Miller invokes memories of McIlmoyle
ONE inspired signing can often be the catalyst that sparks a season.
When Alan Ashman was manager of Carlisle United it was a whole lot easier to bring in new blood from higher divisions.
In Ashman’s time football agents were a mere twinkle an accountant’s eye and wages, even in the higher echelons of the league, were relatively modest.
When Ashman enjoyed his first successful spell in charge at Brunton Park it was not all that many year since players had gone to court to challenge the almost feudal way in which the game was run by the butchers, bakers and other local businessmen who sat on club boards.
Ashman’s speciality was spotting unpolished diamonds and welding them into a team. Hugh McIlmoyle had played in an FA Cup final for Leicester, but was plying his trade at Rotherham.
Chris Balderstone had a reputation as a highly skilled midfielder who was too slow to cut it against the big boys. Dave Wilson was a reserve player at Nottingham Forest and Ashman was not afraid to put his judgement on the line when it came to snaffling up the likes of Willie Carlin and Eric Welsh from less fashionable surrounds, with all due respect to Halifax and Exeter City.
When Greg Abbott brought Lee Miller to United towards the end of August the player’s profile had slipped from earlier times when he won three caps for Scotland and commanded some substantial transfer fees.
Miller went out on loan last season and by May of this year his boss at Middlesbrough, Tony Mowbray, made it clear his future lay elsewhere when he said: “He needs to be playing football and there are clubs out there who can offer him that opportunity.”
Miller’s goal-scoring return in recent seasons had been fairly frugal, but two goals on his Carlisle debut away to Leyton Orient immediately prompted me to think that Abbott had pulled off an acquisition of Ashman-like quality.
I’m not about to compare Miller with McIlmoyle. There will never be another McIlmoyle for Carlisle, a player who can score 39 league goals—42 in all competitions—in one season and be a fine all-round forward to boot.
But there are some similarities in the way Miller brings other players into the game with his ability to hold the ball up against challenging defenders and play clever flicks and passes. Although he began his United career with a burst of scoring, he is much more a creator of chances than an out and out goal scorer.
His impact on Carlisle this season has been enormous. He has given the side something it was so obviously lacking, an attacking fulcrum who, so far at least, has shown consistency to match his effectiveness.
It’s strange how a break in the seasons can affect how players fit into a team. Miller is probably grateful to be getting that regular football his previous manager talked about.
Last season Francois Zoko was one of the first names on the team sheet to start games. This time round he’s become an impact player off the bench, coming on for 20 minute cameos to rescue points with some important goals.
It’s hard not to think that being regularly linked with potential transfers away from Carlisle had affected Zoko’s concentration in the early part of the campaign.
Most, if not all, seem to have been spurious connections and Zoko, for the time being anyway, has decided to get on with the job professionally and accept that his manager sees him as that impact player within the current framework of his side.
While he’s coming on and scoring goals — like his clever winner at Scunthorpe followed by a point-saver against Wycombe Wanderers —t here’s no way Zoko or the fans can find fault with Abbott’s selection.
It’s the sort of dilemma managers are pleased to have. Rory Loy has improved, playing with someone of Lee Miller’s ability and clearly Abbott feels he deserves his extended run in the team, while unlucky Irishman, Paddy Madden, is waiting in the wings, determined to put his injury misfortunes behind him. United fans have not seen enough of Madden yet, but he’s shown glimmers of promise in the few appearances he has managed.
As United enter the second half of the season it’s vital that they have a fit Lee Miller leading the line. However, for the likes of Francois Zoko and Paddy Madden, it’s a case of grabbing it with both hands when opportunity does knock.
In League One, with limited finances, clubs can’t carry the huge playing complements that sides in the Premier League and Championship boast.
Somewhere along the way injuries and suspensions will take their toll and that’s the moment when players who feel they merit a first team spot will be challenged to stand up and prove their point.
Some of United’s fans
need re-focussed
Try enjoying the football for a change
by Ross Brewster
CARLISLE United manager Greg Abbott’s has issued a heartfelt plea to the club’s hard core 4,000 supporters to accentuate the positive.
Go away and “spread the word” said Abbott after the club’s recent home game against Brentford had produced football of a standard that would have graced the top echelons of the Championship.
There’s something inherently negative about many Cumbria football fans. I’ve been watching Carlisle since 1959 and, even in the best of times, there seems to be a need to focus on the negative.
The fans’ websites are a recipe for depression at times. And some of the personal abuse that has been directed Abbott’s way has been vile and offensive.
Football managers know that criticising supporters, no matter what they may feel personally, is a recipe for disaster. But let’s get real about Carlisle United. We’ve got a club that, for the first time in ages, has experienced a period of stability on and off the pitch.
If the team has a fault it’s inconsistency. They can look good against the best footballing teams yet fragile against poorer sides that employ a more physical, direct style.
Those who only come to Brunton Park occasionally, like Sky Television’s North East man David Craig, are baffled why the Cumbrians are attracting such poor crowds. “There are plenty worse teams to watch than Carlisle. I always look forward to my visits here, they play some good stuff” Craig told me. And he has the benefit of regularly seeing the region’s teams who play in higher divisions.
Perhaps fans have never forgiven Carlisle’s inability to clinch promotion to the Championship a few seasons back when, with a month to go, they were getting out the maps and planning trips to a host of new and exciting grounds. The feeling that the club failed to show ambition at the right time persists.
But when I look at the whole tranche of ex-league clubs now languishing in the Blue Square League, the likes of Luton, Wrexham, Mansfield and Darlington, I just give thanks that we’ve got league football at Carlisle and, what’s more, we’ll finish a darned sight closer to the League One play off places than the relegation fight.
Memories are short though. It was only a few months ago that Carlisle were lifting a trophy at Wembley.
As someone said to an Arsenal supporter who rang Radio Five Live’s 606 football phone-in demanding the sacking of Arsene Wenger—“be careful what you wish for.”
The dimwits who hoisted an “Abbott Out” banner at a recent home game should go away and ponder on that statement. If a Top 10 place in the league and a recent Wembley final isn’t a fair record of achievement they need their heads examining.
Still, their dads and granddads were probably Paddock moaners in their day. I recall standing behind a loudmouth at one game who kept yelling “you’re b.... rubbish Balderstone.” And when we had Peter Beardsley entertaining us, home gates were often below the 4,000 mark. So sometimes one has to ask, what DO they want?
Mind you, I think Carlisle could do with a leader on the pitch Kevin Gray fashion. Gray could never be called en elegant defender, but his will to win was infectious. I remember seeing John Terry play for Chelsea at Newcastle some years ago and he stood out like a colossus on the pitch.
Gray wasn’t in Terry’s class, but when he sprinted out of the tunnel before kick-off it got his team mates and the crowd going.
The present Carlisle side has some good players, but they don’t turn in a performance week in, week out like Gray used to do—and demand the same of those around him.
There are better footballers than Kevin Gray in the team now. But it was his inspirational attitude that really made him a United legend. And players like that don’t grow on trees.
“We had a right fall out” admitted Abbott after the game in which Carlisle beat a dreary Stevenage recently. The manager laid it on the line just what standards he expected from his team. “Now everyone knows where they stand,” he said afterwards. It might have been Kevin Gray’s philosophy.
Now’s the time to move forward and particularly to improve United’s dodgy home record. “Don’t listen to the ones who don’t come, but the ones who have come and been enthused by what they’ve seen,” said Abbott at his press briefing after the Brentford game.
It’s called eliminating the negative. That’s what gets results.
