ON THE ROAD: Carlisle scrapes hard for manager urging them to ‘kick and scream’ – but invaders leave Northampton with some of the loot
The Northampton fan plucked from the away box was on his second half-time crack off the crossbar.
His first attempt had been tame and the pressure was high. Several thousand Carlisle fans have booed him rather unsportsmanlike. The sprinklers that watered the Brunton Park field drew ominously closer.
And you know what, the dude nailed it. Absolutely nailed it. After the ball had kissed the woodwork, he cupped his ear to the jeering locals, turned to greet his cheering fellow cobblers and gleefully collected his £20 jackpot.
In doing so, he showed an accuracy that let the players down all afternoon. This was a thrilling shootout in a border town, but neither Carlisle nor Northampton could find the target to take them one step closer to promotion to League One.
The visitors came closest when Will Hondermarck was disallowed by Carlisle goalkeeper Tomas Holy in the second half. In Carlisle’s best moment, top scorer Kristian Dennis was denied twice by Lee Burge, with the home fans behind the goal adamant that his second try had crossed the line.
But perhaps the stalemate was inevitable in an increasingly tight battle for the two automatic promotion places behind runaway leaders Leyton Orient.
Northampton remained second, but Carlisle dropped to fifth after Stevenage won. Stockport and Bradford are also in the mix. Not that Carlisle, historically Britain’s most besieged city, is afraid of a scrap. Intruders regularly crossed the Scottish border up to the time of Robert the Bruce.
The town’s motto ‘Be just and fear not’ – from Thomas Wolsey’s speech to Thomas Cromwell in Shakespeare’s Henry VIII – has been adopted by the club. It was written on two huge banners that hung on the huge terrace at Warwick Road End, a modern invocation to the players to fight for Cumbria’s cause.
It’s all in the blood of Carlisle manager Paul Simpson, a local lad whose legendary status was secured when he led the club from the Conference to League One as player-manager in 2005 and 2006.
Simpson, a winger at Manchester City, Oxford and Derby in his playing time, then guided England to Under 20 World Cup glory in 2017.
The 56-year-old also beat kidney cancer, a surprise diagnosis when he went to the doctor in 2021 as Nigel Pearson’s assistant at Bristol City with a persistent dry cough. So he has the perspective to take on a League Two promotion battle.
‘I don’t find it stressful. There is frustration because I know we are better in the last third, but there are many more stressful jobs than being a football manager,” he said.
“It would mean everything to include the club from my hometown. It’s been a great season and after 42 games we’ve exceeded my expectations and it’s come a season or two earlier than I expected.
“But once you’ve tasted it, you just want to finish it and that’s the big challenge.” I want the shackles off, let’s just try. If we want to achieve something, let’s kick and scream.’ Even a disturbing swing from just one win in seven games, including six blanks, must be put in the context of the transformation Simpson has overseen since responding to Carlisle’s call again last February.
They faced relegation to non-League, sitting 23rd, before Simpson turned their fortunes around.
The club has a large catchment area and the fans have returned with positive results. Their Good Friday match with Tranmere drew a crowd of 13,410 in an almost 18,000 spectator stadium that so often looks empty.
Saturday’s game drew a healthy 8,292, including nearly 600 members of the Cobblers’ Shoe Army making the nearly 500-mile round trip.
Northampton were scarred on the last day of last season when they missed out on automatic promotion as Bristol Rovers beat Scunthorpe improbably 7-0 to increase the number of goals scored. The Cobblers then lost to Mansfield in the playoffs.
They are determined not to repeat history and Australian coach Jon Brady was happy enough as he didn’t have seven first-team defenders.
“It was two strong teams going head to head. I am very happy with the work ethic of the players and it shows the organization that they have to keep a clean sheet again with so many defenders out,” he said.
And so the battle continues.