Carlisle United: highs and lows from outgoing owners' era

FIVE TOP MOMENTS

1 PROMOTION

Saving the best until (almost) last, United’s veteran owners sat in the Royal Box at the national stadium in May this year and savoured an occasion which seemed ludicrously unlikely little more than a year previously.

Carlisle’s League Two play-off final victory over Stockport County, sealed via a penalty shoot-out on a day of huge drama in the capital, capped an extraordinary comeback, led by their most inspired – and necessary – managerial appointment.

2 WEMBLEY 2011

Let’s gloss over 2010’s events and go straight to 2011: a second consecutive trip to the big arch in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy final and, this time, an unforgettable finish.

Until 2023, this was the single best day in terms of footballing achievement under the “custodians”, as Peter Murphy wrote a terrific story by volleying the winner against Brentford with his new-born son in the stand.

3 FEBRUARY 23, 2022

The day that disaster was averted. Carlisle, having lost to Swindon Town in League Two, were heading very much south: into the National League, with a regime plumbing new depths of unpopularity.

At this point of pressure and maximum desperation, the owners wrested back control of affairs. They sacked manager Keith Millen, oversaw the departure of EWM-linked director of football David Holdsworth, and made an emergency call to Paul Simpson. Thank goodness they did.

The saviour returns... (Image: Amy Nixon / CUFC)

4 BIG OCCASIONS

While the last 15 years have not been strewn with success, there have been, along the way, a few days and nights to delight supporters.

How about 2015’s League Cup tie at Anfield, when Keith Curle’s Blues pushed Liverpool to the very limit? Or a packed Brunton Park for the post-floods visit of Everton in the FA Cup? 2017’s play-off epic with Exeter City was a cracker too, as were high-end League One wins over the likes of Sheffield Wednesday and Southampton, not to mention 2010’s valiant FA Cup showing at Goodison Park.

5 THE HANDOVER

Well, this has to be taken on faith at the moment. But we see enough regimes that bow out in a state of crisis, bitterness and turmoil to know that this one appears to be passing on in calmer conditions at least.

That is down to the wherewithal of the suitors, of course, and hopefully the Piataks will vindicate this view. Eventually, though, it seems the “custodians” have found folk with the right motivations and wealth to take United on: something they always said they wanted.

FIVE BAD EPISODES

1 TAKEOVER DEBACLES

It has been an often tortuous journey to get here and the past 15 years have seen numerous attempts to offload or attract investment to United, some of which have only led you to headbutt the table.

The most farcical of all was the absurdly protracted “billionaire” saga involving Yahya Kirdi (not a billionaire), information launched haphazardly via a vice-president's tweet (social media gaffes were a bedfellow of this regime at times). This was on top of other failed discussions with certain business people and groups, many of which did little to advance the reputations of either United or their controllers.

2 PROJECT BLUE YONDER

Strictly speaking, this was not just a matter for United’s owners to own. A proposed enabling development at Kingmoor Park involving a number of potential partners looked on course, until the council cast doubt on its viability.

Yet that, and other doomed stadium ideas, exposed the limitations of Carlisle’s ability to determine its own future. The proposed capacity of PBY’s new ground – 12,000 – has also been exposed as unambitious by the Simmo-led resurgence lately.

Land at Kingmoor Park in an area earmarked for a possible Carlisle United stadium development in 2011...which never happened (Image: Stuart Walker)

3 THE DEBT

At last, United have found the perfect way to resolve their seven-figure debt to Purepay Retail Limited: find new owners with the clout to sort it.

Without the Piataks emerging on the scene, though, who knows how Carlisle would have dealt with this millstone. Getting so readily into bed with Philip Day's Edinburgh Woollen Mill, without the sense of an obvious way out, highlighted United’s structural weakness and could have led to a much less appealing future.

4 THE KAVALANCHE

United’s owners inherited a club which had come very close to the Championship. By 2014, they had overseen a nosedive of a relegation back to the basement division.

Their faith in Graham Kavanagh as manager ultimately resulted in record player numbers and, after the drop, another wretched start in League Two. Things were arrested after his departure but Carlisle looked a club losing a grip on itself in that period. Other spells of mediocrity, or worse, on the pitch, in a long fourth tier run, also proved a grind.

5 INFRASTRUCTURE

After 15 years of United’s ownership, their training arrangements are still too often ad-hoc. Their stadium is beloved but an increasing maintenance money-pit.

Paul Simpson’s recent broadside about the academy lit a fire under another area of the Blues. Some of these shortcomings, and an associated lack of blueprint/vision, could have caused major and eventually untenable problems, without the arrival of a new regime.