By Roger Lytollis

Last updated 20:22, Monday, 28 April 2008

CUMBRIAN celebrities. Something doesn’t look quite right there: the two words just do not sit well together. Cumbrians tend to be quiet, reserved people, more comfortable reading Heat magazine than being in it.

In the spotlight: Michael Knighton and Jimmy Glass, right, and Andrew Johnston

Write a list of Cumbrian celebrities and the pen will be resting on the page after just a handful of authors, actors and musicians.

Even most of those we claim as “ours” spend little time here.

Their association with their home county is tenuous, at best, in the wider world.

Those who become famous either had to leave Cumbria to do so or they left to further a burgeoning career. This gives an impression of people who succeeded despite, not because of, where they came from.

Perhaps Britain’s Got Talent star Andrew Johnston could be the next Cumbrian to pull the spotlight towards this corner of England.

But if he walked the red carpet to London the publicity would follow him there, leaving his home county little more than a footnote.

For an extremely remote and relatively small club, Carlisle United has had a remarkably high profile. And Carlisle’s greatest national exposure has come from its greatest struggles.

For 10 years from 1992 former United owner Michael Knighton ensured the cameras were never far from Brunton Park, although most Cumbrians spent the decade peering through their fingers.

Knighton’s claim to have conversed with an alien was only the second most remarkable event of his Carlisle tenure.

On top of that podium stands an on-loan goalkeeper called Jimmy Glass, whose last-minute goal in the last match of the 1998/99 season saved Carlisle from non-League oblivion.

Glass’s name is still most closely associated with Cumbrian sport, even though he played only three matches for Carlisle.

People all over the world may have peered into Carlisle’s circus tent but watching on TV or reading on the internet does little for the club’s or city’s coffers.

Promotion to the Championship would see more away supporters at Brunton Park but the majority would probably head straight back down the M6 after the match.