Farewell then, 2021: a year that, for Carlisle United, very much peaked on January 2. The remaining 363 days? Now that's another matter.

Can it really have been in these same 12 months: that snow-dappled day at Walsall’s Banks’s Stadium when Chris Beech answered our feverish questions about how the Blues would handle being top of the league?

The head coach, very sensibly, said he would only be interested in the league table if Carlisle were still there in the springtime. Spoiler: they were not.

Come May, Beech was inviting us to “celebrate” United’s 10th-placed finish, on the basis of their finances and the Covid/postponement hurdles which they’d hit after that 2-0 win in the west Midlands. Come October, he was clearing his desk.

News and Star: A win at Walsall put United top of League Two on January 2 (photo: PA)A win at Walsall put United top of League Two on January 2 (photo: PA)

The Blues have known their anti-climaxes and Devon Loch finishes down the years, but something about 2021’s slide felt more deflating than usual. Maybe it was the fact it all happened in empty stadiums; defeats, draws and the noticeable loss of impetus feeling more soulless and demoralising than usual. 

United’s trajectory continued deep into the ground and threatened to pop up somewhere in Australia until Keith Millen’s work late in the year showed little glimpses of saving them. 

In terms of the team’s form and state of mind, the former Bristol City manager accepted the job at Ground Zero. That was at risk of becoming Brunton Park’s new name during a record home scoreless run until Tristan Abrahams netted on November 27 against…Walsall.

News and Star: Tristan Abrahams' winner against Walsall in November released some stress (photo: Barbara Abbott)Tristan Abrahams' winner against Walsall in November released some stress (photo: Barbara Abbott)

That shook some of the stress away. But plenty still remains. United end a year bookended by Covid anxiety very much in the thick of a fight to save their Football League status.

That in itself tells you what a misadventure 2021 has been. It explains why they have had to issue more than one update stressing that funds will be available to Millen in the coming January market. Given the risk of non-league obscurity, they really have no choice. 

The disrupting spread of Omicron these past weeks makes it a little harder to peer past the Covid curtain and look back on the other matters we like to think of serious. Clearly the club’s ability to negotiate this latest, dismal phase of the pandemic comes before all else.

News and Star: Chris Beech's reign ended with a defeat at Bristol Rovers in October (photo: Richard Parkes)Chris Beech's reign ended with a defeat at Bristol Rovers in October (photo: Richard Parkes)

Glancing further over the shoulder, into the heart of 2021, takes us back to a Carlisle United year which had all the familiar features: melodrama, frustration, controversy and of course stasis.

“Succession”, the favoured buzzword for ownership change, remains somewhere over the horizon. This year brought the eventual collapse of a takeover involving Philip Day and companies linked to the Edinburgh Woollen Mill tycoon. A great deal has since been said, in Holdings board and CUOSC statements plus supporter group minutes, without the meat of the matter being explained: why were EFL requirements not to EWM’s liking, what’s the way out of £2.4m of debt, and what are the “Plans B and C” John Nixon said the Blues had in June?

Carlisle’s owners have found themselves in the teeth of growing supporter discontent. The sense of the fanbase being fed up with yet more waiting has not overlapped into serious protest action, unless you count a few tennis balls and a couple of banners.

News and Star: United's owners saw another attempted takeover hit the buffers in 2021 (photo: Richard Parkes)United's owners saw another attempted takeover hit the buffers in 2021 (photo: Richard Parkes)

2022, though, will take this “custodian” regime towards a 15th year without major new investment, a successful scheme to sort the stadium or a new vision for the Blues: three important items on most people’s checklists.

A fourth – a winning team – can always dial down the heat, but right now success this season would be finishing 22nd, whatever officials say about not contemplating relegation.

United, at the turn of 2021, appeared to have refreshing harmony on playing style and recruitment. The muscularity of ‘Beech Ball’ fit the players brought in. The summer, though, was deeply inadequate, leaving Carlisle without anything resembling a potent centre-forward, not to mention their susceptibility to suitors for a number of their players.

News and Star: Aaron Hayden's sale brought in revenue but weakened the Blues (photo: Barbara Abbott)Aaron Hayden's sale brought in revenue but weakened the Blues (photo: Barbara Abbott)

Transfer fees poured in for George Tanner and Aaron Hayden, two players the Blues developed and then sold; something clubs at this level must do. But their departures further weakened a team who lost other out-of-contract pros in the close-season.

United’s prudence is a virtue right until the moment it’s not. Now they have to begin (and spend) again to lift themselves out of a hole. 

Millen was on few fans’ shortlists the moment Beech was malleted, but the Blues’ experienced autumn choice has at least found a broadly better way of playing with the squad he inherited. Carlisle looked totally bereft when the experienced former Bristol City boss took charge for the first time at Northampton. Since then, they’ve improved gradually, intermittently.

Now, having made them more solid, Millen must show a wise touch in the market to help United win a survival race that looks likely to involve Scunthorpe, Oldham and Stevenage for the duration.

Jordan Gibson and Mark Howard have been two upbeat additions. They deserve credit for lifting the general tone. Now they must be supported by greater reliability elsewhere.

News and Star: Jordan Gibson has been a positive addition (photo: Richard Parkes)Jordan Gibson has been a positive addition (photo: Richard Parkes)

Off the pitch, paradoxes remain. Carlisle’s chief executive, Nigel Clibbens, communicates in admirable detail and depth, but his employers take the opposite view. United’s operational top table inform fan groups constructively, but local media questions to the owners go unanswered. Carlisle earn praise for "fan engagement", their matchday experience for families and for bringing their catering back in-house, but many folk are still sceptical and/or disgruntled.

Under the weight of the seven-figure Purepay debt, United remain lodged between different influences. Although the EWM saga is officially over, John Jackson, Day’s finance man, remains a director. Another figure linked to Day, director of football David Holdsworth (who has come in for increased criticism from fans lately), continues. 

An emphatic declaration of new control and new clarity must, then, be the wish for 2022. Supporters' trust CUOSC, meanwhile, regained credibility with some for saying “no” to a "takeover" which would seemingly have kept the current regime in place, but cannot assume to leave this year with a mandate to speak for thousands. Fan representation at United still feels lacking in a broad sense.

News and Star: Chief executive Nigel Clibbens, second left, communicates with fans, but United's owners seldom do (photo: Richard Parkes)Chief executive Nigel Clibbens, second left, communicates with fans, but United's owners seldom do (photo: Richard Parkes)

Among 2021’s more nourishing events was the long-awaited reunion of the club's 1994/5 heroes: an emotional and entertaining night organised by the indefatigable Colin Carter which also raised more than £10,000 for Eden Valley Hospice in Tony Hopper's memory. The London Branch, a proactive group for which the Blues should be forever grateful, stepped up again with a charity t-shirt in support of Stan Bowles' Alzheimer's plight.

A twice-postponed awards ceremony which could finally celebrate the magnificent work of John Halpin’s community sports trust at United was another uplifting occasion.

The following day, we had the frankly extraordinary sight of Michael Knighton - a man supporters mobilised to oust, two decades ago - sitting in the directors’ box at Brunton Park. Paradoxes, as I say.

If we are looking for brightness as we face the new year, it is by considering the progress of young players like Sam Fishburn, Gabe Breeze and Scott Simons. Financially, it might also include a beady eye on the movements of Dean Henderson, should the ex-Blues academy keeper feel like leaving Manchester United for a good many millions.

For the first time in several years, United also remain in the Papa John’s Trophy as January looms – still an abomination of a competition, but the opportunity for lucrative distraction if they can go on.

News and Star: Joe Laidlaw: United's First Division top scorer in 1974/5 died recently (photo: PA)Joe Laidlaw: United's First Division top scorer in 1974/5 died recently (photo: PA)

A final take on 2021 must, though, look back, acknowledge and applaud people who gave the club its greatest times: players like Joe Laidlaw, their First Division top scorer, who died last month aged 71 and whose deeds grow more valuable as 1974/5 further recedes.

It must also end on one wish, more important than all you’ve just read. Let 2022 be a positive year in the life and recovery of Danny Hodgson, the former United youth player so appallingly attacked in Australia: a young man whose plight has touched so many, and whose fighting spirit inspires.