Thetownend.com

The Opponent: Carlisle United

In 2001 a large stone inscribed with a curse was place in the underpass near Carlisle's Tullie House Museum. It was designed by a local Carlisle artist named Gordon Young and made by Andy Altman.  The wording came from The Monition of Cursing by Archbishop Gavin Dunbar of Glasgow in the 16th century. The curse was read out on every pulpit throughout the debatable lands (Scottish border) in a bid to excommunicate the thieving, murdering, raping and godless Reiver families of the region. However today, for some strange reason, a few Carlisle residents blamed the stone and its apparent occult powers for some of the city's unlucky events. It is an ancient curse brought up to date, and residents in Carlisle claim it has brought them disasters from disease to the relegation of Carlisle United, livestock herds around the city on the border with England were wiped out by foot and mouth disease and there have been devastating floods amongst many other dreadful events.

Local councillor Jim Tootle insists the stone, designed by Altman is destroyed or removed. Councillor Mike Mitchelson, leader of Carlisle City Council, said: "The removal of the stone has been proposed by a council member and will be discussed as part of our Council meeting next Tuesday. We're obliged to address his comments, but estimate that it will cost the council several thousands of pounds to remove the stone."  Artist Young, a descendant of one of the reiver families, has angrily compared the plan to the destruction of the giant Buddha’s in Bamiyan by Afghanistan’s Taliban regime in 2001. "It is of that order. They want to smash it to pieces. It is a powerful work of art but it is certainly not part of the occult," he said. “If I thought my sculpture would have affected one Carlisle United result, I would have smashed it myself years ago."  I knew that Avebury was fucking dodgy.


Where the opposition gather –  

http://thecumbrians.boards.net/thread/808/swindon

“Mark Lamarr, Billie Piper, Nick Hewer, Diana Dors, Melinda Messenger, your boys took one hell of a beating! (Hopefully)”

Last 6 – LLDLDD – Currently 20th on 40 points. Their last 3 home games have all ended 0-0 and in their last 8 games they have scored 3 goals. Gary Madine is bound to change this sooner or later.

They have served us both –  Jimmy Glass, Dave Caldwell, Vincent he used to play for Juventus Pericard, Alan O’Brien, Stuart Elliot, Graham Anthony, John Gorman, Bobby Turner, Paul Thirlwell, Frank Large, Mike Grella, Alan Mayes, Steve Finney, Austin Berkley, TAH, Lewis Clayton, Scott Endersby, John Sutton, Lee Peacock, Jake Jervis, Mike Graham, Don Macphail, JP McGovern, Miguel Comminges, Stan Harland, Bertie Lyon

The Odds –  Carlisle 2/1  Draw 12/5  Swindon 8/5  For those wanting to back Carlisle’s run of 0-0 snoozefests, Boylesports only offer 17/2, but a more generous 12/1 can be taken with Bet Victor.

The Son Says – He tells me he is up to 250 hits for his Youtube videos now, every view he gets is like Town winning The Champions League I think. 2-1 victory to the Town.

The Prediction – Will this run continue? It seems like we have to win every game and we will win this, despite Braveheart, Alex Ferguson and the cunts wanting independence. 1-0 win, Gladwin, 3992, 178 from Swindon.

And Finally – The Scottish city of Carlisle was founded as Luguvalium by the Romans. When they left in the early 5th century the Picts took it over, the Vikings were next on the list, and the Scots displaced them. The Normans added Carlisle to their territory after the Conquest, the Scots retook it in the 12th century, and the English got it back later. It even fell to Bonnie Prince Charlie in 1745. Nobody wants it really.

COYR COYR COYR

2-1 town. 5544, 211 hardy souls

I'm going to have to think about the Carlisle curse.....top work SR. My only quibble would be the Roman name for Carlisle, I'd always had it down as Luguvallum and assumed it got that because it was on Hadrian's Wall. Latin for wall being vallum...maybe I'm wrong, but perhaps you need valium to live there.

An irritating 1-1 that does nothing for either team

A comfortable 2-0 win with the added bonus of Posh getting beat at Wolves to keep a tiny bit of interest going for another week or so.

Great write up as always SR. Hope for a good game at least to make this early start and 9 hours of train journey worthwhile.

Draw looks most likely result.

Does anybody know if away fans can pay at the gate today?

I hope so!

2-1 defeat.

Suddenly my Son wants to go..... Anyone want to bunk in and contribute to fuel? Leave swindon 9.30-10.00 latest....

Up in Scotland today and we normally lose when I'm in Scotland but today will be different. 1-0 win, Byrne.

1-0 town, Michael Smith scorer.

Vote yes while you're there

Its the opposite for me, we usually win when I am in Edinburgh, I am not in Edinburgh today :(

I wonder how many fans Carlisle draw from just across the border.  Following the demise of Gretna, it's a going to be choice between Carlisle or Queen of the South up that way.

I once nearly fell out with the other half when we were visiting friends in Glasgow on the same day as a Carlisle away game.  I was trying to persuade her that I and the male half of the other couple (Rangers fan) could make it to Carlisle and back before dinner time.  It didn't happen, surprisingly enough.

Sort of game when we 'don't turn up'......

Maybe a draw....with Peterborough losing.....keeping the dream alive another week....before black out next week.

What about Annan Athletic? Went to Annan many years ago, when it seemed little more than a village....lovely corner of the world, the sort of place where Salmond could stick some of his immigrants, when the Sweaties go it alone. 

My old neighbour is a Carlisle fan who was born and brought up there, I asked him a similar question and he said they don't draw hardly any fans from over the border any more, they used to back in the 60's and 70's but recently virtually none at all.

Same team please with Pritchard on the bench and a comfortable 2-0 with Gladwin and Miles netting.

Forgot about Annan.  You are quite right, of course.  Did you know they have an attendance of 6,382 this season?  (That's cumulative, by the way, over the 16 home games they've played at home.)

Big test. Away at a struggling team who need points to survive.

Will we be up for it?

P.S. I wouldn't be surprised to see Posh get a point from Wolves.

I would.

They had a sell out of 2,517 last season vs Rangers, which is wierdly 3 more than the ground holds!

Well their average is just about 400, from a population of about 8000, that's a decent % of support.  We'd have to average 10,000, to compare favourably.

We'll probably win and then Posh will get a draw or win at Wolves.

Carlisle isn't a happy hunting ground for us is it?

Ah remember the dizzy heights of winning there 1-0 back in the days of Charlie Charlie Austin...

Who can forget the Eddie Murray screamer.

We have only had one defeat in the last 9 matches there since 1981.

3 wins, 5 draws and just one defeat in 2007.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asjhWTVjZ5c

At BP

Played 19
Carl wins 7
Swin wins 3
Draws 9

Carl goals 27 Swin goals 17

But 6 of those Carlisle wins came pre 1981, since then it hasnt been a bad ground for us to visit TBH.

Our last 9 visits have been DDWWLDWDD

Good run continues with an away win of at least 1 but quite possibly 2 goals.  :pint:

A couple of good memories of Carlisle games for me was the FA cup tie in 84 whent hey were in the old League Div 2 and us in Div 4, we took about 1,000 up there for a wet windy January afternoon game when Scott Endersby made 3 brilliant saves to keep us in the cup, we beat them  3-1 at home in the replay.

And the home game with them in 1980 when a young Peter Beardsley ran past Animal Williams, which Animal didn't like after a few disagreements with Beardsley previously in the game.

Animal launched a left hook into Beardsleys back that echoed around the CG, then Gordon Stanforth attacks Animal which starts a massive fight on the half way line ending in Stanforth and Animal both being sent off.

(http://myreactiongifs.com/gifs/beardedguyheadnod.gif)

Went to that game on the Football Special a real old bone shaker which had 2 windows put through when another train passed with a door open. Frightened the shit out of me. Sounded like a bomb going off

Cracking view from the press box at Carlisle, from Sam Morshead...(I hope the link shares ok)

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BkdO8LyIEAAuGhS.jpg)

Yeah passing Crewe IIRC somebody left a door open on the passing train, luckily I was sat on the seat in which the window got broken before we left Swindon station, only for my mates to have found a seat 3 carriages back so I moved, fortunately for me.

That's good recall, I don't remember much of the game at all, except a sort of relief to see the CG with a bit of atmosphere, the 8000 crowd being double the league average.....it raised the spirits somewhat that we could still seemingly get a decent gate, having shed about 5000 regulars in a matter of 4 years or so.

I do remember it being quite a big crowd on a sunny day.

Not many people took the piss out of animal Williams as Beardsley tried to that day.

1 change, Luongo in for Gladwin.

Foderingham; Stephens, Archibald-Henville, McEveley; N Thompson, Luongo, Cox, Kasim, A Smith; Storey, M Smith

subs: Belford, Branco, Byrne, Gladwin, L Thompson, Pritchard, Waldon

 :hmmm: I remember it being a night game, prob in January, when the CG could be quite atmospheric under lights.

Cross matches....I meant the Williams sending off game not the FA cup replay which was a midweek in January.

Ah I see now...

Strong bench.  Glad Cox kept his place, deserves it after last week.

Went up there in the early 80s for a 1-1 draw - Beardsley for them Rideout for us. Went up there again when Endersby played for them. We won 3-0 that was fun.
Hope we win today as I found £25 in an old betting account and put it on us to win. 

I see former Swindon target (under PdC) Gary Madine leading the line for Carlisle today after joining them on loan last week upon his release from prison.

Also Sean O'Hanlon in defence, 7 years after leaving Swindon for "a much bigger club" in MKD, how did that go for you Sean? :D

Owt 'appening?

Sounds like Carlisle are on top so far.

End to end no clear cut chances really, but they have had a couple of the better chances, we don't sound threatening yet.

Doesn't sound like a great start. 1-0 will do us just fine though.

Foderingham great save from a Madine header.

Pox are fucking up again...1-0 down

Yep ex Town player David Ball scored it :D

Cox Scores... for Orient v Sheff U.

Dongs are winning.

Bollocks.

Oh FFS. Madine. 1-0

Booo. We sound a bit crap. Bring on the Pritch.

Bollocks

Fuck off Carlisle

Cock.

Fuck sake.

The only names I hear constantly are Amoo and Madine.

Everything attacking for them seems to come through Amoo.

Well, from the commentary that didn't sound too great going forward.

Half Time 1-0 must do better 2nd half.

Doesn't sound like we've offered anything going forward.

As results currently stand, Franchise have gone above us.

Cooper out

That's a bit over the top.

At least give it to the 47th minute FFS

"Chuckles" has to be the most cringeworthy nickname I've heard and sadly it seems to be spreading

Yeah Flash.

Wolves 1-0 up against Peterborough

To be replaced by Jed?

On Grand National day. You egg.

YEAH FLASH

All action at the start of the second half. Carlisle nearly score, then we nearly score. Pritchard is on.

FFS Pritch. There is the frustration in him!

I guess bringing Pritchard on to play just behind a front two means we have more attacking threat, but will also leave us open at the back.

To be fair to Cooper we may as well try & win it, as losing by 2 or 3 won't cause us any issues

sounds like Carlisle are on the back foot big time

Sounds like they are kicking lumps out of Pritchard, presumably trying to get him to react like he did at City

We are definately on top this half but with no cutting edge up front again when we have had the chances.

We are creating lots of chances but just nothing going in.

Just got away with a penalty appeal, sounds like we were very lucky!

Did we lose?

Sounds like the front two have been particularly poor today, but at least the team have had a go in the second half.

Very nearly. Sounds terrible.

Carlisle down to 10 men, Berrett sent off.

Poor result, we should have started the first half how we started the 2nd half.

We had a few chances but couldn't make it count where it counts.

Still need a striker, Smith wasted a couple of chances and didn't even hear Storeys name mentioned hardly all game.

Back to the old shitty away performances.

Normal service has been resumed with poor results against the dregs of the division away from home.

Wolves did their bit.

Crap result. C'est la vie.

Brentford ticket sales ended on the ref's final whistle.

Pox 0-2 Fleetwood  :)

Hopefully that kills the play off talk
Sounded very poor that
Brentford next weekend  :pint:

I thought Cooper was proving the doubters wrong?

LET THE MONGFEST.... BEGIN!

yes, now we can finally give up all hope and moan about failure

Disappointing.

MK are now above us. 4 points adrift of 6th with 5 to go and we play Brentford next week. The table could look better this time next week but it's not bloody likely.

Nah dont have to go that far

Sat listening to radio awaiting the Swindon Town Scope Box. Own up if its you.

I'd really like us to beat Brentford....would cap off what has been an OK season.

Disappointing.  I thought we'd turned a corner with recent results.  As JJ said, Smith wasted chances and Storey seemed anonymous.  Definitely need something more up front.

The defeat has broken our website

(http://i.imgur.com/IZ1k3Tq.jpg)

Results have improved but in all honesty the performances haven't really been that brilliant

It would Reg. I have a dislike for Brentford, I'm not sure why!

Cooper alluding to the same
Laying blame on the front men


Only listen as far as Cooper, screw the mongfest

Cooper -

If Madine played for us we would have won comfortable
2nd half we played well, good chances that need to go in. Didn't take our chances
Pleased with most parts of the game, totally dominated possession.
Should have defended better for the goal.
You are only as good as your front men. We need to make sure we are right for next year.
Only problem for me is the front end of the pitch.
2 early substitution worked and we dominated the 2nd half.
Always confident with Pritchard in the team, Luongo OK.
Win last 5 games and we get in the play offs (he thinks). Every game will be tough.
Supporters fantastic, thanks for support.

it's the start of Jed taking control back

Coops does not sound particularly enthused with his player's performances in front of goal.

I do like his interview style. Doesn't suffer silly questions.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Madine in Town colours next season.

He's friends with Ranger.

Twats together, criminal solidarity and all that.

As long as they don't have court cases at the same time, we want at least one of them available to play.

Former cell mates? ;)

Kim Young ‏@KimYoun40033730  19m
So why are Lee Cox, Wes, and Thompson bros at Carlisle station waiting for a train?

 :hmmm:

Most of the team are on the train.

Night out in Newcastle if they have any sense.

Because they might have another engagement elsewhere? The others are staying the night in Carlisle I believe.

I suspect if one is heading London way it's a better than a bus to Swindon

Ranger is probably going to shoe them the delights of the Bigg Market..

Yeah...fucking great interview style.

Mind you, the fucker has won the Prem numerous times and Europe...so he can afford to be arrogant and flippant.

We now have a huge task keeping hold of him in close season.

(http://www.reactiongifs.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/oprahthankyou.gif)

 :D

Just got back in 541 miles and 11 hours of my week end I'll never get back again.

Why do you hate the guy so much? It's quite strange.

Yeah quite a few of them on it. Yaser and Troy were in our carriage. Very pleasant lads.

Did they tell you anything of interest?

Did Troy show you any big bootys

I would.

One of them said he was frustrated that we had played so negatively, we didn't actually badger them much.

I hope not:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/footballer-jailed-attacking-fans-filmed-3380002

Nice car though.

I think we have enough to deal with one fucktard in the team already, no matter how good they are at the game.

Highlights up. Pritchard greedy, Smith wasteful, Stephens lucky, JMac nervy, Wes Wes.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkwITNoPVb4 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkwITNoPVb4)

He and Ranger are made from the same mold.

()

Thanks for posting that, i can see myself, our lad & the Mrs.

fair play to all 288 who travelled  :clap:

That was a pen for handball all day long.

Madines turn sounded laborious on the wireless .....it looked slower....poor marking...

At least I can see why Pritchard shot, it was a shit shot - but a normal proper shot was in the back of the net.

Think dropping off and letting Maldine turn may be Stephens first obvious mistake in 5 games.  Opportunity lost, but Carlisle are scrapping for survival so it was never going to be a case of turning up.

I think that you actually meant that John  ;D

Nile Ranger:

(http://www.fixlondon.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Mould-02.jpg)

Gary Madine

(http://www.idealgroupuk.co.uk/images/made/images/uploads/mould-cleaning-and-remediation_460_259_all_9_s_c1_center_center_0_0.jpg)

That's taken pre 2.58 as I can't see any of our lot. I guessed around 300 at the time.

:D almost a Freudian slip.

Maybe Mold in Flintshire...

Look at this nice little disused station in Yr Wddgrug...not sure how you get to Mold from that....

(http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/m/mold/mold_old4.jpg)

As late as 1973, having been axed by Beeching 10 years previously, alamost like the good people of Mold couldn't bear to lose it

Maybe Arthur Mold who took a whopping 1,673 first class wickets?

Or maybe Molde, Norway? Moldova?

Thought you'd be all over Molde.  Never heard of Arthur Mold, 1,673 is a tidy haul for these days but less so for yesteryear, nevertheless you'd think he'd be in the top 50 or so. Who did he play for?

Lancs, one of the early chuckers apparently. Have to admit that my interest in cricket pre-70s is pretty minimal.

Never been to Molde. I bet they all have weird Norsk-Manc accents like Ole Gunnar.

Is that 1970 or 1870. Early cricket is fascinating, and there's a market for memorabilia....years ago I used to go fairly regularly to this place...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_%26_Ball_Inn,_Clanfield

Oddly at the time I lived with a bird from Sevenoaks, and they claimed also to have the oldest cricket club in England at The Vine.

By the looks the Bat and Ball, has been gentrified, compared to when I used to go and it was just a basic pub with a load of 18th Century cricket memorabilia round the walls, but it seems some of the stuff is still there, so probably worth a visit still.