How Carlisle United's Ladies rose to the challenge of the floods and are thriving again

"You were thinking, 'who the hell's letting fireworks off at a time like this?'," says the manager of Carlisle United's Ladies team. "Then you realised it was all the meters blowing, as the water got in."

Those eerie popping sounds along Vasey Crescent were part of a grim soundtrack to the most challenging of times. Gannon's own house was flooded during Storm Desmond while the 50-year-old also had the task of keeping her football team afloat.

Whilst Keith Curle's players battled on, and the club slowly recuperated, one of the lesser-told United stories is how last December's disaster tested its female side. They also lost practically everything in the deluge yet also recovered through a steely determination and some charming goodwill.

They are now thriving again, a central part of the club who are being supported by Curle himself and his assistant Colin West. The pair have sponsored new training kit and polo shirts, while Curle has also sponsored a recent game.

Further sponsorship from local businesses is on the way and these good times may be all the more enjoyed given what they had to fight through last winter, when they, like so many at Brunton Park, found that practically all their equipment had been lost.

"There was nothing," Gannon says. "It had floated everywhere, or gone out with the clear-out. Kit, balls, paperwork - and the county cup trophy. That'll probably turn up on one of those TV programmes one day, in a flea market somewhere."

The devastation saw clemency from their league, who allowed them to postpone games until late January, while offers of training kit and equipment came in. For their first game back, for instance, they wore UniSun Athletic men's away kit, while Abbeytown Women's FC also stepped in. The FA sent balls, cones and bibs, while Curle and the club's hierarchy did what they could for a team whose training facilities at St Aidans, and Richard Rose, were also out of use. "We couldn't offer the club anything, like selling a player, at that time," Gannon says. "It was difficult to give anything back. But the club were supportive. They were conscious of how it affected us."

"The toughest thing for the girls was that it was almost like having an off-season. We'd started well, but now we couldn't train; everywhere was booked up. We couldn't even have our bonding days at Brunton Park to watch the first-team, because they were playing at other grounds."

Some of the players, and their families, were personally hit by the floods. Gannon's own story may be typical of what many in the city suffered. "On the Saturday night me and all the office girls had gone out to a murder mystery at Tullie House," she says. "The weather was bad, but that side of town didn't seem too bad. It was only when some struggled to get home that you wondered.

"On Sunday morning we had a game at Creighton and, as usual, I got up and went out, oblivious to anything else. I went up and looked at the pitch and there was no way it was going to be on. By the time I came back, an hour later, the water was in the garden and starting to come through the floorboards."

The surge is described as a river where a road should have been. "A piece of garden fence floated past me in my living room, and I'm like, 'that really shouldn't be happening'," Gannon says. She then "snapped out of the daze" and hurried many of her belongings upstairs - upstairs having been newly decorated and with an extension planned for the following day.

"Friends were really good, family, your neighbours, the community," she says of the following hard days. "At one point, my son's friends had made some food and he was coming round with it. He felt something scurry past his leg. I said, 'don't look down, keep walking'. After that there was no chance I was going out until that water was gone.

"You also don't want to leave your home until you can make it secure. There were a couple of nights when you saw a couple of flashlights down the back lane. You think, people are suffering enough without worrying about that."

Eventually Gannon relocated temporarily to the Cumbria Park hotel in Stanwix and began juggling her football responsibilities with her situation at home. Fixtures were rearranged, players contacted, targets reassessed. "A couple of times we all met up for tea, just to talk it all through," she says. "The girls all felt really flat. But they were so committed. They had to go out and do their own training.

"We were fortunate that the League were very understanding - and other clubs were, too. When we went for away games they'd say, 'don't bring anything - you can use our balls and cones'. When we played Haslingden there were buckets in the changing room. They said they were sorry, but they'd had a leak and there were some wet bits on the floor. The girls were just laughing. 'That's not a leak!'

"That's how we approached it. With a sense of humour and a feeling of, right, ok, let's just get this done."

Remarkably, the Ladies battled through to the county cup final again, where they were beaten by Workington. That brought a hard season to a close, since when a fresh start has been made in North West Women's Regional League Division One North, a division led by Penrith while United currently sit seventh.

The broader story is the increasing importance of the Ladies to United. Gannon launched the female section of the Blues in the 1990s and, as a fine player herself, at times trained with Nigel Pearson's first team at Brunton Park.

She later went to play and work in west Cumbria and the women's set up drifted, independent of the club. It was about five years ago when, back in Carlisle, she approached United's board with a view to capitalising on growing interest and forging a more lasting link.

This, she says, was "championed in the boardroom" by co-owner John Nixon and the late commercial director Dick Young. Former manager Greg Abbott helped guarantee them a pitch at the club's Creighton training base, and the opportunity to wear United's badge became a magnet for young female players.

"A lot of the girls are season-ticket holders," Gannon says. "The crest means a lot to them. They love being a part of it." Their own space on United's website and the club's programme has allowed the Ladies to be further established, while Gannon speaks highly of the London Branch supporters club's Jamie Grubb, their media officer who is fundamental to their growing profile.

The addition of a development squad this year has strengthened their base, while an under-14s squad is being considered. Gannon's girls traditionally play a big part in United's summer fun days, while this campaign is regarded as one of foundation-building, with an influx of promising under-16 players, like the free-scoring Imogen Longcake, formerly of Carlisle City, joining a team featuring more established players like captain Sharina Robinson and vice-captain Rebecca Adam.

A 2-0 win against high-flying Bury was a recent highlight. A reasonably regular turnover of players is also seen as something to harness. "We're now talking to four universities in America, so that could be a pathway for girls that we can move on to scholarship. Hopefully that will encourage them to join us. You'd rather be part of someone's journey, rather than be their downfall because you've kept them to win everything yourself."

The professional women's game appears better than ever, with more role models and aspirations for girls at United's part-time level than in Gannon's own playing days.

"From the start, you would hear it all - women can't play football, they should be at home, and so on," she says. "My character is just to brush it off. I grew up with lads, got used to stick. You got on with it. But the game grew and things started changing.

"You find that girls who go into team sports are tough cookies. They'll stand up for themselves. But they have so many more opportunities now. The only worry for me is we get complacent. Women's football was the fastest-growing sport in Britain, but we can't keep using that strapline. We've lost three teams in our league this year from the north-west. If you rest on your laurels, stop doing the work, you suffer. We've got to keep making it accessible."

With this in mind Gannon's players are to visit local schools and clubs more often, to strengthen the club's links and highlight what United can offer. "We shouldn't just expect players to come to us. You have to have that connection. Carlisle has a lot of female supporters. How nice for them to think, 'I can play for Carlisle United one day', and say that as a woman?"

Gannon herself is still registered to play and, having been involved in at least one game every season, may involve herself in one more this campaign before keeping a promise to hang up her boots after reaching 50. Then she might reflect further on a tough but rewarding journey, especially in the recent past, when her team, like many others, pulled together in strife.

"Our saying in our team has always been 'football family'," she says, back home and struggling to believe a year has passed since the storm. "The girls got me a beautiful photo for my birthday and at the bottom is a definition of what family is about.

"That's what we are, when we meet up. It's our family. The support they have for each other is amazing. And you have them for life."