Heading up, the fields are gasping for rain, the verges dry and yellow. The usually sodden moorland shimmers like a tinderbox desert. Carlisle itself is heaving. A sea of leopard print, false eyelashes, muscle shirts and hormones. Lads and lasses move in packs, primped, plucked and painted. One group shouts to another across the traffic lights. Lads step into the flow of cars paying little heed to their own mortality. Several have pint glasses in hand in the street. It's barely midday.
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| 'Edgy' photo on what was actually quite a nice street |
Walking up Brunton Park, my lad says 'Carlisle is very repetitive isn't it?' - I think about this and he's right. It's a warren of terraced streets outside the city centre. I always forget that, surrounded as it is with the Eden Valley, the Lakes and all of that picture postcard second home pretence, Carlisle is a proper place, more, say, Rotherham or Wigan than you expect when you're in the rather bijou centre or the well to do world that fans out beyond it.
The floodlights tho. When I am king, all the grounds will have floodlights. Carlisle's have character. Brunton Park has character full stop. It's a hangover from the past and still, even with all the modern limitations holds over 18,000 when full. I've always liked it and as time goes on and renders grounds like this more and more rare, I like it even more. Mismatched stands, one end of the newest stand hanging weirdly behind the goal line, a remnant of Michael Knighton's failed ambition of rebuilding the whole thing 50 yards to the north. Cumbria should be designated as the national centre for football stadium heritage, Carlisle, Barrow and Workington must be three of the most evocative, nostalgic grounds left. Cumbria's relative lack of success in footballing terms has protected from the need to upgrade and modernise I suppose.
Pool warm up and I notice McCall involved. He looks relaxed, he's very attentive as he runs a drill, watching the players carefully, joking and smiling but studiously evaluating their performance. He seems to have settled in quickly. His hair is still very much the colour it always has been. Has he found the perfect shade of Just for Men or is he eternally youthful?
There's a player I don't recognise and with the help of the team sheet I identify as Tayt Trusty. We seem to have loads of coaches. I'm not sure if I like the blue tops the backroom staff wear. Steve Banks is warming up the young sub keeper Charlie Monks who doesn't get on in the game, but looks to have really good handling and to be well built for a lad of his age in the warm up.
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Pool dominate the early stages. We have lots of pressure and seemingly win the ball back at will. Trusty has an early escape when he takes a touch to many and is tackled, but he does brilliantly to snap back and reclaim the ball. He looks good. Physically, he doesn't look out of place alongside the experienced pros and similar to Cameron Antwi, he seems to have a really good sense of where to be to receive the ball. He also does well in the air a few times, winning duels with more gnarly old pros. Once he gets the early misjudgement out of his system, he's really impressive.
For all the possession, we don't really produce many clear cut chances. The only really notable moment before we score comes when CJ (who starts unusually on the left, before swapping to the right) uses his pace to get away from his full back and his left foot to slide it across for Keshi who hits a rasping drive that draws a good save.
It's not like we're lumping terrible crosses in. Garbutt gets forward well and delivers a fair few of them, so they're there or thereabouts, but it feels like we're not really finding or reading the final ball. It's clear we don't really get out of second gear and are coping with Carlisle without too much fuss, but it's also clear that the knife blade will need sharpening before we're ready to take on the championship. (note to self - it's far too early to mention the lack of a certain S____y K___i so I won't. There. I didn't.)
Pool dominate the early stages. We have lots of pressure and seemingly win the ball back at will. Trusty has an early escape when he takes a touch to many and is tackled, but he does brilliantly to snap back and reclaim the ball. He looks good. Physically, he doesn't look out of place alongside the experienced pros and similar to Cameron Antwi, he seems to have a really good sense of where to be to receive the ball. He also does well in the air a few times, winning duels with more gnarly old pros. Once he gets the early misjudgement out of his system, he's really impressive.
For all the possession, we don't really produce many clear cut chances. The only really notable moment before we score comes when CJ (who starts unusually on the left, before swapping to the right) uses his pace to get away from his full back and his left foot to slide it across for Keshi who hits a rasping drive that draws a good save.
It's not like we're lumping terrible crosses in. Garbutt gets forward well and delivers a fair few of them, so they're there or thereabouts, but it feels like we're not really finding or reading the final ball. It's clear we don't really get out of second gear and are coping with Carlisle without too much fuss, but it's also clear that the knife blade will need sharpening before we're ready to take on the championship. (note to self - it's far too early to mention the lack of a certain S____y K___i so I won't. There. I didn't.)
When we score, it's a routine but well taken goal. I look up from glancing to see who the subs are to see Demi running on to a ball over the top. He takes a touch, and another and bursts between the defenders, he's that fast that by the time he's run 20 yards, he's got what seems like enough time to to roll a fag, cadge a lighter off someone in the crowd and have a couple of drags before anyone catches him. He makes no mistake with the finish, drawing the keeper and sliding it home into the corner.
Demi 3-0 Everyone Else.
Jimmy Husband is looking impressive at centre half. He's probably had harder afternoons to be fair, but he's really calm and uses the ball beautifully. Trusty shows a bit of vision and ambition with his passing. He's continued to impress throughout the half. Marvin is looking a bit less calm than Jimmy if I'm brutally honest (at one point he gets away with what looks like a nailed on hand ball to me.) Whilst Connelly does very little wrong, there is one point where he is beaten for pace and a Carlisle man goes round the outside and gets a dangerous cross in. I'm not sure he's a full back.
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Pool completely deserve to lead, but it's been a sleepy half lacking in many thrills and spills. Very competent though.
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Trialist replaces Trusty. I don't know who he is (I am told later that he's Mitchell Clark, from Leicester) and he plays at right back with Connelly going into midfield. CJ bursts through onto a lovely flick from the lad who is probably Clark but a heavy tough lets him down. The trialist does OK. He doesn't really shine defensively but he has a couple of nice interchanges with others that suggests some ability. I'm not sure he stakes a place to be first choice right back, but then, he also doesn't look hopeless. It would be a dickhead thing to do to decide his ability on 45 minutes, where 30 minutes of them he's playing with kids.
CJ scores a goal that is almost identical to Demi's except he's offside. It is none-the-less, pleasing to see him running freely and burning off defenders and seeming back to full fitness. Demi nearly gets a 4th pre season goal as Keshi tees him up, delaying a pass on the far side off the box then sliding for Demi to blast. It glances off a defender and goes wide. Keshi was again probably the nearest we had to a lockpick today.
Critch then makes a million subs and the age of the side plummets (except for Keogh). The youth team aren't as good as the first team but then, if they were, they'd be freaks of nature. Carlisle (not surprisingly) really come into the game from this point but there's some nice football from Pool's future prospects and it's clear to see that the kids play a similar style to the first team.
I immediately really like the look of Luke Mariette. He looks technically very able, his ball control is really nice and he plays with his head up and a degree of ambition, looking to get play moving forward. He had good balance, he plays some nice one touch stuff. Like Trusty, he looks unphased. I'd like to see him with the first teamers as I think it would be interesting to see how his game looked with the movement and pace of Yates, Mitchell, Anderson etc. Sometimes you just take to a player.
Sonny Carey immediately looks classy, though as Carlisle take more control he struggles to make an impact further up the pitch. What I do note is him getting a bit riled and twice pushing a Carlisle player who'd been a bit rough with him. It's good to see a bit of fight I guess. I also think Bange looks an intriguing prospect. He'll win no awards for gracefulness but he wins a few wrestling challenges with his centre half and his work on the floor was excellent. He's one of those players where what you see isn't exactly what you get.
We make even more subs and it's noticeable how much more mix and match Bash St kids the youth teamers look in comparison to the much more uniform physique of the first teamers. When Critch brings the diminutive Michael Fitzgerald on, I'm amazed to see him trotting to centre half but then anyone replacing Marvin and standing next to Richard Keogh is up against it in terms of 'not looking a bit smaller than the lads around him'
Carlisle are wasteful. They really should equalise, but they don't. We might play the last 30 under much more pressure, but there are a couple of lovely passing moves that show the promise of the kids, the best of which is put just wide by super Ollie Sarkic. I really like how when we'd conceded a couple of chances, we responded by very deliberately playing football in our own half and retaining possession, trying to establish a grip on the game. It was brave and showed a bit of brains. We've also get to consider that, whilst it's obvious we've left out Madine, Stewart, Dougall, Bowler, Thorniley, Lavery (and the rest,) some of the best younger players (like Apter and Antwi) also didn't feature.
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In the end, it's a run out. The first team looked able to manage the opposition easily enough and some of the youngsters looked like they could mix it with Carlisle and that suggests they're ready for some football in the league with someone. The sun shone, no one got injured, there was terracing on three sides of the ground.
What more do you want from a pre-season friendly?
Demi 3-0 Everyone Else.
Jimmy Husband is looking impressive at centre half. He's probably had harder afternoons to be fair, but he's really calm and uses the ball beautifully. Trusty shows a bit of vision and ambition with his passing. He's continued to impress throughout the half. Marvin is looking a bit less calm than Jimmy if I'm brutally honest (at one point he gets away with what looks like a nailed on hand ball to me.) Whilst Connelly does very little wrong, there is one point where he is beaten for pace and a Carlisle man goes round the outside and gets a dangerous cross in. I'm not sure he's a full back.
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Pool completely deserve to lead, but it's been a sleepy half lacking in many thrills and spills. Very competent though.
---
Trialist replaces Trusty. I don't know who he is (I am told later that he's Mitchell Clark, from Leicester) and he plays at right back with Connelly going into midfield. CJ bursts through onto a lovely flick from the lad who is probably Clark but a heavy tough lets him down. The trialist does OK. He doesn't really shine defensively but he has a couple of nice interchanges with others that suggests some ability. I'm not sure he stakes a place to be first choice right back, but then, he also doesn't look hopeless. It would be a dickhead thing to do to decide his ability on 45 minutes, where 30 minutes of them he's playing with kids.
CJ scores a goal that is almost identical to Demi's except he's offside. It is none-the-less, pleasing to see him running freely and burning off defenders and seeming back to full fitness. Demi nearly gets a 4th pre season goal as Keshi tees him up, delaying a pass on the far side off the box then sliding for Demi to blast. It glances off a defender and goes wide. Keshi was again probably the nearest we had to a lockpick today.
Critch then makes a million subs and the age of the side plummets (except for Keogh). The youth team aren't as good as the first team but then, if they were, they'd be freaks of nature. Carlisle (not surprisingly) really come into the game from this point but there's some nice football from Pool's future prospects and it's clear to see that the kids play a similar style to the first team.
I immediately really like the look of Luke Mariette. He looks technically very able, his ball control is really nice and he plays with his head up and a degree of ambition, looking to get play moving forward. He had good balance, he plays some nice one touch stuff. Like Trusty, he looks unphased. I'd like to see him with the first teamers as I think it would be interesting to see how his game looked with the movement and pace of Yates, Mitchell, Anderson etc. Sometimes you just take to a player.
Sonny Carey immediately looks classy, though as Carlisle take more control he struggles to make an impact further up the pitch. What I do note is him getting a bit riled and twice pushing a Carlisle player who'd been a bit rough with him. It's good to see a bit of fight I guess. I also think Bange looks an intriguing prospect. He'll win no awards for gracefulness but he wins a few wrestling challenges with his centre half and his work on the floor was excellent. He's one of those players where what you see isn't exactly what you get.
We make even more subs and it's noticeable how much more mix and match Bash St kids the youth teamers look in comparison to the much more uniform physique of the first teamers. When Critch brings the diminutive Michael Fitzgerald on, I'm amazed to see him trotting to centre half but then anyone replacing Marvin and standing next to Richard Keogh is up against it in terms of 'not looking a bit smaller than the lads around him'
Carlisle are wasteful. They really should equalise, but they don't. We might play the last 30 under much more pressure, but there are a couple of lovely passing moves that show the promise of the kids, the best of which is put just wide by super Ollie Sarkic. I really like how when we'd conceded a couple of chances, we responded by very deliberately playing football in our own half and retaining possession, trying to establish a grip on the game. It was brave and showed a bit of brains. We've also get to consider that, whilst it's obvious we've left out Madine, Stewart, Dougall, Bowler, Thorniley, Lavery (and the rest,) some of the best younger players (like Apter and Antwi) also didn't feature.
---
In the end, it's a run out. The first team looked able to manage the opposition easily enough and some of the youngsters looked like they could mix it with Carlisle and that suggests they're ready for some football in the league with someone. The sun shone, no one got injured, there was terracing on three sides of the ground.
What more do you want from a pre-season friendly?
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