The rain continued to fall in Carlisle on Friday. At Brunton Park, Carlisle United’s venerable home, the head groundsman, Dave Mitchell, looked on anxiously as water began to pool on the expanse of soggy brown earth which currently comprises the pitch.
“My glass is always half-empty,” Mitchell admitted, gloomily. “I’m meant to have the pitch ready again for the visit of York City on Jan 23 and I just hope I don’t have to turn around and say ‘It’s off’.
“I’ve got no power to my irrigation pump. I was hoping to get some more of the clean-up done before the turf arrived… So it’s frustrating. But there’s only one winner where the weather’s concerned.”
Happily, Mitchell appears to be in a minority in terms of his forecast. The rest of the club, and indeed the city, have adopted an admirably glass half-full view of the havoc wreaked by Storm Desmond, which a month ago caused Brunton Park’s neighbouring rivers, the Eden and the Petteril, to burst their banks, drowning the ground beneath so much water that the goalposts were completely submerged and you would have needed to swim down the tunnel to access the pitch from the changing rooms.
“We found three Koi Carp swimming around in one of the goalmouths during the clean-up operation,” Mitchell recalled. “We reunited them with their owner.”
That story mirrors another from 2005, the last time Brunton Park flooded, when the League Two side adopted a goldfish found flapping around on the pitch.
Indeed, it echoes many of the feelgood stories which have emanated from these parts over the past few weeks.
Stories of community spirit and generosity and team bonding. Of Olga the Fox, the club’s stuffed mascot, escaping the floods (which it failed to do last time around when it needed a touch up from the taxidermist).
Club captain Danny Grainger (right) has helped with the flood relief efforts
Of the players, led by their captain Danny Grainger, standing shoulder to shoulder with Army reservists, helping to clear out people’s flooded homes. Of Carlisle fans turning out in their hundreds to help their club clear up the debris at the stadium.
Such has been the camaraderie that, despite all the upheaval, despite the nomadic existence of the last few weeks, during which Carlisle have played their ‘home’ fixtures at Deepdale and Ewood Park, and will ‘host’ Yeovil Town at Blackpool’s Bloomfield Road ground in their FA Cup third-round clash on Sunday, manager Keith Curle actually believes his team are in a better place than they were before the flood.
“Being that close to people experiencing that amount of hardship has given my players an increased sense of responsibility and pride,” the former Manchester City captain said on Friday.
“They know they are in a privileged position, playing football for a living. Yes, a few of them saw their cars washed away. But they haven’t lost their homes, their livelihoods. I think they feel a responsibility and a determination to produce performances the community can be proud of.”
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That sentiment is certainly echoed by Carlisle’s players. Defender Michael Raynes said the players had found it both “humbling and rewarding” being able to do something to help the local community in the wake of the flooding.
“Footballers sometimes get criticised for losing perspective,” he said. “But we’re normal people down here. We’re probably the same as what most people are financially.”
Raynes was speaking from nearby Creighton Rugby Club, where Carlisle’s players trained on Friday. Last week it was Newcastle academy’s training ground, while last month the Cumbrians had the use of Everton’s Finch Farm training ground for a day.
Raynes said the players were enjoying the experience of playing at different grounds. “At the end of the day it’s just grass and two nets,” he pointed out. “It doesn’t make a difference to us. You look at the bigger picture. And it has actually been fun playing at Championship and League One grounds. Maybe Newcastle will let us play at St James’ Park next. Maybe we will play against Newcastle at St James’ Park…”
Carlisle face Yeovil on Sunday
Carlisle’s players have already got lucky once this season, taking Liverpool to penalties at Anfield in the Capital One Cup. But the possibility of a glamour FA Cup fourth-round tie has certainly given the club and their bedraggled fans something to dream about over the past few weeks.
“It would be such a boost,” admitted Suzanne Kidd, Carlisle’s finance director, who insisted the club were on a healthy financial footing even if they will need to take a look at their insurance premiums this summer.
“We had been chipping away at them since the last floods in 2005 and had just got them down to a consistent level. But we had been having a good year up until the floods and this won’t derail us.
“Our fans have been amazing,” Kidd added. “They travelled in huge numbers to Deepdale and Ewood Park. Attendances have only been down 10 per cent. It’s been quite overwhelming. An FA Cup run would be a great reward for them.”
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Carlisle desperately want to give them something to shout about on Sunday but, says Curle, it will not be easy.
“Yeovil may be towards the bottom of the division at the moment but they gave us a tough game earlier in the season when we went 2-0 down before winning 3-2,” he said. “We will have to be at our best.
“They have a new manager. They will see this as an opportunity to play free from the pressure of their league position. And we are playing at Bloomfield Road, which will have been played on the previous day. We have lost a bit of our home advantage. But the spirit in our camp is excellent and we will do our best to make the city of Carlisle proud.”
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Curle, who enjoyed a “good day of business” on Friday by securing a loan extension for Bury striker Hallam Hope, while also tying midfielder Joe Thompson down until the end of the season as well as securing a permanent deal for defender Mark Ellis, believes a pre-season boot camp in the Lake District goes a long way to explaining his players’ current positivity, despite the unsettling nature of the past month.
“We went to a place called Cassius Camps and mentally and physically we really challenged them there,” he said. “I think that made a massive difference. Genuinely. Now when they hear the word ‘challenge’ they don’t shy away from it. That trip gave them huge belief and things really grew from there.
“We’re all looking forward to the game on Sunday and that goes for everyone at the club from the laundry ladies to the chairman. Everyone wants to do their bit. When I arrived here [in 2014] that wasn’t necessarily the case. The club was on a downward spiral. We were going down, no doubt about it. But now there is ambition, there are expectations. We are looking up not down.”
The last time Brunton Park flooded, Carlisle went on to achieve promotion. Perhaps it is an omen.
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