Sat 23 March fixtures

[thewwfc]

Relatively few games on this weekend given the international break, but the glory clash that stands out above all in these is the alluring power of Burton v Vale.

 

[valefan16]

Yay! My last away game of the season purely because its local.

A win here mathematically brings us right back in the game, I say that because even if we do win we'd get bumped at home Good Friday and wouldn't take any advantage of that at all, we are not going to win 4-5 games in 9 when winning 3 in 30 are we.

We've won here once already 2-0 in the FA Cup (without Arblaster and Devine as they were away on Int duty) and this generally seems to be an away win, we've won 3 in a row at their place and lost only twice in all the visits with one being the first visit, Burton have a decent record at VP so hopefully that can continue and we can make some fight of it.

Saturday though after a positive midweek stop the rot result was a shambles and we looked non league so not expecting much. No big Uche to bully them this time either.

It will either be a sloppy defeat 1 or 2-0 or a dour 0-0 if these are as bad as we are.

Its set to be a pure El Crapico!

Dont even think we'll have 1000 there.

 

[BigDaveCUFC]

The plan will no doubt be for Evans to heap mass praise on Simpson this week and tell of his shock of how bad they have been this season.

Then he acts like the usual annoyance on the touch line and will either act all gracious if they win or sulk and take back all nice things said if lose

 

[nelsonpfc]

Derby will be putting pressure on top spot with a win. Meaning if they match our results on good friday they could potentially go above us live at TV the Tuesday after Bank Holiday Monday.

 

[denzel ecfc]

Was dubious about us calling off our game so early but it appears we have five internationals on duty, all were in the squad on Saturday so we would have been very short. Will be interested in Vale v Burton in particular though

 

[valefan16]

Was dubious about us calling off our game so early but it appears we have five internationals on duty, all were in the squad on Saturday so we would have been very short. Will be interested in Vale v Burton in particular though

might be on ifollow if you want to spend £10.00 on being bored for 90 minutes!

 

[AmberAndy]

Is there any scenario where Burton and Vale complete the 90 minutes, but neither get any points? Just asking, don’t think I could take another last day cliff hanger, but it’s looking very likely.

 

[BRFC_Gas]

Do Derby really not have 3 internationals or did they agree to play anyway?

 

[valefan16]

Is there any scenario where Burton and Vale complete the 90 minutes, but neither get any points? Just asking, don’t think I could take another last day cliff hanger, but it’s looking very likely.

Some fans have suggested if we can get within 3 points of you come the final day, great sets up a huge afternoon... however this is the same squad that couldn't "get up" for a Carabao Cup QF and have shown zero character, so the chances even if somehow we were able to beat you and stay up of us actually producing a performance of battling quality to do it is virtually zero.

 

[folletto]

Do Derby really not have 3 internationals or did they agree to play anyway?

I think they would ordinarily but there's not a full round of fixtures in Africa so a few of their players who may have been called up there haven't. Interesting to see Mendez-Laing isn't int the Guatemala squad either, wonder if that is Derby's doing

 

[denzel ecfc]

might be on ifollow if you want to spend £10.00 on being bored for 90 minutes!

It's OK, I won't be that bored!

 

[Mansfield_Ram]

For derby nyambi (Namibia) is injured, Mendez lang (Guatemala) has requested he is left out this one squad. Connor Washington has just hit the grass (Northern Ireland).

Imagine Mendez knew he’d miss the games so requested to stay as it’s the run in

 

[Bartonyellow]

Nailed on 0-0 draw. Heat map would show the ball in the middle of the field for 75 mins and both teams will not have a shot.
We deserve to go down and rebuild with a new manager and new staff behind the scenes.
I won’t be here as I’m away on holiday so thankfully I don’t have to endure it.
And a draw is no good to either side really.

 

[leedsvaliant]

I've started to come to the conclusion that I'd actually be ok with us going down. We have seen other teams come up, go back down and then come up again in much better shape. Can't help feeling we were always fighting a losing battle. We came up in terrible shape, having scraped into the playoffs on the final day. We then scratched around trying to find one or two league one standard players and stumbled through last season. We then had too many left overs who weren't good enough and brought in too little quality.

Surely we'll be one of the stronger squads in league 2 if we keep a couple of our half decent players and rebuild with a competitive budget?

As for this game, Burton will be way more up for it than we are and in spite of their fans claiming they are dire, they'll be better than us and win comfortably.

 

[valefan16]

I've started to come to the conclusion that I'd actually be ok with us going down. We have seen other teams come up, go back down and then come up again in much better shape. Can't help feeling we were always fighting a losing battle. We came up in terrible shape, having scraped into the playoffs on the final day. We then scratched around trying to find one or two league one standard players and stumbled through last season. We then had too many left overs who weren't good enough and brought in too little quality.

Surely we'll be one of the stronger squads in league 2 if we keep a couple of our half decent players and rebuild with a competitive budget?

As for this game, Burton will be way more up for it than we are and in spite of their fans claiming they are dire, they'll be better than us and win comfortably.

To be fair we were in the play offs for a month or two and should of made the Auto's but had a massive bottle job losing those three in a row at the end before Exeter away.

Issue was with the World Cup we had 9 weeks from POF to First game and still had much of a squad under contract that was designed to take two years to get promoted not one, add in the Robbie Concert which seems to have not helped either so ended up with the dregs and starting the season with a youth midfielder up front and half fit Proctor.

Coming back for me depends on a couple of things, this squad is largely under contract so need to get rid of the poorer players and back DM, I heard rumour on Saturday that we will be backed better financially post the investment into Carol's business hence the appointment of Moore (Who's not on a cheap wage to put it kindly!).

Lets see if the rumours come to fruition but if Flickers does survive, which he shouldn't he has to have another summer like 2021!

 

[valefan16]

Our only striker capable of scoring at the moment, a 17 year old youth player has been called up for England U17's now for his first call up... so no Dipepa, which narrows our options further, great for the kid, who should be on loan in non league to learn and develop and is being relied upon unfairly.

So Wilson, Loft... some rumours Uche may return but would be surprised if he's back just yet.

 

[E10rifle]

All Carlisle, ain’t we?

 

[91SPP]

Really happy to be able play this game and allow us avoid any undue fixture congestion. As others have alluded to, it was really only Mendez-Laing who was a concern and he was able to politely decline the call-up to ensure this game was on.

We do seem to have a crazy amount of injuries built up and we're waiting on the news of a few. Assume Gayle is out, potentially for the season, Ward & Barkhuizen were also withdrawn for injuries. Sonny Bradley, James Collins, Max Bird, Connor Washington, Tyreece John-Jules, Ryan Nyambe, Josh Vickers & Jake Rooney are all currently out. 11 first-team injuries is tough to carry.

I'd suspect our team looks like: Wildsmith, Nelson, Forsyth, Cashin, Wilson, Hourihane, Adams, Sibley, Mendez-Laing, Blackett-Taylor & Waghorn. Waghorn and Blackett-Taylor are struggling with fitness issues though, so wouldn't be surprised to see Thompson & Smith (both more defensive midfielders) come in and hope Mendez-Laing can do something up front on his or a set-piece.

 

[LordJord]

Hoping we can up our intensity levels as that has dropped off noticeable now we are stuck in mid table (still delighted with it). Does feel like the season is just coasting to an end though, fully expecting a comfortable Derby victory. We currently have all 6 of our full backs injured so expecting a back 4 with all CB's playing.

Our defensive record has been atrocious recently and I cant see us being able to stop Derby from scoring a few.

Derby destroyed us at Pride Park and it should have been a heavier defeat for us tbh. Fortunately it happened to be a bit of a turning point and we went on a strong run after that.

We have taken a bit of a pasting off of all the top 5 or 6 this season so cant see it being anything different despite Derby's injury issues.

A 3-1 loss and another game closer to the end of the season for us, probably have at least one player go off injured also.

 

[leedsvaliant]

Hoping we can up our intensity levels as that has dropped off noticeable now we are stuck in mid table (still delighted with it). Does feel like the season is just coasting to an end though, fully expecting a comfortable Derby victory. We currently have all 6 of our full backs injured so expecting a back 4 with all CB's playing.

Our defensive record has been atrocious recently and I cant see us being able to stop Derby from scoring a few.

Derby destroyed us at Pride Park and it should have been a heavier defeat for us tbh. Fortunately it happened to be a bit of a turning point and we went on a strong run after that.

We have taken a bit of a pasting off of all the top 5 or 6 this season so cant see it being anything different despite Derby's injury issues.

A 3-1 loss and another game closer to the end of the season for us, probably have at least one player go off injured also.

You've done well. After our game earlier in the season, I thought you'd be a plucky opponent but ultimately getting beat regularly (as you did that day). You've done far better than we have in our 2 seasons.

The test I guess will be next season as you do seem to bounce around between this division and the one below. Your squad seems fairly strong and settled though and probably just needs tweaks to advance. We've had to make virtually wholesale changes in the past 2 summers and it's shown.

 

[K-Win]

We do seem to have a crazy amount of injuries built up and we're waiting on the news of a few. Assume Gayle is out, potentially for the season, Ward & Barkhuizen were also withdrawn for injuries. Sonny Bradley, James Collins, Max Bird, Connor Washington, Tyreece John-Jules, Ryan Nyambe, Josh Vickers & Jake Rooney are all currently out. 11 first-team injuries is tough to carry.

You're not alone. We had 14 first teamers out on Saturday at Peterborough. Bolton have quite a few out too I think?

Peart-Harris's unexpected international call up has done us a favour. We may get 2 or 3 back before the Easter weekend.

Our league position is testament to the exceptional job our recruitment team did both in the summer and January, building a flexible and resilient squad. I'm sure there are plenty of clubs higher up looking at both our Sporting Director Rich Hughes and Mousinho. Hopefully we can keep them here for a while yet.

 

[Bartonyellow]

I've started to come to the conclusion that I'd actually be ok with us going down. We have seen other teams come up, go back down and then come up again in much better shape. Can't help feeling we were always fighting a losing battle. We came up in terrible shape, having scraped into the playoffs on the final day. We then scratched around trying to find one or two league one standard players and stumbled through last season. We then had too many left overs who weren't good enough and brought in too little quality.

Surely we'll be one of the stronger squads in league 2 if we keep a couple of our half decent players and rebuild with a competitive budget?

As for this game, Burton will be way more up for it than we are and in spite of their fans claiming they are dire, they'll be better than us and win comfortably.

The only thing we are up for is barrow away next season ( and if we sell him, stockton can score against us )
We are finished.
If you do not beat us Saturday you deserve relegation, and the same goes for us- which is why it’s a nailed on 0-0 draw.
Enjoy the trip down the a50. My suggestion would be to drink in the coopers tavern all afternoon and check flash scores instead. Then get the train back.

 

[Dan Phillips]

The only thing we are up for is barrow away next season ( and if we sell him, stockton can score against us )
We are finished.
If you do not beat us Saturday you deserve relegation, and the same goes for us- which is why it’s a nailed on 0-0 draw.
Enjoy the trip down the a50. My suggestion would be to drink in the coopers tavern all afternoon and check flash scores instead. Then get the train back.

Can't be arsed myself and it's only up the road.

Me and my lad are off to watch Nantwich instead.

 

[valefan16]

I have a ticket but whereas this always sells out or within a few tickets sells out we'd sold less than 600 up to end of last week.

Might have some space on the terrace!

 

[valefan16]

We've managed to flog over 900 as of this morning which is better than expected but still way down on usual for Burton A

 

[Bartonyellow]

Your apathy is matched by ours. Our ticket sales are low. This season our gates have got even worse if that is possible. We have lost over 1000 fans on match day.
Expect a gate of about 3500 then instead of 4500-5000.
And if it is the 0-0 I predict most of those won’t come back either..(home and away fans ).
What a treat in store tomorrow.
So glad I’m not going to this.

 

[valefan16]

Your apathy is matched by ours. Our ticket sales are low. This season our gates have got even worse if that is possible. We have lost over 1000 fans on match day.
Expect a gate of about 3500 then instead of 4500-5000.
And if it is the 0-0 I predict most of those won’t come back either..(home and away fans ).
What a treat in store tomorrow.
So glad I’m not going to this.

Might be more positive from our fan base over Flickers going which wont help this season but may boost fans hopes longer term but its a shame, its a decent away day, in the past our fans have had to fight for the survival of the club twice and have done it successfully but at the moment the apathy is most alarming, fans are just giving up which after working hard to secure them in the promotion season is a huge waste.

 

[BRFC_Gas]

Come on lads there is fuck all else to do

 

[leedsvaliant]

Your apathy is matched by ours. Our ticket sales are low. This season our gates have got even worse if that is possible. We have lost over 1000 fans on match day.
Expect a gate of about 3500 then instead of 4500-5000.
And if it is the 0-0 I predict most of those won’t come back either..(home and away fans ).
What a treat in store tomorrow.
So glad I’m not going to this.

There's no way it will be 0-0. We'll 100% concede. We've got to win at some point this year haven't we? We just seem to never play that well at Burton. It's a tight pitch and we've historically struggled on these type of pitches because Vale Park is so open.

I just don't think we're anywhere near good enough. We only got a point at Leyton Orient because they treated it like a friendly. A pretty ordinary Oxford team looked streets ahead of us.

 

[BigDaveCUFC]

The Carlisle fans on here seem to have left the titanic before it sank, there were a few regulars they all buggered off???

Am I the only one still here because I don’t live in Carlisle so can only see ‘highlights’ of the games……are full games too suicidal inducing!!

Christ it’s a Damn sh*t season but there has been much worse, sat through that crap in the the 90’s relying on Maidstone and aldershot to die in order to survive with gates of 1200, seen us relegated from L1 looking forward to a summer with our chairman as manager, seen sh*te scraping survival for 5-6 straight seasons before going down etc rtc

It’s crap, but heading into a summer with owners who will ‘increase the budget’ while investing in the coaching set-up, building new training facilities at probably costs of millions and increasing and improving the scouting and academy set-ups is hardly a daunting situation.

They should be growing a bloody backbone and get back here posting than turning up again next year if we do better. You have to suffer the atrocious so the good is enjoyable.