Hats, brollies, parasols, portable gazebos and even a bright orange wendy house; we weren’t taking any chances with the Cumbrian weather on a soggy November evening. Anything that wasn’t on the prohibited list of items at the turnstiles was fair game, especially as we’d been allocated the 1980’s style open-end at Brunton Park. We weren’t expecting to take a wendy house, but following a recent storm Tesco Pete had the good fortune to find it hiding in his manicured rhododendron. “Anything that comes over my fence, is mine”, he announced as he loaded the car boot. Our 141-mile mid-week odyssey was already shaping up, what could possibly go wrong?
With the motorway traffic slow, our planned stop for tea was soon in doubt; our expected arrival time at the ground was only an hour before kick-off, and that was without stopping. It’s fair to say the usual suspects were becoming restless. Luckily, as is always the case around this point of the year, it became apparent that Pete hadn’t adjusted the clock at the end of British Summer Time. After a little huffing and puffing, we were soon sorted with an extra hour from nowhere and tea back on.
Penrith has a picturesque market square with lots of independent shops that were all starting to close for the evening. We’d located an eat-in chippy hiding down a ginnel, it served decent portions with an accompanying bucket of tea. It was an excellent way to review the teams good start to the season so far.
Carlisle’s Brunton Park in the only ground in the top five leagues in English football not to offer any shelter to away fans whatsoever. Instead, we were greeted by a friendly steward standing in the light rain who offered to dry one of 60 seats they’d recently installed on the open terrace. It seemed a tempting offer, until you realised that sitting there would give you a restricted view of the goal with everyone else standing on the terrace next to you.
With a capacity of just under 18,000, the ground is made up of an old main stand that has been extended over the years with add-ons at either side. It has an open terrace beneath running the full length of the pitch. The far end has a unique covered terrace with the roof made up of three gable ends. The club’s name and badge sit proudly on the centre triangular roof section. The East stand, the most recent addition, was built with the intention of moving the pitch from its current position, to where the away fans are now situated. That move never happened, so the first block of seats is unusable, only really offering a view of the parkland behind the ground.
With the weather better than expected we left our wet weather gear in the car and paid our £20 admission fee and hoped for the best. The game started with Town attacking the far end, and it wasn’t long before the first of a good number of stoppages dominated the first half. The home side took the lead with a low hard shot that was deflected just enough to fly past the keeper. In return, we had a penalty shout turned down at the other end and a shot that whizzed just wide. But with 10 minutes of additional injury time played, it was already feeling like a long night.
There were 109 travelling Shaymen in attendance, all pretty much stood side by side from one corner flag to the other. There wasn’t much to get too excited about in the second half as Carlisle took control of much of the play. We had a few corners, a few shots on goal, but the home side’s second goal pretty much sealed our fate long before the final whistle. They look like a team destined for a short stay in the National League, and with over 5000 fans backing them, they’ll certainly challenge for promotion.
Driving back and we reflected on a recent run of difficult games. We’re still in a good position in the league and have perhaps taken on some of our most challenging opponents recently. We now look forward to the delights of Sutton United and a trip around the M25.
Miles on the road: 3332. Goals on the road: 13 Points on our travels 13
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