Callum Guy says he watched footage of his goal “only a couple of hundred times” on Saturday night, and isn’t finished yet.
“I’m still waiting for a few more camera angles of it,” he says. “I don’t think there are enough!”
Guy, you won’t be surprised to hear, is in very happy spirits when discussing the moment against AFC Wimbledon that a long wait came to an end.
His sublime 45th-minute goal was his first as a Football League player. The Carlisle United midfielder has had a long time to think of how he would describe scoring, but couldn’t fully get over the sense of disbelief.
“It’s hard to put into words, to be honest,” he says. “I was obviously delighted. I just ran straight to my family, which was a great moment for me – I just wanted to share it with them. To finally score a league goal for Carlisle was amazing.”
Guy says it was most special of all to make a beeline for his partner Abbie and their two young children. “They’re at every game that they can possibly come to. I felt like it was only right to share that moment with them. Seeing Abbie’s face in the crowd, and she was tearing up. It was nice.”
It came in Guy’s 97th Carlisle appearance and his 146th Football League game. His only other professional strike was an EFL Trophy goal for Blackpool in 2018. Since then, nothing.
“To be honest, I didn’t think I would ever score,” says the 25-year-old. “But it was important to not put the pressure on myself, [and risk] losing my way in games just focusing on goals.
“It was important to do other jobs in the game. But I saw my opportunity on Saturday to get forward and thankfully it paid off.”
United’s fans may not have watched it quite as many times as the scorer himself, but the footage does reward repeat viewings. It came after Jordan Gibson had rolled a pass to Guy’s right, and the midfielder swapped quick passes with Fin Back before stepping onto his left foot and smacking his shot past Dons keeper Nikola Tzanev.
“I did see the pass as being a bit too far so I decided to try to set Fin off down the wing,” he says. “I think my pass was actually a bit short for him to do that, so he gave it straight back to me. I thought about crossing it but I was getting closed down so I thought I’d cut inside and swing the left foot at it. Thankfully it paid off.
READ MORE: Watch Guy's other brilliant first-team goal
“As soon as it left my foot I knew I’d struck it well. I looked up and I could see the keeper was struggling to get there, and I can’t really remember much after that to be honest with you…”
Guy was able to enjoy the moment all the more because it came in a Carlisle victory, Kristian Dennis making sure of that after Ayoub Assal had cancelled out Guy’s goal. The midfielder says he appreciated the many dozens of messages he received from current and former team-mates. Some, he says, had to be sent the footage so they could believe he’d actually scored.
The more serious side behind the fun is that Carlisle found a way to win – and again located a goal from somewhere other than seven-goal Dennis. It was the first league strike this season from their midfield.
“To be successful you need goals to come from all over the pitch, whether that’s set pieces, midfielders getting forward or Denno getting a goal every game,” Guy says. “It’s important you don’t just rely on one player, which we have done sometimes.
“Everyone else is chipping in now, Mells [Jon Mellish] has got two, Hunts [Paul Huntington] has scored from a set piece…it shows we’ve got goalscorers everywhere else in the team.”
Guy admits Carlisle conceded a poor goal but acknowledges the “grit and determination” that took them to a 2-1 win. The game was also notable for an amount of spice, aggro and frustration in the second half.
Carlisle stood up to that. “It’s important that we stick together on the pitch and we don’t lose our way,” Guy says. “We got involved in some little scuffles and stuff but that’s part of football. It will happen in most games.
“It’s important how you react straight after it when the ball’s back in play.”
The midfielder, who has been at United since January 2020, enjoyed being part of a three-man midfield of diverse attributes with Owen Moxon and Gibson. “We feed off each other really well,” he says. “With Gibbo, we try and get him the ball, Moxy can drive with it and I’ll sit a little bit deeper to allow that.
“I think we can show different roles, and it’s important to have that. We’re not really similar players but we all play with each other really well.”
As a team, he adds: “Even within games we’re changing the shape if we feel we need to, like on Saturday when it went from 5-2-3 to 5-3-2 then 4-4-2, and you need to be able to understand that.
“We’re seeing that players can do different jobs and play in different positions, and with the freedom we play with it’s important that other people cover if you do get onwards or push forward.”
United’s start of three wins, four draws and a defeat offers a certain platform. Guy says it’s important they maintain standards, and keep the hard-luck stories to a minimum.
“We’re happy with our start but it’s only the start,” he says. “It’s important we keep improving, getting better and getting to a point where we’re not saying, ‘We should have had three points and have only got one,’ when we’re coming in after games.”
This week sees the differing challenges of Fleetwood Town tonight in the Papa John’s Trophy, followed by Newport County away on Saturday in the league.
“No matter who we play, we’ll go into every game believing we can beat anybody,” Guy says. “We’ve got Fleetwood next, a League One side, but we know we can compete with them as we showed when we played Shrewsbury earlier in the season [in the Carabao Cup].
“Newport is a tough place to go, they haven’t had the best of starts but anything can happen at 3pm on a Saturday – we’ll make sure we’re prepared and ready.”
And will Guy, after his first league goal in 146, be prepared and ready to shoot on sight again? “I might do now,” he smiles. “I think the floodgates are open…”
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