By Ross Parkinson - Carlisle United Supporters' Trust
Bravery can be defined as the showing mental or moral strength to face danger, fear or difficulty. In football I believe this is best displayed by those players who take the game by the scruff of the neck, keep trying that difficult pass, keep getting on the ball when things may not be going their way, out running, out fighting your opponent and showing your quality when you win that battle.
Carlisle United are in an awful position. It’s a position that we should not be in if football was played on paper but football is played on grass. Much is being made of the signings of the last few windows. Whilst some transfers have not worked as we had hoped I personally would disagree that it has been outright bad.
It’s very easy to look back with hindsight and say we never should have signed this player or we should have signed this player for X number of hundred thousand pounds but it isn’t realistic. It’s not Football Manager and recruitment is never that simple. Every single signing any club makes is a gamble.
There was very little dissent when we brought the vast majority of the players in over the last three windows. I personally was excited by the majority of the signings we have made. Many of these players have come in from higher levels and with big reputations and have failed to deliver what we and they themselves would have hoped.
However, that doesn’t mean they can’t deliver, they have proven their abilities in the past and it now falls to this squad of players as the only ones who can drag us out of the mire to show bravery in game, in spite of a lack of confidence and overwhelming pressure, to play that pass, take that shot, take on that defender, hit that cross, get across that marker, block that shot, win that tackle, and ultimately end the game with three points.
Anything less and the result will be inevitable.
In Trust, and significantly happier news, our defibrillator appeal continues at great pace. At the time of writing we currently stand at £4,625 raised towards our target of £5,500. This is incredible and we cannot thank the fans who have donated to this great cause enough. We would also like to thank both the club and the London Branch for their donations of £1,000 each.
Since launching the campaign we have also been approached by London Hearts who offer low cost defibrillators which may allow us to offer further improvements than originally planned with the funds raised. An e-mail will be issued to members once the final costings are done for suggestions and decisions on where to allocate any surplus.
On Sunday we also held our latest Members Meeting via Teams. Thanks to all that attended. Some excellent suggestions and feedback given and I believe we answered all the questions put to us. These meetings are often the best way to discuss issues and we will be timing them going forward around the Carlisle United Supporters Group (CUSG) meetings to ensure any feedback that needs to go through CUSG is done so in as prompt a manner as possible.
We will also be looking to implement a summary of any feedback given to the club in our newsletter going forward along with any responses we have received to that feedback where possible.
Onto Saturday and the next opportunity to put things right. Until then…
Up The Blues
