1974-75

Carlisle United  0  Coventry City  1

English Football League – Division Two

If I could choose my career path all over again, I’d be a football historian.

I always like to do my research before going to places, and more often than not I end up spending an inordinate amount of time looking at all kinds of facts and records. I do it for two reasons, partly for the purposes of the blog, but secondly because I’m genuinely interested, bordering on fascinated, in what has gone before.

It’s not complicated to do, Wikipedia is as good a resource as any, but another valuable tool is Richard Rundle’s superb piece of work – Football Club History Database, or FCHD as it’s more commonly known.

When I started digging around looking at Carlisle United, I thought it would be just another knowledge gathering exercise, but it wasn’t, it threw up something that really fascinated me.

No Different To When McFarland, Todd & Nish Took A Beating 

In the 1974-75 season, Derby County won the old First Division under the management of Dave Mackay. The final game of the season for the Rams, when the trophy was presented, was a 0-0 draw at the Baseball Ground against relegated Carlisle United.

Carlisle United in the old First Division? I’ve been aware for an awful long time about that game at the BBG, but I’d never really given much thought to the role the Cumbrians played in that season, the only one they have ever had in the top flight of English football.

They finished third in the Second Division in 1973-74, behind Middlesbrough and Luton Town, but that was enough to make Carlisle the smallest town ever to host top tier football, a record it still holds today. It was an occasion that Bill Shankly described as “The greatest feat in the history of the game”

Three games into the new season, following a 2-0 victory at Chelsea, another 2-0 win at Middlesbrough and a 1-0 home victory over Tottenham Hotspur, the Cumbrians were top of the league, yet to concede a goal!

A Proper Old Paddock

It didn’t last, only four more victories were recorded before Christmas, one of them being a 3-0 home win against Derby. So Ironically the League Champions couldn’t find the back of the net against Carlisle United and only managed a point, by which time it didn’t matter.

Conceding goals was not the main problem, defensively they were pretty tight, it was scoring them that was the problem. The club would not shell out for the quality striker they desperately needed, and that cost them in the long run. They conceded lots of late goals, and whether this is statistically proven or not, it is alleged that had games been played over eighty minutes, Carlisle would not have been relegated!

The team managed by Alan Ashman had their one and only season in the big time, and to this day the season is both remembered and recalled fondly. It doesn’t take more than a few minutes to find articles online about it, whereas I’m lead to believe a book was published to commemorate it. I also had a quick look to see if I could unearth some old programmes from the season, but you are talking a fiver upwards a copy from the usual outlets, whereas any other season you can buy for less than a quid, I guess that says it all really.

That's What You Call A Floodlight Pylon

In recent times, it’s not been so great, they had a season in the Conference in 2004-05 following six campaigns of narrowly avoiding the drop, including the famous Jimmy Glass goal, but since returning to the Football League they’ve had a spell in League 1, but now find themselves back in League 2. Let's not forget the floods either, Brunton Park has suffered worse than any other club when it comes to our rising water levels, and it's testimony to them that they continue to battle back.

And this is where we are today, following an hour’s drive up the M6 in pretty dismal conditions, we found ourselves driving down the Warwick Road into the centre of Carlisle, a route that took us past Brunton Park.

We didn’t stay long in the town centre, despite it being a pleasant looking place with a Castle and a Cathedral. It was swarming with Police around the Railway Station and Botchergate areas as local youths gathered in the pubs. Coventry were expecting to bring close on a thousand fans, clearly the local constabulary wanted to make sure any potential trouble was nipped in the bud.

Brunton Park is a lovely old ground, and when I say old, from what I can gather, only the East Stand has changed since that famous 74-75 season. The old Main Stand has a large terraced paddock in front of it, while the Warwick Road Terrace still has the iconic gabled roof structure. The smaller open Petteril Terrace sits behind the North goal, while the old East Terrace has been replaced with the large Pioneer Stand, where we viewed the game from.

The Only Price Of Modernity - The East Stand

I draw comparisons here with our trip to Burnley. The whole feel and atmosphere was totally different, so much so young Master H picked up on it, he looked a whole lot happier in Brunton Park than he did watching his beloved Spurs at Turf Moor. At Burnley there was a real undercurrent of unpleasantness, at Carlisle, quite the opposite. Yes, they were passionate, but it wasn’t hostile, threatening or abusive in the slightest. If this is the difference between the Premier League and the Football League, I know where I’d rather be every week.

As for the game, well the first half was pretty even, but Carlisle lacked in front of goal (a la 74-75), and then as the game moved into the second period, promotion chasing Coventry started to get their passing game going and stretched the hosts.

The only goal of the game came in the 50^th minute when Marc McNulty found space between defenders to take advantage of a mistake and slot a low effort into the net. The visitors were awarded a clear penalty in the 76^th minute but McNulty’s effort was saved by Jack Bonham.

Carlisle battled to find the equaliser, but in fairness, despite being on the back of a three game winning run, they never really looked like finding the target. Coventry, on the day, probably just about deserved the three points.

It’s a long old poke back from Carlisle after a game, but bizarrely the journey seemed to fly by, it usually does when you’ve had a great day out. The visit to Brunton Park has left me with more questions than answers though, curiosity is already getting the better of me, I’ll be an expert on that 74-75 season in a couple of months time, did somebody say they’d already written a book about it?  

A Dead Fox - He's Been Coming Since 1974-75