Hi

[Chris FGR]

So what can we expect from L1?

Is there a much larger gap from L2 in terms of quality and physicality?

Expect an enormous step up and every team to look like prime Barcelona in comparison to you. Actually tbf that was probably only the case for us, the rest of the promoted sides seemed to do ok somehow.

 

[Carver]

Expect an enormous step up and every team to look like prime Barcelona in comparison to you. Actually tbf that was probably only the case for us, the rest of the promoted sides seemed to do ok somehow.

I'm sorry you had to experience that Chris and it just proves that a whole club forced to go on a vegan diet will only get you so far.
I really can't see us doing as bad as our manager isn't going anywhere and I'm sure we will secure the majority of our better players.

I wish you all the best in the league below.

 

[valefan16]

So what can we expect from L1?

Is there a much larger gap from L2 in terms of quality and physicality?

More efficient sides is the main difference, you'd get punished for the odd mistake and game can be gone, we went to Bolton for example and dominated, their fans raving about how good we were... but we lost 2-1 as they took both chances and we not efficient.

Similar at Ipswich we did everything almost to a tee in terms of perfect away performance and got beat by their only shot on target and penalty.

There is a lot of learning, early season we kept losing to the top sides by the odd goal when we sat back and after Wednesday beat us that way with a fluke/wonder hit we decided to attack those sides and promptly beat Derby and went to Plymouth and won so sometimes its better to have a go.

Key lessons we would give from our experience is:

Don't assume your safe when you have 35 points by New Years Day and think sod January we will save the cash for the summer.

Make sure you ride the crest of euphoria like we did from promotion as its tougher post New Year and having points in the bag during that spell will help keep you up.

Don't host a Robbie Williams gig the week after the Play Off final and dont wait until the end of August until making most of your signings leaving you starting the season with a youth midfielder and 1 legged striker up top!

 

[Carver]

More efficient sides is the main difference, you'd get punished for the odd mistake and game can be gone, we went to Bolton for example and dominated, their fans raving about how good we were... but we lost 2-1 as they took both chances and we not efficient.

Similar at Ipswich we did everything almost to a tee in terms of perfect away performance and got beat by their only shot on target and penalty.

There is a lot of learning, early season we kept losing to the top sides by the odd goal when we sat back and after Wednesday beat us that way with a fluke/wonder hit we decided to attack those sides and promptly beat Derby and went to Plymouth and won so sometimes its better to have a go.

Key lessons we would give from our experience is:

Don't assume your safe when you have 35 points by New Years Day and think sod January we will save the cash for the summer.

Make sure you ride the crest of euphoria from promotion as its tougher post New Year and having points in the bag during that spell will help keep you up.

A lot of our matches this season we were quite efficient as most teams would have more possession than us but we would always have more shots and come out as winners.
Also, I don't know how important set pieces are in L1 but we absolutely swamped every other team with goals from corners.

 

[valefan16]

A lot of our matches this season we were quite efficient as most teams would have more possession than us but we would always have more shots and come out as winners.
Also, I don't know how important set pieces are in L1 but we absolutely swamped every other team with goals from corners.

We actually has the most goals from set pieces up until January when it dropped off and we started to struggle to defend them so its doable.

Its a challenge but one that can be achieved and I would say looking at the league next year it should be weaker than this with Ipswich and Wednesday the two mega budgets gone and Plymouth who made 100 plus points.

Derby will spend big no doubt but otherwise it will likely be more level

 

[Kendalcufc]

A lot of water has passed under the bridge since our last League One campaign.

However back then we more than held our own against the likes of Leeds United and Nottingham Forest amongst others.
Clubs like that shouldn't hold any fear for us. They need to be tackled head on with a positive attitude.

Granted the team we came up with then was a better squad of players however this time we've got Paul Simpson on the sidelines. There's a magical connection between him, the club and fans. For that reason alone I think that would be enough to see us stay up.

We weren't massively reliant on loan signings and I'd guess we'll keep the squad mostly intact. We're going to have to fight off competition for Moxon but I believe he'll give it at least one season with us in this league.

 

[hellogregory]

Interesting what’s said about doing well if you keep the spine of the team that got you promoted. Well going by our retained list we’re doing just that.

Still think we’ll need to bring in some better quality though. A couple of forwards, a right back, a centre back and a midfielder (2 if/when we sell Moxon) as a minimum. I’d also like a competent goalkeeper to take the place of or at least challenge Holy.

 

[Carver]

Interesting what’s said about doing well if you keep the spine of the team that got you promoted. Well going by our retained list we’re doing just that.

Still think we’ll need to bring in some better quality though. A couple of forwards, a right back, a centre back and a midfielder (2 if/when we sell Moxon) as a minimum. I’d also like a competent goalkeeper to take the place of or at least challenge Holy.

We kept the spine of our team the last time we came up into L1 and it worked for a couple of seasons, it was just the bizarre sacking of Mcdonald and the appointment of John Ward on a ridiculous 4 year contract, only for him to be shit and get sacked a year later which ruined the profits we made on Westwood and Garner and killed our momentum.

John Ward on a 4 year contract

For all the good Fred Story did for the club, he really did make a mess of things that season and then ran off.

 

[hellogregory]

We kept the spine of our team the last time we came up into L1 and it worked for a couple of seasons, it was just the bizarre sacking of Mcdonald and the appointment of John Ward on a ridiculous 4 year contract which ended ruining us later.

We kept them but we didn’t play many of them. Kev Gray became a bit of a bit part player for us in L1, Chris Billy was soon replaced by Thirlwell and Murray, Bridges left and we brought in Garner and Graham during the season.

I’m fine with us keeping the majority of them (1 or 2 of them I wouldn’t have kept), just hope we give Simpson the backing to add better quality to the mix.

 

[kieran_vale]

Interesting what’s said about doing well if you keep the spine of the team that got you promoted. Well going by our retained list we’re doing just that.

Still think we’ll need to bring in some better quality though. A couple of forwards, a right back, a centre back and a midfielder (2 if/when we sell Moxon) as a minimum. I’d also like a competent goalkeeper to take the place of or at least challenge Holy.

Have to admit Holy would be a little bit of a concern coming up. It’s no secret he struggles due to his size to get down to shots in the corner and stepping up with better attacking players they might be better placed to exploit that. Plenty of time to look at that though.

 

[hellogregory]

Have to admit Holy would be a little bit of a concern coming up. It’s no secret he struggles due to his size to get down to shots in the corner and stepping up with better attacking players they might be better placed to exploit that. Plenty of time to look at that though.

The shots to the corners haven't been a problem to be honest, it's a few shots that have gone straight at him and through his hands that have been the high profile errors, and his poor kicking.

He hasn't been awful by any stretch, just a few errors scattered over the season. But I think a little healthy competition will do him good, then if if he's not up to it we have another GK who can take his place.

 

[BigDaveCUFC]

If I was to give John ward a little defence it was that when up at the top we lost one of our strikers to a long injury (cannot remember if it was Garner or Graham) and we were in the top 2 looking good for promotion and the board needed to for once spend on a good replacement to keep momentum going and we went cheap getting Scott Dobie and tactics had to change and it went to sh*t

Just hope there is a huge understanding between our board (usually cheapskates) and Simpson about our budget to make improvements.

 

[hellogregory]

If I was to give John ward a little defence it was that when up at the top we lost one of our strikers to a long injury (cannot remember if it was Garner or Graham) and we were in the top 2 looking good for promotion and the board needed to for once spend on a good replacement to keep momentum going and we went cheap getting Scott Dobie and tactics had to change and it went to sh*t

Just hope there is a huge understanding between our board (usually cheapskates) and Simpson about our budget to make improvements.

Yeah it was Garner. But I'm fairly sure Dobie was already at the club when Garner picked up the injury, in fact if I remember correctly Dobie actually came on as the sub for Garner's injury. So they just chose not to replace him full stop knowing full well his season was done.

 

[Stocky]

Welcome mate, personally glad you guys won, didn't realise that Stockport had any supporters in the stadium

You might want to check the average attendances of the two sides.

I hope Carlisle do really well. Moxon definitely a player to watch out for.

 

[hellogregory]

You might want to check the average attendances of the two sides.

I hope Carlisle do really well. Moxon definitely a player to watch out for.

Likewise I hope you do well next season. Really got a lot of respect for your fans based on my experiences over the weekend, a top bunch. Plus your club showed a lot of class in defeat in the post match interviews and social media.

 

[Kendalcufc]

Yeah it was Garner. But I'm fairly sure Dobie was already at the club when Garner picked up the injury, in fact if I remember correctly Dobie actually came on as the sub for Garner's injury. So they just chose not to replace him full stop knowing full well his season was done.

Correct. It was Garner away at Crewe. It happened right in front of me and you knew straight away it was bad. For some bizarre reason he tried to stand up and carry on for a few minutes. Done for the season.

For me that ranks as the biggest mistake the club made in the last 20 years. That's saying something because there's some serious competition for that title.

We would have 100% finished that season as a Championship club if we had the foresight and ambition to sign a proper replacement.

From there it was down, down and down.

 

[Carver]

Correct. It was Garner away at Crewe. It happened right in front of me and you knew straight away it was bad. For some bizarre reason he tried to stand up and carry on for a few minutes. Done for the season.

For me that ranks as the biggest mistake the club made in the last 20 years. That's saying something because there's some serious competition for that title.

We would have 100% finished that season as a Championship club if we had the foresight and ambition to sign a proper replacement.

From there it was down, down and down.

We had the likes of Garner and Graham in that team, but also unfortunately had the likes of Evan Horwood, Grant Smith and a way past it Scott Dobie.

Also the most negative away manager the club has ever had in John Ward.

 

[Bartonyellow]

There is a giant Carlisle united flag in my next door neighbours window still. ( he went to uni there and stayed for 10
Years )
I’ve told him to take it down as tomorrow we have 3 estate agents round for valuations and it will take 10 grand off our house easy.

 

[shoddycollins]

There is a giant Carlisle united flag in my next door neighbours window still. ( he went to uni there and stayed for 10
Years )
I’ve told him to take it down as tomorrow we have 3 estate agents round for valuations and it will take 10 grand off our house easy.

Nice to have the pirelli derby back

 

[Carver]

Simpson has said he wants around 10 new additions to the squad. If the players we have offered contracts to stay then out of the 15 we currently have I believe we already have a team capable of staying in this league.

 

[Kendalcufc]

We had the likes of Garner and Graham in that team, but also unfortunately had the likes of Evan Horwood, Grant Smith and a way past it Scott Dobie.

Also the most negative away manager the club has ever had in John Ward.

The contrast between our home and away form was day and night.

Didn't we win 14 home games in a row at one point?

 

[BRFC_Gas]

The contrast between our home and away form was day and night.

Didn't we win 14 home games in a row at one point?

I bet your ball boys win you some points. They were literally running away from our players with the ball when we last played there. Just needed the Benny Hill music in the background

 

[Carver]

The contrast between our home and away form was day and night.

Didn't we win 14 home games in a row at one point?

Yes it was quite a contrast, for as good as we were at home we were absolutely terrible away for most of the season once Ward took over and that's what done us.
The other major fuck up made was appointing Graham Kavanagh as manager a few years later and then extending his contract after he got us relegated!!

Hopefully we go up into L1 now having learned from our past mistakes