Alastair Woodcock I voted that Carlisle should play in Scotland. However, there is every likelihood that most of the current Carlisle squad will leave (many of the contracts are up at the end of the season) and so will Nigel Pearson. Similarly, a lot of the Clydebank players are nearing the end of their playing careers, they have no reserve team or youth team and no home ground. What we might be left with is a team called Carlisle United (or Carlisle Bankies??) playing in place of Clydebank, with Clydebank and Carlisle players and coaches, at Brunton Park, but in the Scottish League. Is that Carlisle United? No. I have to admit that, for me, Carlisle United would die that day and so would my season ticket. I imagine that this would be a similar situation for many supporters from both Carlisle United and Clydebank.
Michael Knighton spoke to Radio Cumbria about the possibility of a merger and was reported on the mailing list as follows :
MK on Radio Cumbria being interviewed by Mark McAlindon about the merger rumours. He claims that he has not spoken to anyone from Clydebank since the request to use Brunton Park for the Hibs match. He is aware of the rumours and describes them as an interesting concept that make sound commercial sense. 'One for the fans to decide' he says, adding that 'we are an English club, at present'. He says that some fans may prefer Scottish Division One to the Conference (he's been reading this Mailing List!) - all in all, he did not rule out the possibility.
He also spoke to the Sunday Telegraph :
"I've been at the club for seven years and we've had five wonderful seasons, including two Wembley finals and two promotions. The only way to stay in the higher league is to hang on to your young players and we have not been able to do that."
Talk of an imminent merger with homeless Clydebank of the Scottish First Division was discounted by Knighton. "At this stage I've had no communication with their chairman. They asked if we could host their match against Hibs a while back but it was too short notice. There's no way that I would allow Carlisle United to lose its identity. But it's an interesting concept."
Admittedly, I would probably give it one season with my season ticket and if I didn't like the merged club I might still go to the home games on occasion. It would certainly be refreshing to hear "you're English and you know you are"! Realistically, though, I imagine they would be able to go all-seater and shut the Paddock and the Warwick Road End. Mind you, they could do that now.....
However, where is the guarantee that the merged team would go straight in to replace Clydebank? It has been suggested by Clydebank Supporters that the merged team may have to start in Scottish Division 3, a worse position than the English Conference.
To summarise - if we stay up, I don't think the merger will go ahead. If we go down, I think it will go ahead. Either way, the more I think about it, the less concerned I am about the merger should we go down and the more I believe I would continue to go to the watch the new "Carlisle United". The fact is, though, it wouldn't be Carlisle United, I wouldn't feel as committed towards it and I would probably give up my season ticket after the first season. I imagine many others would too. It often escapes the attention of the Chairmen that we have no choice to whom we give allegiance - we were born into this. There is an analogy to be drawn here. The Acts of Union which brought together Great Britain did not extinguish the individualness of England, Scotland and Wales. Similarly, merging Clydebank and Carlisle United would not necessarily mean that the supporters stayed. The Chairmen may discover that the sum is infinitely lesser than the parts when they end up with a club and team with virtually no supporters.
Clydebank supporters have been fighting a long war to save their club and it may be that their decisive battle is fought alongside us. Keep the Faith!
As a final note, I have never felt so uneasy about the a relegation battle. In the past, I have always felt confident that we would win through. This time I have an awful feeling that we will go down. But this is all incidental, no matter what I feel, I will continue to go to the games and give the team my full support in the belief that they can pull it out of the fire and I urge all other fans to do so as well. With our support I hope that my May issue will see us safely out of the relegation battle.
We also saw a lot of squad activity on transfer deadline day. Among those to leave was, to my horror, Tony Caig. I have said all season that should we lose Caig, our days would be numbered. We should have kept Caig until the end of the season. The paltry transfer fee is not worth the risk. Caig has done little wrong this season and conceded few goals. Why mix up the defence when it is the only part of the team consistently working? Losing Finney was also a mistake in my mind. Time will tell if the new mix keeps us up, but already we have lost away at Cardiff.
Alastair Woodcock ran an insta-poll on Carlisle United Online. The question was : Has Michael Knighton's reign been a good thing for Carlisle United ? Result :
| Yes | 71 | (50%) |
| No | 67 | (47%) |
| Don't Know | 5 | (3% |
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