Carlisle United’s True Stars: Modern life conditions us to celebrate the routine. “Legal and proud,” declares a certain brand of carwash, as though observing the law is exceptional, rather than what you are supposed to do.
The comedian Chris Rock has a routine on this. He uses far too many unprintable words to risk repeating it in full but, in summary, he lampoons a culture in which a certain person boasts that they look after their kids, and ain’t never been to jail. “What do you want, a cookie?” Rock asks.
Mario Balotelli, that renowned moral guide, once explained why he didn’t go wild after scoring goals. “I’m only doing my job. When a postman delivers letters, does he celebrate?”
Okay, extreme example. But the general point holds. We should really save the pride and the praise for the extraordinary, not the everyday.
Preparing a football ground so that it can host a match is well within the standard remit of a groundsman. There are few occasions when he is entitled to high-five his colleagues just because things occur as intended from 3pm.
Last Saturday, though, was different, and if there was any proof needed that the people in charge of Brunton Park’s most important parts are a little above the norm, here it was.
Truly, Carlisle versus Grimsby should have had next to no chance. The Beast from the East had showered pitch, stands and walkways with snow, the same as all those grounds in the country where defeat was admitted.
Pitch inspections were failed, the inevitable accepted and, in the Championship, six games fell. In League One, seven went. In League Two, nine. The layman strolling into Brunton Park, as I did last Friday morning, wouldn’t have given United much hope either.
It was an almost entirely white scene. The terraces, being shovelled and scraped by an admirable team of volunteers and staff, looked particularly treacherous. Even a good distance up into the Pioneer Stand you would not have wished to walk in front of a row of its seating at any sort of pace.
In the middle of all this, pausing to chat without the slightest air of pessimism, was David Mitchell, United’s stadium manager. It is normally Mitchell’s job to anticipate what others cannot, in terms of what nature may bring, but these were extreme conditions – and yet he had nailed it once again.
Don’t worry about the pitch, was the quietly confident suggestion, and with all these people helping around the ground, we’ll have every chance.
This is what makes Mitchell and his team special. It is hardly as if Carlisle got a pardon from the adverse weather engulfing other parts of the UK. Although other clubs also had it very bad – in some cases a fresh heap of snow being dumped on their stadium just as they had cleared the first load – Brunton Park wasn’t exactly spared.
It was, in many respects, an even field. Yet, through covering the pitch long in anticipation of the wintry deluge, and co-ordinating a positive plan of several parts, United were able to unveil just about the only rectangle of green in the county come Saturday morning.
The referee who visited the previous day was satisfied not only by the small portion of grass he saw, but also United’s assurances. The condition of the rest of the ground was acceptable to those in charge of safety and, with the EFL having urged the club to do all it could to get the ground ready in spite of the climate, Carlisle had risen to the challenge.
It is at this point that those lambasting the club for staging a game during uncertain travelling conditions were shooting a little off-target. Carlisle United were some way down the list of organisations whose task it was to pronounce on which roads were safe and which were not, which routes were sensible and which appeared too risky.
Personal judgement could be formed by listening to other key agencies. Some will have chosen not to come and, given conditions in certain places, that is quite understandable. At the same time – and this is not to trivialise the risks of driving in bad weather – one wonders if the fact 143 Grimsby fans made it without serious problem, as well as their team, some local media plus 4,008 United supporters, meant it wasn’t such a reckless call in the end.
Certainly, the person on Twitter comparing the potential journey from north east Lincolnshire to Cumbria to the Munich air disaster should probably reassess that judgement on grounds of taste alone.
Whilst remaining conscious of outside conditions, and communicating appropriately, Carlisle’s actual, physical job was to prepare Brunton Park, if at all possible. This they did against steep odds. And it is this, again, that puts those certain individuals apart.
Following the Blues up and down the land over the years has brought its reasonable share of mishaps. Travelling supporters will hardly need reminding about the surprising frozen pitch at MK Dons (2012, match postponed at 1.45pm), or at Crewe (2008, match postponed an hour before kick-off), or the notoriously unsuitable surface at Crawley (2014, match postponed as team and fans arrived in Sussex).
There are unavoidable cancellations, but there are also scenarios when forward planning has appeared short. It may have seemed incredibly harsh when the Southend groundsman was sacked in January 2017 for failing to protect the pitch against frost before a game against Bolton.
Yet could you imagine such a fate befalling Mitchell and his team (Paul Butler and Matt Henry)? Have they ever been guilty of an MK Dons? The thought is too absurd for words, since their reputation is far higher.
That reputation is long-earned. It means that, when flood water laps onto Carlisle’s surface, there is seldom a sense of panic, because all concerned know the calibre of the men whose task it will be to sort it.
Even when that flood water became Biblical, after Storm Desmond, their work was outstanding. That Brunton Park was only sidelined for three matches before the players returned to a re-turfed pitch was a huge logistical triumph only possible through well-applied skill, judgement and leadership.
Those same qualities we demand from our team, in an ideal world. Yet they are there, routinely, in that corner of the ground between the Waterworks End and Pioneer Stand, where last weekend’s work – which became an immensely positive community effort – was directed.
The Beast from the East was no Desmond, but nor was it the basics; a postman delivering letters. The way it was surmounted reminded you of the class of Mitchell and those in his charge and, with all the talk of contract extensions and improved terms at Brunton Park right now, one wonders if Carlisle’s very best signing since 2005 should not be first in line for a few bob more.
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