DANNY: I WANT TO GO UP AT BLUES
CAPTAINING Carlisle is the stuff of dreams for Danny Grainger – and now he wants to put the icing on the cake by winning promotion.
There was a long time, however, when the left-back was not sure whether he would ever get the chance to turn out for his beloved Blues.
Born in Penrith, Grainger spent his childhood on the terraces at Brunton Park, hoping to follow in the footsteps of his idols when he joined the youth set-up with the Cumbrians.
But after suffering the agony of being released as a youngster, a move across the border to Gretna turned into a 12-year stint in Scottish football, before he was brought home by Graham Kavanagh in 2014 – much to his delight.
Secret
“I’ve never made a secret of it – right the way through my career I’ve wanted to play for Carlisle,” he said.
“To be able to come and play what are hopefully my last years in Carlisle colours and wear the armband walking out at Brunton Park every week – it is a dream for me.
“You look at anybody who comes from their home town and there’s that added bit of pressure because they know how the fans feel, they’ve probably got a connection to them and that’s no different with myself.
“I’ve gone full circle. I started off at Carlisle at U10s and got released, went up into Scotland, played all my career up there and then came back.
“It’s nice that the only club I’ve played for in England is my hometown team – you don’t see many of these now.
“You look at the higher level, you’ve got Gerrard, Scholes, Giggs who have played for one club and one club only – they’re the fairytales, but for me to be able to come full circle just tops it all off for myself.”
And while the story is undoubtedly one for the footballing romantic, there is still one final piece of the puzzle missing for the 32-year-old.
Grainger joined the club the summer after they were relegated, putting an end to their eight-year stay in League One.
And since then, a narrow play-off semi-final defeat to Exeter in 2017 is the closest they have come to returning to England’s third tier – perhaps until now.
Five wins on the spin before this weekend in a remarkable run of festive form shot Carlisle up into the play-off positions, though they have been rocked by the resignation of boss John Sheridan.
“Ever since I was younger standing in the Warwick End, watching the likes of Richie Prokas and Dean Walling, people like Matt Jansen and Rory Delap, I wanted to play here,” he said.
Aspirations
“I’m over the moon that I’ve been able to do it and, fingers crossed, if I can put a promotion on the back of it that would top it off.
“It doesn’t matter whether you’re a newly promoted team or a relegated team, you’ve got to go into every season trying to get promotion.
“If you’re going in there just to be happy with mid-table or bottom half, you’ll soon see yourself fighting relegation or getting dragged into something.
“I think every team will have the same aspirations that we have – just try and nick into the play-offs and see where it can take you.
“But if you can put a good run together in the second half of the season, there’s no reason why you can’t go and nick into the top three.”