First up after the LDV final was Grimsby on Saturday 2006-04-08. As one of our promotion rivals, this was an important 6-pointer and after a hard fought game, we won 1-0. This has typified our stalwart team this season, grinding out wins where necessary. Next came a little stuttering with two draws over the bank holiday weekend bringing to an end our record breaking run of eight successive league wins. This left us two points short of certain promotion, which is more important to me than winning the league.
Friday 21 April, and Grimsby were playing the night before us. If Grimsby lost, then they wouldn't be able to catch us and we were certain of promotion. Would 5th place Cheltenham, in their desire to secure a promotion place, help us by beating Grimsby? Nope!
Mansfield - 2006-04-22
And so we went into Saturday 22 April needing a win over Mansfield to be sure of promotion, or alternatively for Leyton Orient not to win. Although to be honest, our vastly superior goal difference almost meant that a draw would be enough! As I always say in these circumstances, we do what we have to, and forget the rest, but it is hard not to keep an ear and/or an eye on news from elsewhere. Looking at the Mansfield fixture ahead of the game, they were mid-table and relatively disconnected from either promotion or relegation. Just the sort of game you want, when a win will guarantee promotion. However, we all know that this sort of fixture can also see that mid-table team wanting that little morale boosting victory to set them up for next season.
I was down at my house in Cambridgeshire, hoping to make a sale to viewers, and so "watched" the match via the BBC Score Interactive programme. Positive views of the game came through periodically. Despite a strong first half by CUFC, it was Mansfield who scored first. Hawley got us an equaliser... and Orient only drew as well.... meaning CUFC were promoted!!! Yes!!! I was interested to note that they referred to "tiers" for the divisons/leagues, which is my preferred wording.
So, we were now set up nicely for our last three games, fairly comofortable in the knowledge that not even Carlisle United could trip up and not win the league.....
Torquay - 2006-04-29
Rumours abounded in the week leading up to this game, that it would be a sell-out and that we should buy our tickets early. I decided to risk it and leave buying my ticket until lunchtime on the day. For the first time in years, I was stood on the Paddock and watched us go down 2-1 to the better team on the day Ian Atkins' Torquay just seemed to want the points more than we did. With Northampton winning, this left us level on points with them at the end of play, but with a game in hand. Hmm, I always much prefer points on the board over games in hand.... I took some pictures on the day, including one of Rob Scott-Buccleuch perched high above the action. To put this defeat in perspective - it was our first league defeat since Januaryy!
Post-match celebrations for the Torquay game seemed incongruous, but this was our last home game of the season, and so any Championship celebrations will have to wait for the "Party on the Pitch" weekend. Several of us in the crowd did feel sorry for the normal cheerleaders at the Torquay game, who were upstaged by the Stobart troop of professionals. Although they were very attractive and distracting, and perhaps this is why Carlisle lost.... I have to say, though, that I don't like cheerleaders at British soccer games - they just don't fit!
Which reminds me - I know I say soccer, and a lot of people think this is an Americanism. Soccer is what Association Football is called at some private and public schools, and I got into the habit of calling it soccer when at Keswick School as a child, which was an exclusively Rugby playing school when I was there. The Americans call it soccer because their early school system was staffed by Brits and the only early organised sport was within those schools, and American Football evolved from Rugby and Gaelic Football, as did Aussie Rules.
Rochdale - 2006-05-02
a wee group of four of us went on a road trip to Rochdale for the evening, having purchased our tickets for the flooded-out game.
Stockport - 2006-05-06
this would have been my first return to this ground after the infamous overcrowding incident, but unfortunately I didn't get a ticket and so instead settled down to Radio Cumbria and BBC Score Interactive.
6 May 2000 was The Great Escape II for us, and 6 May 2006 was our last game in Tier 4. Nice. Let us hope we never return to Tier 4.
Congratulations to Gretna for their Cup Final and getting into Europe next season! I am almost as interested in Gretna and Workington Reds, as I am in Carlisle United, as it is a tribal thing for me. I may even go to the odd European game next season to cheer them on, provided it doesn't clash with a Carlisle game.
And finally.....
for those of you living with someone moaning about you watching the World Cup this summer, perhaps you may wish to have them sign this
contract.
Those of you have viewed my webzine before will notice some changes. Since moving back to Cumbria in September 2005, one thing I've occupied myself with in the evening has been my webzine revamp. I decided the site was overdue an update and tidy up, so I've dumped some sections and changed the background format and link bar at the bottom of each page. I'm a firm believer in 'keeping it simple' and 'content over style', though, so have stuck with my 'ten year old html'. I've also tidied up the personal side of my site and added a little bit about my late wife Clare, and how I've dealt with losing her.
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