Travelled down on Friday from Stonehaven to be refreshed for the game. The atmosphere before the game was fantastic, everyone looking forward to the new beginning (& many thanks for the balloons - both purchasers and blower-uppers).
Game itself wasn't a dissapointment for me as it's difficult to bring together a cohesive team in 5 minutes. My day was spoiled though, by a man smoking a pipe two rows in front, and the utter trash who decided to start fighting. I had brought both my daughters with me & they were extremely frightened & in tears when the trouble broke out not far from us.
We left the game at half time because we couldn't take the smoke (athsmatic's all of us) or the fighting.
To make sure we keep the game alive for the next generation we MUST:
Going home tomorrow still a happy Carlisle supporter.
Shirley Burnett
Very much a first game of the season - neither side were particularly cohesive. It's just that Hartlepool took the chances we gave them but gave us nowt. We need defenders - not to stand around and watch the inevitable, but to defend.
We will improve. Wake certainly impressed and he took his goal really well. Baldacchino and Hevicon will be more useful once we have settled down to a pattern of play - without match practice they all seemed to be making it up as they went along. Molloy is going to be a handful - good job as Foran is still a waste of a shirt and as for McDonagh.... he only gets in the team because he's Irish. Its certainly not for his talent - come back Richie Prokas. Jack isn't Irish by any chance? I wonder how he gets in the team, then. To me, Shelley looked overweight and unfit. Birch - captain and midfielder? No, thanks. Welcome to the slimline Mick Galloway - that could be an improvement.
On this performance we'll not go down but neither will we get as high as last season.
10,284 was the crowd if I heard correctly. Same number as usual singing (about 10). Seemed like there was plenty of aggro outside afterwards.
Rob Scott-Buccleuch
I'll read this tomrorow and it'll haunt me.
Jack and McDonagh were woeful, Birch by his own admission isn't a midfielder.
There is a distinct lack of a hard bastard in midfield. Step forward, Mr Kevin Ball. Hard as one. 42 games for a side who missed out on the Division One play-offs by a single goal last season. If people think he'd be a bad signing, they could wrong for England.
Molloy looks a goo signing, Shelley looked nervous, I thought.
goal 1: Baldacchino wusses out a tackle, too many hoors chase the ball and Tinker had a simple finish
goal 2: Mike Jack tried to control a shot, ball skews off his shins nad humphreies put it away. Nice finish.
goal 3: at this point they were taking the yellow stuff. tinkler almost walked it in
I though we were going to collapse and get really gubbed at this point
our goal: molloy (?) put Wake through on goal and a classy finish. waited for the keeper to move and passed it into the other side.
7 (seven - inna final score stylee) players to be training with us on monday. Two, maybe three players maybe coming in for money.
Ian BruntonPark
Great atmosphere, very good turn out, heard some people in the warwick saying they turned up to show support and that was it after hartlepool went 3-0 up, sounded like they were;t coming back which is disappointing.
The team showed alot of potential, played well considering its the first match together, h'pool goals were mistakes caused by lack of match practice/fitness. Can't really complain about anything else. as for the players
Overall good perfromance will only get better with time, molloy foran and wake are going to make a lethal combination at some point this season. Midfield needs strengthening. Once they are all fit and playing as a team we will do well.
Mark Mandale
The day Cumbrian fans had craved for so long saw John Courtenay begin the job of reawakening the sleeping potential of Carlisle United Football Club. The fans who had vowed never to return during Michael Knighton’s tenure packed Brunton Park to the rafters with almost 11,000 joining the carnival atmosphere. The fact that the Carlisle team did not have the benefit of playing a competitive game together seemed lost in the euphoria and hype surrounding Roddy Collins return as manager.
The scene was set with expectation high for a dream start but someone forgot to send the script to Hartlepool. The Cumbrians lack of preparation time before the seasons start was more than evident as one of the preseason promotion favourites comfortably won the game, showing the benefit of teamwork compared to flashes of individual skill.
Collins knew the uphill task he was facing and said after the game: “The players haven’t had a preseason and hadn’t played together as a team before today. Too many people got caught up in the hype. Romance would have been great if we had gone out and won but football is not like that. I thought we had some outstanding individual performances but as a team we were short and I knew that last week. I’m not a fool and know we need to add to the squad. Individually I thought Brian Wake did excellent when he came on. He took his goal well, received the ball and laid it off well and that was a major plus. I felt Brian Shelley, who has done no pre season training, was absolutely outstanding. Ryan Baldacchino showed a lot of guile, but is a player you need to work into space so he can use his pace and he will be a top player for us. We grafted well but didn’t pass it well but that was a lack of a system which takes time. Mick Galloway and Lee Maddison came back in and did really well as did Mark Birch in an unaccustomed midfield role. We looked leg weary through the lack of preseason training and gave away the first two goals. There was lack of continuity with players because they don’t know each other yet. But I will get things right and we will have a squad strong enough to get us promoted.”
A fairly lacklustre start to the game saw neither side create any clear cut openings although Hartlepool looked the more composed in possession. On 17 minutes debutante Trevor Molloy’s whipped in free kick was fractionally too long for strike partner Richie Foran but Gordon Watson came closest for the visitors shooting narrowly wide from Darrell Clarke’s cross. Anthony Sweeney then headed wide from a Mark Robinson cross before an alert Peter Keen saved from an Eifion Williams shot, following a Watson layoff. The first goal came two minutes from halftime when Keen could only parry a Williams shot with Mark Tinkler following up to slot home the rebound. Hartlepool extended their lead two minutes into the second half when Michael Jack failed to clear a loose ball and Richie Humphries pounced to drive the ball into the bottom corner.
Watson and Tinkler both went close as the visitors dominated and a deserved third goal came on 72 minutes. A good run from Clarke saw him cross into the path of Paul Arnison whose deft layoff was powered home by Tinkler.
As Carlisle came into the game in the closing stages a good run from Baldacchino, down the right, resulted in his cross being driven wide by Molloy.
On eighty minutes the Cumbrians got a consolation goal when a neat lob from Mick Galloway put substitute Bran Wake away and he showed great composure before slotting past Anthony Williams.
Molloy then had a twenty-five yard pile-driver tipped over by Williams before Wake shot wide, in the dying seconds, from Molloy’s layoff.
Mike Corry
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