The 1990/1 season at Carlisle United was supposed to be the campaign where experience carried the Blues to new heights. In the event, it was a boy of 17 who provided light in the gathering gloom.
Rob Edwards, from Cockermouth, was one of a number of aspiring youngsters around the first team at Brunton Park. He had been pressed into action the previous campaign because Ian Dalziel, the regular left-back, was sidelined with injury.
Edwards had an icy nerve that belied his age and, with other rising local talents like Darren Edmondson and Jeff Thorpe in the ranks, a youth policy nurtured by manager Clive Middlemass was starting to bear Cumbrian fruit.
Things were intended, though, to be all about a player at the other end of the scale in 90/91. After the agonising near-miss of the previous term, United had committed funds to the summer signing of Sunderland forward Eric Gates.
The 35-year-old said he had “come with the intention of getting promoted”, but the start of the new season turned out to be less hopeful. Gates set up fellow veteran Keith Walwyn to score on the opening day but a 3-2 home defeat to Doncaster rather set the tone.
Edwards, at least, was a rising star at left-back and, after a draw to Peterborough, the teenager truly stepped up in United’s second home game of the Division Four campaign, against Maidstone United.
The Kent club had infamously denied the Blues a play-off chance a few months earlier, but the rematch in Cumbria went the other way, thanks to some welcome United defiance – and a history-making act from Edwards.
Middlemass used the game to hand a league debut to new centre-half loan signing, Colin Methven from Blackpool, who replaced Alex Jones in a back line also shorn of the influential Nigel Saddington, who was suffering from the chronic fatigue illness M.E.
Gates, Walwyn and the skilful Paul Proudlock offered the attacking threat, while Edwards raided from the left. Maidstone, though, set the tone and, as things went on, it grew increasingly hard to fathom how they did not take control with goals.
The visitors’ two big strikers, Steve Butler and Ken Charlery, gave Carlisle plenty of problems, and the pacy Charlery left Methven for dead in the ninth minute only for his finishing to let him down.
Carlisle took time to come up for air but did create a chance through Derek Walsh, who set up Walwyn for a shot the frontman swept wide of the post.
Butler and Charlery combined again for the visitors but were denied by some attentive goalkeeping from Jason Priestley. Then, on 25 minutes, came Edwards’ moment.
A move involving Gates, Proudlock and Walwyn saw the latter into the box, where he was tripped by Mark Golley. Without Saddington, United’s regular taker, the penalty honours fell to Edwards, who had shown expertise from the spot in training.
Middlemass’s trust in the young Cumbrian was justified, as Edwards struck a low and true shot into the bottom corner, writing himself into United’s history in the process.
At 17 years and 250 days, it made him the Blues’ youngest-ever goalscorer, beating the record set by George McVitie against Bristol City when 18 years and 14 days old in September 1966.
United’s confidence grew, and Gates might have claimed his first goal in a blue shirt after a Golley slip, but the veteran volleyed over the bar from eight yards.
At the other end, Leeds-born Priestley was at full stretch to keep out Butler, and after the break Maidstone came on even stronger, Butler clearing the bar from a good position and Lawrence Osborne missing the target from close range.
Carlisle were also not helped by the loss of Walwyn since the penalty incident, Richard Sendall struggling to emulate the big man up front, but they were, at least, defiant enough at the back.
Priestley had a successful day between the posts, and after he saved a late Paul Rumble curler, United were able to see their 1-0 victory through – meaning Edwards’ mark in history would also be in a winning cause.
The season proved an impressive one for Edwards. He was a mainstay of the side until March – at which time he was snapped up by Bristol City in a six-figure deal. By then, United were listing again, Gates having proved an underwhelming presence and Middlemass sacked shortly before Edwards’ sale.
Another happening typical of Carlisle’s fortunes in that era was that misfiring striker Steve Norris had been allowed to join Halifax Town early in the season in a move which brought Tony Fyfe back to Cumbria – only for Norris to fire 30 league goals in the campaign for the Shaymen.
Carlisle finished the season fifth bottom of the Football League, as Edwards made the next steps in a career which also took him to Preston, Blackpool and Exeter, as well as a trial spell back at United in his veteran years.
He is now Wales’ Under-19 boss, while his youngest scorer record lasted 29 years...until a certain Jarrad Branthwaite, aged 17 years and 138 days, scored for the Blues at Morecambe in November 2019.
United: Priestley, Miller, Edwards, Graham, Methven, Fitzpatrick, Walsh, Shepherd, Walwyn (Sendall), Gates, Proudlock. Not used: Norris.
Maidstone: Beeney, Roast, Rumble, Berry, Golley, Madden (Cooper), Pritchard, Osborne (Lillis), Charlery, Butler, Sorrell.
Crowd: 3,808.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here