I know there was some controversy about the post titled in the same way as this column earlier this season. For my money, we are on loan to the Conference. Which doesn’t mean we are guaranteed to get out this year, but it does mean we’re not sticking around for long. I don’t bet on football, mainly because the collision of what I want and what I think is likely to happen would completely knacker my judgement. However, if I were betting I think I’d go with the following as the most likely, in order: 1 – Up via the play-offs, easy-ish semi and nerve wracking final which we win inside the ninety without ever looking convincing. Like Colchester at Wembley except that we score. 2 – We scrape our way up as champions after running close to Barnet and turning them over in April. 3 – Beaten in the play-offs and up as champions in 2006. Which means I’m not hopelessly romantic about this and I know we’ve got problems. More off the field than at the moment. It’s depressing to think there’s a whole generation of supporters who’ve known nothing else. However, I do have faith in Simmo and Simmo – it seems – has the stickability we need at the moment. I also go along with JC’s pragmatic assessment of the whole ownership business in the interview posted on the official site. He’s honest enough to admit he doesn’t know for sure if we’ve got the right owner. Honest enough too to say that the price he got was acceptable but not really what he’d hoped for. As always, JC’s honesty is one thing we can go on. So we can’t escape the truth. The club is surviving not thriving. But that – surely – is the whole point when it comes to our ‘on loan’ to the Conference. This is a club bumping along on limited funds. We don’t know how the latest ownership issues will resolve themselves. We don’t know either if and when the financial situation will get any better. And we still stuck a record home defeat on Aldershot, a solidly run and well-performing club in the Conference. And our worst attendances shame the best the others can offer. And we’ve squandered more chances than I want to think about but we’re still in second place. Those saying the message board ‘on loan to the Conference’ thread was arrogant, misguided or simply ignorant were – I think – missing the point. Most of us are realistic, hell, if FGB did us any favours in the final half decade of football hell it was to teach us to keep it real. A Carlisle fan with a superiority complex these days is a Care in the Community case, surely. I’m not claiming any special insider knowledge. Far from it. I’m paying for my tickets and talking about what I see when I get there. I think we’re on loan because……. 1 – We’re Not Going Back to Knighton Whoever ends up in charge in the short and medium term won’t appear to us as being as stupid or misguided as the man who almost wrecked the club. The only attraction to another FGB type of the current club would be its vulnerability to being taken over. Beyond that there are less assets to strip – everything from the archive of photos to the oak table from the boardroom has already gone. Pocketing money from sell-on deals and the rest is harder in the Conference, it’s not as if you can sell some promising youngster forty places up the pyramid – into League One – and then sit back thinking of the certainty of a big cash windfall when he plays for England. Even a rabid property developer would be more likely to sit back and let someone else sort out the remaining debts before coming in with an offer himself. 2 – This Is A Decent Team, Grinding Out Results This is a well-blended team of journeymen, managed well. It’s the little things that have made a difference. The pass to Hawley in the face of relentless Gravesend pressure that led to the third goal. Glennon’s ‘sweeper’ role when we attack, thumping the ball back into the danger area etc etc. Simmo’s seen the potential and got everyone working to their party pieces. For all that, this is a budget team built on the players we could sign, not necessarily those Simmo would have had on the first choice list. On paper we’re not that much better than some others in the Conference. And we’re still nailing them. 3 – We’re Still There, You and Me The nightmare situation was the support deserting in droves. Okay, some have come along for the novelty and the improved chance of a win. Granted Farnborough – especially that accident prone sap in goal – gave us a decent comedy turn into the bargain. But if it had simply been novelty value that was keeping up the attendance then the winter weather and the endless parade of lowly opposition would have seen off the less dedicated weeks ago. So, giving it the old journalistic cliches – balance of probabilities, weighing up the evidence and all that – I think we’re about at the bottom. The ownership prospects of the dour but dedicated Fred or the mercurial Mileson both suggest a long wait for anything us old timers would recognise as our rightful level. But we’re more likely to survive than go under. Fred would build the club like a house, getting the foundations right, putting the structures in and leaving the trimmings until very late in the proceedings. Whatever motivates Mileson – and despite the speculation non of us can be certain yet – he’s clearly someone who cares about his reputation. He’s also well enough schooled in the FGB story to know the toll the whole thing took on the Knighton clan. If Mileson were another FGB he’s arrived too late, there’s too little left to take, too little collateral to bargain with as far as doing deals is concerned and he lives locally. Would he really risk his windows, the abuse of those closest to him and the long-term ruination of a business with local connections? Only if he was mad. I don’t think he’s that far gone. He may be over-ambitious, but his career to date suggests that’s not always gone against him. At least he has money, legitimately earned and not tainted by auditors, Trading Standards and the rest chasing him into court. I’m not claiming the gift of seeing into the future. I am claiming to have visited grounds better suited to keeping cattle and eaten snacks worse than those on offer when my twelve year old turns out for his team. The Conference eh?, well I never expected glamour but I’m glad it was dry when we stood on that open terrace in Woking. At Aldershot I was just glad of a warm coat and the goals to take my mind off the rain and the roadworks that almost made me late. So, I think we’re on loan to the Conference because things really aren’t great and we’re still creaming teams that survive easily at this level. Carlisle United on loan to the Conference 2004 - ? Neil Nixon |
