FROM A CITY LOCKED IN CRISIS TO FLOODS OF HAPPY MEMORIES
IT was just after 2pm on January 8, 2005 that the river Eden burst its banks. By nightfall, Brunton Park was under eight feet of water.
“We were away at Stevenage when the flood hit,” recalls Matt Glennon, Carlisle’s goalkeeper during the club’s solitary season in the Conference.
“We’d parked our cars at the ground that morning. By the time the coach got back, they’d all floated away.”
For many, the cost was far greater. Three people died in the worst floods to hit Cumbria for almost 200 years. Another 1,800 were left homeless, including several United players.
On Warwick Road, the eastern gateway to the city, rescuers in dinghies plucked families from first floor windows.
Livestock was decimated. Water and electricity cut off as 100mph winds made missiles of sheds, branches, even gas bottles.
Football, and Carlisle’s quest for an immediate return to the EFL, suddenly seemed trivial. Yet that, says gaffer Paul Simpson, proved the catalyst for promotion.
Perspective
“We were just hitting a rocky patch at the time,” says the 51year-old. “Confidence was low, we weren’t getting results. To this day, I don’t know why.
“But those floods…they galvanised everybody. From our end I think it took our minds off football and gave everybody a bit of perspective.
“For the people who were affected, watching us was a distraction from all the chaos and misery going on in the city.
“We played home games at Morecambe, at Workington. We would have played in Gretna if it hadn’t been postponed. But our fans came to all of them. It was like we were helping each other out – you could almost feel the city come together.”
Glennon agrees. “I stood with people and watched a sheep floating down the high street,” he says. “I saw people in boats. Others who couldn’t go home for 18 months. We all lived without electricity for four days. How couldn’t you have a sense of perspective?”
Four months later, Carlisle were back in the League. A year after that, they were League Two champions. A decade of misery – in football terms, at least – was over.
Yet if the floods of 2005 provided impetus, the seeds of Carlisle’s rejuvenation were actually sown a year earlier.
Michael Knighton, a mustachioed chancer and self-styled entrepreneur, had bought the club in 1992 promising a swift return to the top flight.
On his departure in 2002, he left only a trail of destruction. Debts, administration, an embarrassing stint in the dugout, claims that he’d been visited by a UFO.
Shackled by crippling repayNon-League. ments, it wasn’t until November 2003 that Simpson – who’d initially been recruited as a player – was able to strengthen his squad. It was a pivotal moment.
Grizzled veteran Andy Preece arrived from Bury. Hardas-nails centre-back Kevin Gray from Tranmere. Having taken a paltry five points from their first 21 games, the next 23 yielded 39.
“A remarkable achievement,” wrote Steve Bruce in his Birmingham programme notes. “For me, Paul is the manager of the year – in any division.”
Praise from high perches and half a season of promotion form couldn’t reverse five years of neglect. On May 1, a 1-1 draw with Cheltenham saw Carlisle become the first former topflight club ever relegated to Nonetheless, they were coming down on the crest of a wave.
Bookies immediately made United 7-2 favourites. The local paper ran a piece describing Carlisle as the “aristocrats of the Conference”, complete with glowing compliments from John Moules.
Challenge
“I can’t remember any club coming into the Conference who have been of Carlisle’s stature,” said the Conference CEO.
“They topped the old First Division at one stage in their history and that can’t be said of any other teams who have played at this level. They are the largest club we have ever been able to welcome.”
Simpson even rejected Blackpool, then in League One, to remain at the helm. “I knew we had a squad that was capable of going back up,” he says. “And we had a new owner in Fred Story who was fantastic for the club.
“He’d taken over that summer and straight away dug into everything that had gone wrong. He fixed loads of issues that made the club stronger for years to come.
“We made some good signings – Karl Hawley came in from Walsall and was excellent. He got loads of goals for us that year. But, to be quite honest, it was the core we’d kept that formed the backbone of the side.
“Kevin Gray, Tom Cowan, Matty Glennon – they were all fantastic pros. So was Chris Billy. He’d been there for few years but was like a new man. Peter Murphy stepped up a
level and became a real senior figure in the dressing room. It was a terrific side.”
Carlisle beat Farnborough 7-0 in their second home game and, for four months, looked unstoppable. Win after win, point after point, swollen gates home and away. An average attendance of 5,512 was the club’s highest in seven years.
“Our supporters had been through the mill for a long time,” adds Simpson. “Just avoiding relegation, scrapping around for results, nearly going bust. To play in the Conference and actually win a run of games created a positive feeling for the first time in years.”
United, though, were not the kings of the Conference. That crown belonged to Paul Fairclough’s Barnet.
Powered by the goals of Giuliano Grazioli and the experience of men like Ian Hendon, the Bees went top in August and were never unseated.
In mid-November, they meted out a 3-1 beating at Brunton Park in a game watched by 9,215 supporters. It was Carlisle’s first defeat of the campaign, the end of their title challenge and the start of miserable winter.
As the city lay deluged, United went nine games without a win. When the waters had drained, they were tenth. “Then we beat Leigh RMI,” recalls Glennon. “After that, we were back in business.”
Carlisle – buoyed by a £1.5m insurance payout on Brunton Park – rallied to finish third, behind Hereford and champions Barnet.
A dramatic play-off semifinal against Terry Brown’s Aldershot went the distance, with Carlisle eventually triumphing 5-4 on penalties. “That was the highlight of the whole season for me,” says Glennon. “In the second leg, we were only a minute away from winning the game outright. They scored right at the death.
“But the crowd was heaving, absolutely jumping. In the shootout, we went 3-1 down. We looked dead and buried, then I saved a couple.
Partying
“When I saved the third one, the crowd ran on thinking it was all over. Poor Danny Livesey had to stand there for ages while we got things under control but fair play to him – he stuck it in the net.
“The pitch invasion, celebrating in the directors box. I’ll remember those scenes for the rest of my life.”
Next came Stevenage, who’d beaten Hereford in the semis and made few friends on a previous trip to Brunton Park.
“They’d beaten us twice during that bad run,” explains Glennon. “At our place, the Stevenage players started banging on our door, cheering, giving it this and that.
“They were not a nice club at the best of times and a few other things had happened, a bit of needle on the pitch. They were a strange bunch. They made games really awkward and nasty that’s how they got their success.
“We had a decent set of lads and nobody did anything like that. We definitely felt we owed them one.”
With Wembley under construction, the final was held at Stoke’s Britannia Stadium. Peter Murphy’s headed goal after 23 minutes gave Carlisle a lead they would not relinquish, despite a late flurry of Steve- nage chances. “It was a poor game to be honest,” says Simpson. “What I remember most was the support. To come out of the tunnel and see 10,000 Carlisle fans was an incredible feeling, especially knowing what so many of them had been through. I was so happy to deliver for them.”
It was, in many ways, a triumph built on disaster. And just as Brunton Park was redeveloped in the wake of the floods, so United flourished in the wake of promotion.
“I’d been on loan at Carlisle a few years earlier, when they’d had all the trouble with Michael Knighton,” says Glennon, who remembers partying the night away at Brunton Park.
“The club was in an awful state then, so I knew what this meant to them. I had a real affinity with those fans, and I still do. It was a great time.”