Here we are then for the final game of the season, or at least that's what we were hoping it would be a couple of weeks ago as we sat in the automatic promotion spots. After the Millwall disappointment last weekend though it now looks odds-on to be the play-off route for the Blues, unless Yeovil and Cheltenham can both do us a favour and we can defeat the Cherries. The obvious drawback of competing in the play-offs being another match programme to do and another column of this drivel for you to read. Undoubtedly the attendance at Brunton Park will have taken a slight hit today with the results going the way they have done recently, and you can understand that really as far as exiles are concerned. Especially now that there might be two play-off legs, and hopefully a final at Wembley to fork out for. The people that you have to question though are those that came to the Leeds game only to never be seen again, you know the ones, born in Carlisle, lived in Carlisle all their lives, support Manchester United or Liverpool. Crowds are down all over League One compared to last season, although due to our promotion campaign and the Leeds attendance our average is currently just 2% lower than it was in 2006-07, at 7,636 compared to 7,794. Historically we have a low take up of season ticket holders so you'd expect the various reasons for falling crowds to hit us harder than most. Those factors being the ongoing credit crunch which looks like getting worse before it gets better, the non-stop increase in petrol prices, and the smoking ban. Having all those far-flung exiles, and a widely spread fanbase across the county, hurts us more than most I'd say. Plus it's not like days gone by where you had to go to a game to have any idea what was going on, plenty of people living away, understandably, now save their travelling money for the bigger matches and listen to the other games on United World. You can also watch the goals on your computer now, once if we lose, time and time again if we win, a day or two after the match has finished. Nearer to home some people live in Carlisle and are either working when the game is on, or personal circumstances mean that they can't afford to make it to the match. My point being is that the ones who I am forced to wonder about are the Manchester United, Liverpool or Newcastle fans that you see in the pubs in town every week. I'm not going to watch Carlisle, they're rubbish, is what you hear them say, well help us become a better side by coming down to Brunton Park and sticking your money into your own city's club instead. I've always failed to understand the attraction of "supporting" a side you have no affiliation with whatsoever. The two most often used reasons I've heard being that they were born there, the amount of people saying that about Manchester would make it the biggest city in the world I think if they all still lived there. Or that their Dad supported them or they've followed them for 30-odd years, which to me only suggests that they were glory supporting a club when they were doing well before, for Manchester United read the 1960s or for Liverpool the 70s and 80s. It's not just us to be fair though, it happens all over the country, even more so the further you go down the football pyramid. You only have to be daft enough, of which I've also been guilty of, to listen to the Five Live 606 phone-in. Although my ears usually last about ten seconds when the first call is Dave from Basingstoke with his southern accent who supports Man Utd but didn't go to the game today. You really have to wonder what satisfaction these people get from supporting a club that has no real meaning to them. We get followers from across West Cumbria of course, who, following my logic, should be supporting Workington. At least they are Cumbrians though who, with respect to the Reds, just want to watch professional level football. Which is something entirely different to the Premier League brigade who follow their club just because they were the most successful at the time they chose them to support. Still, at least we can be proud of our city and our football club and also be proud to show it ourselves. We'll be back next season and every season, because this is our football club that represents us all. Whatever happens today and over the next few weeks we'll still be supporting the club and our city together, rain or shine, in defeat and victory. |