Carlisle United's John Halpin: 'I always felt it should be about supporting people in need...'

“I’ve seen that,” he eventually says after puffing out his cheeks. “It’s pretty humbling when you read that sort of stuff. It’s lovely people say it, but it’s for other people to judge, not me.

“Technology and I don’t always get on, but I managed to get [online], with the help of my wife, and look at the comments the other night. I’m staggered, really, that people have said the things they’ve said, including lots of people I don’t know.”

Part of the magic of Halpin is that so many people do feel they know him. It might have been a one-off encounter at a soccer school; it may have been closer input at a walking football session or education scheme. They might simply have bumped into him at Brunton Park. He is the sort of character that stays with you.

“People come to me with their own sons and daughters and say, ‘I remember coming to the soccer schools when you were doing it’,” he adds. “It makes me think, ‘God, you’ve been here a long time…’

“You know what – I love that. I love that people feel they can come, and chat, and feel relaxed about chatting…”

Halpin, who turns 61 in November, said he had been planning to retire when he turned 60, but the impact of Covid-19 on the community sports trust’s activities meant it “wouldn’t have been right” to walk away then.

Halpin has been at the forefront of United's community activities since the early 1990s (photo: Barbara Abbott) (Image: Barbara Abbott)

Even when he finally does so at the turn of the year, it will not be a total parting. He has agreed to help the trust one day a week until the end of the season, while Paul Simpson wants to sit down with Halpin to discuss ways he might remain involved at Brunton Park.

“I’ve got huge respect for Paul Simpson,” he says. “If he wants to say that, you’ve got to speak to him and see what he has to say.”

Halpin has been the figurehead of United’s community activities since the early 1990s, overseeing the trust’s growth into an organisation which has touched thousands of lives and covered ever-expanding bases.

It is an association that followed his playing days which started here, as he recalls precisely, “in October 1984. My first game was against Huddersfield Town. We got beat 1-0, and Sam Allardyce was playing for Huddersfield.

“I was going to come for two years initially [when I joined from Celtic], but it never quite happened that way. That’s just life, isn’t it?”

Halpin, it is well known, was attracting high-level interest because of his superb wing performances for Carlisle in the eighties. A succession of broken leg injuries, though, damaged his prospects – and sent him down a different road.

“It would have been lovely to have played at a higher level,” he says. “However, I think I’ve been very fortunate to do what I’ve done here. I’ve been lucky, really.”

Halpin spent the 1991/2 season on Rochdale’s books before moving into the phase of his career that would define him. “The manager there, Dave Sutton, had asked if I wanted to stay another year but I knew in my own mind I couldn’t do it,” he says. “I was finished. I couldn’t run about the way I used to, and I thought if I take another year I’m just stealing another year’s contract, which wasn’t fair on Rochdale because they were really good to me.

Halpin was a thrilling winger for the Blues before injuries affected his career

“Just by chance, at that time, I met [coach] David Wilkes in Carlisle, and he said there was a job coming up at the club – the community officer’s job – if I was interested. I met [manager] Aidan McCaffery and the Professional Footballers’ Association, who ran the community projects back then, and it went from there.”

It had not been a direction Halpin expected, but he had enjoyed going into schools and representing Rochdale in the community, and his outgoing personality was also a good fit. “I didn’t have any particular skills needed for the job,” he says. “I just progressed as we went along and was given time by the club. I made loads of mistakes, still do, but you learn about people, and yourself, along the way.”

Football in the community was a much more modest scheme back then. “I think at one time clubs didn’t really get the idea of the community projects at all,” Halpin says. “But in the recent past, clubs especially of our size have really understood the value of getting involved in the whole community – that it’s not just about Saturday from 3-4.45pm.

“It really kicked off here when Paul Simpson came for the first time [in 2003]. He really understood what it was all about. Because he was a local lad as well, I think he felt the club should be involved in the whole community. And Fred [Story], when he came as owner, too.”

It was Simpson who brought Halpin back to lead the community operation after a brief departure in the early noughties. Halpin, in his time away from the club, had worked for the Royal Mail.

Paul Simpson, centre, was instrumental in Halpin, left, returning to lead United's community schemes after a brief absence in the noughties

“I wasn’t sure if I wanted to come back, but after speaking to Paul and Fred, I thought their plans could work for the community projects here.”

As the football in the community scheme evolved into the community sports trust, Halpin was initially one of a two-man team alongside James Tose. As a charitable trust under the EFL Trust umbrella, they have since been able to tap into more funding pots and spread their work. They now have 17 staff and run sessions such as walking football and mental health football, as well as overseeing education courses and, most recently, gatherings for military veterans.

The mental health sessions, Halpin says, sum up how the trust has flourished, and nails what it should be. “When I started off, mental health…you didn’t know what it was. As the years progressed it became more relevant and clear that people needed help. I always felt that the community projects should support people in need.

“With the mental health group, I heard stories that some people didn’t come out of the house beforehand, and now they’re the life and soul of it. It’s a big plus to think you’ve helped those people along the way – and they’ve helped themselves.”

United's mental health group, pictured in 2015, has been one of the community sports trust's successes

Halpin also says he takes great pride in the education programmes the trust runs, to help young people stay in professional sport and learn along the way, while, with the help of the club’s media officer Andy Hall – a former soldier – the recently-formed veterans club has also seen the trust reach out further. “On our first session, we had a cup of tea and a bit of breakfast together, and they all spoke about the same things. They were all on the same wavelength.

“Everybody seems to think they want help, support and guidance. They don’t at first – they just wanted somewhere to have a chat, open up, let their feelings be known. It was a real insight and it’s grown since then.”

Being able to help people from various corners of society is testament to Halpin’s character. “I don’t judge people,” he says. “I’ve not got any preconceived idea of who they are or what they are.

“If you put people in a box, it would be very, very difficult to carry out the job we do. You have to wear loads of hats to deal with different people, politics, personalities.”

On the “politics” side, Halpin touches on what he regards as the biggest challenge of his time in the post. “One of the hardest things for me has been getting people to recognise this [the trust’s work] is worthwhile. Not so much in its infancy, but as we were going down the road. Because people didn’t see pounds, shillings and pence, they didn’t see the worth in it.

“I don’t just mean inside the club, but generally speaking. Slowly but surely, though, people have seen the benefit of getting involved.”

Halpin and his team helped people in the community during the Covid-19 pandemic

Has Halpin really had to fight battles to convince people of the worth of United’s community aims? “Fighting battles is maybe a little bit strong,” he says, “but we’ve had to stand our corner and say, ‘Listen, this is how it works, this is for the benefit of everyone, not for me or the trust and the club – but for the whole community. It will bring dividends.”

The Covid pandemic was another challenge to which the trust rose. Halpin says his staff’s attitude at such a time was magnificent. “We did everything we could to support people, with things like medicine, shopping, travelling to help…it was a real eye opener,” he says.

“I found then that everybody came together. It’s kind of fallen back a bit now. People seem to be a bit angry now, I don’t know why…but in Covid everyone seemed to be together and supporting each other.”

The floods of 2005 and 2015, which devastated Carlisle United and the city, also brought the sense of community forward. “Without the people who were at the club and in the community standing together, I don’t think either would have survived those floods,” he says. “It was an horrific time.”

Halpin says his management spell alongside David Wilkes and Michael Knighton gave him experiences he took into his community role

Halpin was part of a different kind of team in 1997/8 when, alongside Wilkes, he was asked by owner Michael Knighton to be part of a three-man management group after the sacking of Mervyn Day. Carlisle were relegated from the third tier and then, in 1998/9, Halpin was part of Nigel Pearson’s coaching team as the Blues went to the very brink.

“I never wanted to go into management at all. There are jobs for certain people, and that job wasn’t for me,” he says. “But I will say the 18 months we did it, firstly with David and myself, then Nigel…it was hugely enjoyable.

“Of course, at times it was horrendous. At one time I thought I was going to be associated with a team that took the club into the Conference, before Jimmy Glass saved us.

“It was a huge learning curve for me. I’ve brought a lot of what I learned there back to the community trust. There were certain aspects I saw on the management side and thought, ‘That’s not how to deal with that, I wouldn’t speak to people like that’.”

Halpin also learned conclusively that management was not his bag. “I took it everywhere I went, seven days a week, 24 hours a day. My family life suffered. All the time I was either on the phone or speaking about football. That wasn’t what I wanted to be or do. It wasn’t what I wanted my family to have.”

Halpin says Carlisle United has "been my life and love since I was 23" (photo: Barbara Abbott) (Image: Barbara Abbott)

He says the community sports trust job does not carry the painful pressures of management, “but it’s an intense job, and if you’re set in your ways, you’ll go backwards. What you think you’re going to do at 8am can change by 9am.”

The fact the trust are moving into a new three-year strategic plan, and an associated funding cycle, makes it the right time to walk away. “I’ve got five grandchildren, and I want to spend more time with them,” Halpin says. “I’m going to try and sneak onto the golf course and try and get my handicap down before it’s too late…”

Will it be hard to depart? “I think it will be. Carlisle United has been my life and my love since I was 23 years of age. You can’t just flick a switch and it goes off. But I think I’ll probably always be involved in one capacity or another.”

As a fan, too? “Oh, I’ll always come back. I couldn’t not watch the games.”
Halpin will do so happier for the presence of the man in the manager’s office. While he believes the trust is well equipped to grow further, feeling his “legacy” is the way it has developed and the staff it has been able to nurture, the risk of relegation last season caused anxiety.

“There would have been obvious financial implications which could have a bearing on staff, things we can put on and pots of money we can dip into,” he says. “That’s a worry because we’re entwined with the club – if we lose our league status, we lose our status as a trust attached to the Football League.

“The truth is, after the Swindon game [a 3-0 home defeat in February under former manager Keith Millen], I thought the writing was on the wall. But a few days later, I saw Paul Simpson out of my office window. He was walking down the stand with [chief executive] Nigel Clibbens, and I thought, ‘We’re gonna be ok, here’.”

The hubbub of young voices from behind the door brings Halpin to his feet. It is a match day, and the latest junior teams are here to be shown around Brunton Park. We shake hands and the interview is done. Moments later, there is laughter from the Neil Centre, and the sound of Halpin’s unmistakeable voice. The legend is in his element once more.