Carlisle v Cheltenham - a relegation 10 pointer (not my words but those of James Phillips, BBCRC)

[shoddycollins]

Well... has there been a game as massive to our history since that Conference play-off final?

The background:

Cheltenham, a club on rotten form who appointed a car-crash of a manager and plummeted down the table, finding themselves tipped to get relegated. They changed their manager, and brought in some new players just before a string of games against those teams most desperate to hammer the final nail in their coffin. They immediately beat Tranmere and the resurgence begins. Suddenly the run of fixtures looks favourite to Cheltenham rather than their rivals, as it gives them a chance to put a sequence of wins together and leapfrog all the other relegation contenders in the process.

Carlisle, the worst club in the opening month of the season, who, despite improving, have never managed to put a gap between themselves and relegation. At one point recently they looked like pulling away but then four defeats on the bounce later they find themselves treading water. Now they face a crucial period, not just in this season but in their entire history. Can they avoid a second successive relegation, can they put their off-field troubles behind them, or are they about to go the way of Darlington?

Form would seem to favour Cheltenham, whose fans must have groaned loudly when the fixture list came out and they saw away to Carlisle on a Tuesday night. They might not have expected the game to take on such urgency though. Despite recent form, if Carlisle win, the pressure is back onto them.

Why do Cheltenham always find us at our lowest ebb? They are the team that relegated us last time we went to the Conference, and they will all but relegate us again.

 

[BigDaveCUFC]

well i am not going to listen to it which should be a bonus as we won 2 home games when i didn't listen.

but to be honest i just do not see it at present, i think the biggest problem for us tuesday may be the crowd i can see crowd turning quite nasty on the board on Tuesday if Cheltenham took the lead and that is probably the last thing team needs.

but they are as utter sh*te as we are or else we'd both not be down there so its anyones game really, you cannot even say home advantage helps when you look at say us at tranmere or York at us etc, etc.

 

[hellogregory]

Can only see one winner here and unfortunately for us that is Cheltenham. They have recruited a few decent players in the loan market which puts them ahead of us.

It's a huge game for Cheltenham. It's between them, Hartlepool and York for that second bottom spot. (I'm still ruling out Tranmere as I think they'll pick up enough wins at home).
3 points here for Cheltenham and back to back wins could kick start their road to safety.

 

[BigDaveCUFC]

You are more negative than I am HG which takes some doing.

I still think we've a good chance, I expected 5 losses in a row in Feb so to win one of them was better than expected, but Curle worries me as he's meddling and messing which is exactly what murdered us with Kavanagh.

but Cheltenham and York are a crap as us, but we need to win this one because York is I think the most unluckiest of grounds we NEVER win at York.

 

[BigDaveCUFC]

Hmm I may go to this tonight, my first match in a year and a half if I do. Maybe will bring much needed luck

 

[Richard Cranium]

Gonna be a nervy night, I'm not going to Newport tonight so watching the scores come in is going to be awful unless we race into a 3-0 lead in the opening 20!

 

[shoddycollins]

Hmm I may go to this tonight, my first match in a year and a half if I do. Maybe will bring much needed luck

You'll probably be surprised by how optimistic you suddenly seem compared to those around you.

 

[hellogregory]

Apparently Cheltenham have never won at Brunton Park.

 

[cufc17]

Gotta be a home win, 3-1
Goals coming from Wyke x2 and Asamoah

 

[daviejones]

We've got goals in us for sure, we've been unlucky recently with having played good keepers and with a few iffy penalty decisions. Question is can we keep Cheltenham out...

 

[cufc17]

Great win, very poor second half performance though, and just scraped the 3 points. Couldn't believe Curle didn't make any subs till the 93rd minute, when we were clearly struggling.

Cheltenham had a golden opportunity in the last minute, and should have scored. Thankfully they didn't, and we have a winnable match at the weekend to get more points on the board.

 

[hellogregory]

Dire game of football between 2 dire teams.

I wouldn't be surprised if these 2 turned out to be the bottom 2 come the end of the season.

 

[daviejones]

Dire game of football between 2 dire teams.

I wouldn't be surprised if these 2 turned out to be the bottom 2 come the end of the season.

Can you not even squeeze a drop of optimism out of a win haha

 

[hellogregory]

If we win on Saturday (even if it's a dire affair again) I reckon I'll be a bit more optimistic.

Didn't see an awful lot tonight that suggests we'll get anywhere near 50 points.

 

[hellogregory]

But the big question we all want to know is......

Did BigDaveCUFC go?

 

[shoddycollins]

It was one of those sort of ugly encounters that are usually won by teams who avoid relegation and lost by teams who get relegated. Without being particularly good we earned the three points, just through having 11 players who all played a part from start to finish (literally, no substitutions until Asamoah came on thirty seconds before the final whistle and didn't touch the ball). We didn't put in a mistake-free performance, and almost gifted Cheltenham a goal at the very end, but got lucky, but Cheltenham can point to moments where players went missing and we can't, so we ground out a win, just from having them effectively outnumbered throughout the match, but that sort of thing will beat most of the teams down the bottom end, so as long as it wasn't a one-off we could pick up some crucial points.

 

[BigDaveCUFC]

No I didn't go, I had so much on with my new property I was shattered by 7pm.

I was only going as my dad has slipped a disc so couldn't go last night and I had his ticket, it meant that is first time no one in my family went to a game since ironically we played Cheltenham on a Tuesday back in 2002 when the boycotts happened............maybe we are a curse!

phew to fact we won, that was a huge win considering other results.

 

[UTS]

How did Pablo Mills get on last night?

 

[hellogregory]

How did Pablo Mills get on last night?

Shite. Dirty player with not much quality based on last night. His highlight was trying to lob the keeper with a cushioned volley from about 30 yards out. Unfortunately for Cheltenham he lobbed the stand instead of the keeper.

 

[shoddycollins]

Shite. Dirty player with not much quality based on last night. His highlight was trying to lob the keeper with a cushioned volley from about 30 yards out. Unfortunately for Cheltenham he lobbed the stand instead of the keeper.

You talk about misses where the player got under the ball too much. He got right under it, just booted it almost straight up into the air. Was quite funny actually.

He put himself about and tried to be aggressive but not to any great effect, picked up a booking for stamping on Steven Rigg (the referee bottled the decision, if he saw it he'd have sent him off, he clearly didn't see it so he had no reason to wave the yellow card, it's annoying when referees use the yellow card as a get-out when they think they've seen a red-card offence but can't be sure, in this case I think the linesman should have helped him out). Cheltenham hooked him in the second half, probably because he lost his head at one point and started picking fights and charging around, he was skirting close to picking up a second yellow.

 

[hellogregory]

Oh yeah when Mills was taken off he was giving it the wanker gesture to the Carlisle fans. We just laughed.

 

[UTS]

Doesn't sound like Mills at all to be honest...

 

[shoddycollins]

Doesn't sound like Mills at all to be honest...

Maybe the realisation that he now plays for Cheltenham was all too much for him.