By Owd Jim

Town’s Opponents – Carlisle

The overall League record is:

P W D L F A GD

Home 18 9 8 1 25 14 +11

Away 17 3 7 7 14 21 -7

Total 35 12 15 8 39 35 +4

Best and Worst Gates:

League Best Worst Average

Home 1966-67 = 18,606 1984/85 = 3,775 10,404

Away 1965/66 = 13,688 1985/86 = 3,334 7,362

FA Cup

Home 1972/73 = 13,555 13,555

Away 1972/73 = 9,550 1981/82 = 6,345 7,948

League Cup

Home 1961/62 = 8,880 1977/78 = 3,774 5,732

Away 1969/70 = 11,198 2010/11 = 3,475 6,870

LwrDiv

Home 1993/94 = 10,552 2010/11 = 6,528 8,540

Away 1994/94 = 8,330 2003/04 = 1,346 4,461

The Cumbrians were formed in 1903, five years before Town. Games played in either the North Eastern League or Midland League are not included in this report. Our paths did not cross, however, until the League Cup Round 1 in 1961/62. 7,360 saw Massie score for Town at Brunton Park in a 1-1 draw. Eleven days later McCann and Holt(2), watched by 8,880, saw Town through to Round 2 with a 3-0 win. Carlisle gained revenge in 1969/70, ironically when Town earned its first league double, by a score of 2-0 in Round 2 and watched by a good gate of 11,198. The third meeting came in Round 1 in 1977/78. This was a marathon affair. The first game away ended 1-1 (Eccles) in front of 5,447. Town earned another draw at Leeds Road 2-2 (Butler(2)) watched by only 3,774. The third game, also at Leeds Road ended up 2-1 to Town (Eccles, Gray) this time in front of 4,542.

In the last five years of Town’s second stint in Div2 the league games began when Carlisle made one their visits to those dizzy heights. In those seasons Town lost their first three visits to Cumberland, as it was then, 0-2, 1-2 and 1-2. There followed a 0-0 draw and finally a 2-0 win in the promotion season of 1969/70. The double was completed for the first time at the end of January 1970 with a 1-0 win at Leeds Road when 17,370 saw Stephen Smith score the game’s only goal. This was the second best ever home gate. The first ever League game was on 4th December 1965 when 15,517 turned up to see Tony Leighton score 2 penalties in the 2-0 win. The Cumbrians gained revenge in the penultimate fixture on their own park by the same 2-0 score. This turned out to be in front of the best ever crowd to see Town at Brunton Park – 13,668. An interesting bit of trivia shows that Leighton scored the next home goal for Town on New Year’s Eve 1966 in the 1-1 draw which earned the best ever home gate of 18,606.

The next time we met was early in The Great Slide. In 1972/73 the games ended 1-1 and 0-0. However in the FA Cup Round 3, after earning a 2-2 draw in Carlisle, Fairclough(2) in front of 9,550, Town fell 0-1 in the replay watched by a good crowd of 13,555.

When Town began the climb back to respectability, we crossed swords in 1980/81 both games ending 1-1. The following season United were promoted but Town won 2-1 at home and drew 2-2 away. In the same 1981/82 season Town also gained its only FA Cup win with a 3-2 triumph at Brunton Park in Round 3. Fletcher scored a hat-trick. The crowd was modest at only 6,345.

Town followed up with promotion the next season and played them for three seasons before United fell back. In 1983/84 the games ended scoreless. In 1984/85 Town won its second double but this time the home game was won 1-0 and the away game 2-0. The last league meetings before this season were in 1985/86 and Carlisle fared rather better, earning a 3-3 draw at Leeds Road and a 2-0 win on their own midden. A few days ago we did of course scrape a 2-1 home win in an unconvincing manner.

The sides met again in 2003/04 when Town had dropped into the basement. The home fixture saw Town run out 2-1 winners (Booth, Stead) in a game which saw both sides reduced to 10 men just about on half time. The return fixture saw the Cumbrians win 1-0.

The only other meetings came in the Lower Divisions Semi-Final in 1993/94 when a great crowd of 10,552 saw Town win comfortably at Leeds Road by 4-1. Carlisle won the second leg 2-0, when 8330 fans turned out to watch but Town went to Wembley on aggregate 4-3.Of course Swansea City won the final 3-1 on penalties after a 1-1 draw AET. Then we met again in 2003/04 in Round 2 at Brunton Park. It was a bad night for Town because 2 quick goals in the first 15 minutes saw Town eliminated from the competition.

In 2006/07 Town won the home fixture 2-1 thanks to Luke Beckett (2) (1pen). After a good first half Town gave up a goal just before the break and did not turn up in the second half and had to hang on for the points. The return fixture, Town’s second without a permanent manager, ended in a 1-1 draw with that man Beckett once again tormenting the Cumbrians with Town’s goal. A disputed equalizer in time added on at the end of the first half settled the issue.

The home game in 2007/08 was a disaster. Not only did Town concede the first league goals of the season but the team was completely outplayed and fully deserved the 0-2 loss. The return fixture saw the Cumbrians duly win their first “double” as they led 2-0 only to be pegged back late by Page’s first goal for Town, but it was too little too late and once again Town was undone by corners, as both goals came from that source.

In 2008/09 Town was well and truly thrashed on Boxing Day at Brunton Park where the Terriers were torn apart by a United side playing well above its league position (19th) and they ran out deserved 3-0 winners. The late season return game ended up 1-0 to Town thanks to a late Booth header. After a rotten first half Town improved in the second and just about deserved the win.

In 2009/10 Town should have played away on Boxing Day again but it was snowed off so the home game came first. On 6th Feb it ended up 1-1 after Town had taken the lead when as usual the players switched off and gave up an equaliser. 10 days later the return match was played and a great Town performance saw Novak score early and Rhodes add another early in the second half. Unfortunately Town’s defensive slip recurred and a late United goal took some of the gloss off a win which ended 2-1. Nevertheless it ended a run of 5 games at Brunton Park without a win.

In 2010/11 Town drew the Cumbrians away in Round 1 of the League Cup. A closely fought game was heading into extra time when up popped Novak, a late substitute, to lay on a perfect pass for Rhodes to slide in a virtual open goal for a 1-0 win.

The league away game came on New Year’s Day and a much changed Town side took a 2-0 lead (P.Clarke, Arfield) only for the usual slide to set in. Not for the first time Town then made sloppy defensive errors and the game ended 2-2. It was a case of 2 points thrown away. The next meeting was the northern Area Final (1st leg) of the Lower Divisions Cup. The fourteen players used fluctuated between woeful and abysmal and Town was deservedly thrashed 0-4 giving up 2 soft goals in each half.

The Fourth Test Match went Town’s way when the Cumbrians came to the Galpharm and the fans saw Roberts score 2 goals late on in the first half to win the game 2-0.

The Fifth Test Match, the return LDNF2 came one week later. In the event Town completely outplayed United and Pilkington put Town ahead on the half hour. Lee popped up with two second half goals, but that was as good as it got and the game ended 3-0, in no small part thanks to great goalkeeping by Collin in the net for the Cumbrians. So Town won the battle but lost the war going down 3-4 on aggregate.

After the long five game series in the previous season the Cumbrians came to Town on 30th December and showed Town how to play for almost half an hour after taking a deserved lead on 8 minutes. Rhodes benefited from a pass as a result of an error by Noble, United’s scorer, to equalise after 38 minutes. The second half was mostly one way traffic but apart from Rhodes missing a sitter late on neither goal was threatened much. So another two points lost as the game ended 1-1 to end a rotten December which produced only 5 points from a possible 12.

The Cumbrians currently are 6th, 3 points ahead of 7th and so they are very keen to win to cement their play off position. The Terriers are, of course, striving for 2nd place and are equally keen to win. It should be a good game. Brunton Park has not been a happy hunting ground for Town with only 3 wins in 17 league games and only 4 from 24 in all competitions. In the league Carlisle has lost only 3 home games, 0-3 to Notts County on opening day, 1-3 to Franchise on 3rd September (whom they beat away 2-1 this week) and 1-2 to Hartlepool a week later. Since then they have played 15 and won 9 including Stevenage 1-0, Owls 3-2 and Blades 3-2. They have yet to play Town and the Addicks. I have been wrong with my last two forecasts with a draw and a loss while Town won both. Maybe I should be miserable again and say Carlisle will win 3-0. However since Rochdale Grayson has begun to make a difference and in the last 3 games, apart from Smithies’s schoolboy error no one has scored against Town, that is about 265 minutes without conceding. To offset that Town has managed to score only 4 goals which includes an own goal. I think that the tide is turning and I feel that Town can win this one 1-0.

Read more: http://www.downatthemac.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=67115#ixzz1qgYG66AH

Three predictors (nickhudd01, cowshedphil & ShawCrossBlue) all backed a 1-0 home win with Jordan Rhodes to get the only goal to collect the maximum 5 points.

Venezuelan Pete has added his published his take  on the game in his latest match report.

Read all about it… here…

Match Report

By Owd Jim

Town’s opponents – Charlton

The overall League record is:

Best and Worst Gates:

Hostilities began in 1936/37 in the League when the Addicks were promoted to Division 1. From then until 1969/70, apart from the War Years the only blank seasons were 1952/53 when the Terriers were in Division 2 and1956/57 when Town had been relegated the previous season.. Charlton fell the following season and the sides met every year until Town was promoted in 1969/70. We met again during the Great Slide when Town stayed in Division 3 for 2 years. The teams met again in Division 3 in 1980/81 and yet again for 3 years beginning in 1983/84 in Division 2. We have met in only 4 seasons since in Division 1 (old Div 2) in 1995/96-1997/98 and finally in 1999/2000.

The first match was actually an FA Cup 3rd Round tie in 1925/26 which Town won 1-0 at The Valley in front of 21,184 fans. Roy Goodall scored from a penalty.

The League start was less satisfactory as the Addicks won the first of 5 “doubles”, winning at Leeds Road 2-1 on 5th December 1936 (Richardson – gate 11,609) and 1-0 on their own turf 10th April 1937 – gate 24,995. The Addicks finished runners up to Manchester City while Town languished in 15th place. The following season was not much better as the games ended 1-1 at home and 0-4 away. Next season saw Town finally win a game; after losing 1-2 at The Valley on15th October 1938 – Price – gate 28,038 revenge was gained at Leeds Road on 18th February 4-0 (Price, Hayes(P), Mills and Barclay – gate 16,163). Immediately after The War, in 1946/47 Town won its first “double” with the best results ever against Athletic. At Leeds Road on 2nd November the score was 5-1 (Rodgers(3), Bateman and Glazzard – gate 16,944), this was the only time Town has scored more than 4 goals at home against these opponents. The return match on 8th March ended 3-0 (Thompson, Bateman and Doherty – gate 27,805); this was the best ever win away from home. After that until Town was relegated at the end of 1951/52 Town won only 2 games at home 2-1 in 1949/50 (my final year at Oakes Elementary) and 1-0 in the relegation season the other 3 games went 0-1-2 2-4. Away only 2 draws were gained, 0-0 in 1947/48 and 2-2 in 1949/50. In Fact the 2-1 win in 1949/50 started Town on its best ever home run against Charlton. The 10 meetings beginning then saw Town win 6 and draw 4. This run came to a crashing halt in 1961/62 with a 0-2 loss, yet the away game season was won 2-0. The next 9 home games ended up with a record for Town of 6-2-1 17-5 with 2 wins 4-1 and one by 4-0. Town actually won its two other “doubles in that sequence, 4-1 and 2-1 in 1966/67 and 4-0 and 2-1 in the Championship winning season of 1969/70. Charlton’s other doubles have come, with Town home games first, in 1948/49 2-1, 3-1, 1974/75 3-1, 1-0, 1985/86 2-0, 3-0 and finally in 1997/98 3-0, 1-0. The 1948/49 match at the Valley was watched by the best gate ever totalling 38,437 on 28th August.

In the 3 year stay back in Division 1 Town won at home 4-1, drew 0-0 in front of the best ever home gate of 26,996 and won 4-0 in the relegation season. The away games were all lost 1-2, 1-2 and 1-4. When the Addicks followed Town down into Division 2 at the end of 1956/57 the next meetings provided an amazing match up. On opening day Bain, Simpson and Taylor scored in a 3-3 draw at Leeds Road. Then on 21st December came the game for the history books. Town led 5-1 at The Valley with only 20 minutes left then the Terriers fell apart and of the 7 (SEVEN) goals scored in the final 20 minutes Athletic claimed 6 of them. Leading 6-5 and finally winning 7-6 they condemned Town to be the only side in League history to score 6 goals and lose! I was amazed when I heard the score on the BBC and horrified when I read the match report in the Examiner. It did not get better in the only other FA Cup meeting, again in the 3rd Round. 20,223 turned up at Leeds Road to see Law and Massie score in a 2-2 draw. The replay four days later ended up 0-1 in front of 26,637. Having missed the 13 goal thriller the TV cameras were at the Valley the next season but they saw only 3 goals in a 2-1 (Massie) win for the Addicks on 27th December. Town had won by a score of 1-0 at home on Christmas Day with Howard scoring.

Since the 1969/70 promotion season Town has not fared too well in the contest. At home the record is only a poor 3-2-5 10-14 and away an even poorer 3-1-6 10-15.

Who will likely forget the last home fixture on 28th December 1999? Town was flying high but came unstuck 1-2 with Stewart scoring in the losing cause. We did not know it at the time but that was effectively the end of Town’s promotion bid and they slid down the table to finish 8th and out of the play-offs. Some sort of revenge was gained at the Valley on 14th April when Town won 1-0 (Wijnhard) but it was too little too late.

The first meeting in this century in 2009/10 did not go well for Town. The lads played quite well but, as usual, defensive slips cost the game. Two silly goals given up with only a Pilkington free kick to show in a 1-2 defeat. The return game was a fairly poor affair. Town had failed to win in 5 home games, had not beaten a top 6 side and the Addicks had failed to beat a top 6 side in their travels. Inevitably it ended up as a 1-1 draw. After Rhodes gave Town the lead they switched off and the Addicks duly equalised.

Early in 2010/11 the Addicks came to the Galpharm where two late first half goals set Town up (Rhodes, McCombe) with a late Roberts goal cancelled out by an injury time score by the Addicks for a professional 3-1 win. The return fixture was a must win for Town to keep second place a possibility, on the day the lads put in a professional performance and a late free kick strike by Gudjonsson saw them through to a 1-0 win.

In 2011/12 Town went to the Valley on a 43 game undefeated run and, unfortunately, as I predicted the run came to a shuddering halt. While having lots of possession and having something like 10-0 in corners Town had a toothless attack, never threatened or looked like scoring and, as usual, gave up a daft free kick from which the Addicks scored their first. Another bit of shocking defensive play led to goal number 2 and the half time score of 0-2 stood at full time. This first defeat in 44 saw Town drop out of the top two places and fall into a tight play-off zone.

The Addicks have lost on their travels only twice this season, mid October at Stevenage 0-1 (Town 2-2) and end of December at Orient 0-1 (Town yet to play). They drew with Franchise 1-1 (Town 1-1), beat the Blades 2-0 (Town 3-0), beat the Owls 1-0 (Town 4-4). They are undefeated in 6 away (Town 8). Both sides are hard to beat; Addicks lost 4 Town lost 3. The big difference is in wins, Addicks 24, Town 16. Based on Town’s overall play this season I doubt very much that the Terriers can win and I have a feeling that the Addicks will be too strong and will win 2-0. I was wrong on Tuesday I just hope I am wrong again.

Another routine away win.

Only schofield7 got the maximum of 7 points for predicting a 2-0 win and got both Rhodes & Novak to score.

Meanwhile, AndySk’s lead is cut by 1 point at the top. With the outcome of his court case and potential points deduction imminent, will he still be there next week?

By Owd Jim

Town’s opponents – Chesterfield

The overall League record is:

Best and Worst Gates:

Best and Worst Gates: FA Cup, League Cup and Lower Divisions Cup

Apart from one meeting in the FA Cup Round 3 in 1928-29, whichTownwon away 7-1, we did not meet the Spireites until 1973-74 when Town were in the middle of The Great Slide. Town did the ‘double’ that season winning 1-0 at home and 2-0 away. The next time the ‘double’ was achieved was in the promotion year of 1982-83 with the scores being 3-1 and 1-0.

The 7-1 FA Cupwinon January 28th 1929 was the best gate ever between the clubs, 15,923 saw George Brown score 4, Alex Jackson 1 and Laurence Cumming 2. George Brown is of course Town’s top scorer with 159 goals. He was transferred to Aston Villa in the following August. That game apart, most games have been low scoring; that is until the last meeting when Town won 4-0 at the Mac in the last relegation season in 2002-03; the Terriers were beaten 0-1 in the away fixture. Town have won all three FA Cup meetings, the others, all away being in Round 2 1-0 in 1981-82 and 2-0 in 1989/90.

Town won the first ever League Cup contest in 2005/06 by a score of 4-2 after twice being pegged back. The Spireites then gained ample revenge with a 4-3 win in the league encounter at the Recreation Ground with a 3-0 first half. Hudson scored for Town on 80 minutes but a penalty 5 minutes later saw the score move to 4-1. Then alateburst by the visitors with 2 goals right at the end gave the scoreline some respectability. The return match was an unmitigated disaster. Watched by the best gate ever for a game between the sides, with an automatic place up for grabs, the home side outplayed the Spireites in the first half, but had only 1 Graham goal to show for it. In the second half gutless play, inept tactics and overall rubbish play saw the visitors run out worthy 2-1 winners to score their first victory on Town turf and their first double.

The away game in T2006/07 ended in a forgettable dull 0-0 draw which meant that Town had failed to score in their last 3 away games and had found the net, legally, only 4 times in their last 9 games overall. The return match saw a lousy first half by Town and a deserved 0-1 score. Much better second halfeffortwas memorable because it saw Matt Young’s first goal for Town and the game ended 1-1. Chesterfield was relegated that season.

In 2009/2010 the sides met at Saltergate in the LD Cup Round 2 where Town were inept and trailed 1-3 at the start ofinjurytime only for Pilkington to score his second goal of the night and Nathan Clarke equalised before the final whistle, then the silly sods lost 2-4 on penalties.

The Spireites came to town on Boxing Day, sitting rock bottom it should have been easy for Town but the lads made heavy weather of it and just about deserved the 1-0 win (Rhodes – who else?) in a rather poor game. It was the first Boxing Day win for Lee Clark and the first win in December 2011 for Town.

The Spireites are still rock bottom 4 points and a game short of safety. Town’s record at Chesterfield is very poor as you can see from above. Recent home results for Chesterfield have been fairly good, in reverse order:
FRANCHISE 1-1,
Tranmere 1-0,
CHARLTON 0-4,
SHEFF WED 1-0,
Bournemouth 1-0,
Exeter 0-2,
Oldham 1-1,

Notts County 3-1 and Sheff Utd 1-0 both managed to beat them at Chesterfield but history is against the Terriers. As Town are draw specialists I can see yet another draw on the horizon and reckon it may well end up 1-1 as the Spireites are fighting for Div 3 survival and will certainly put up strong resistance. On the positive side of the ledger Town is hard to beat which is why I am expecting yet another draw.

Why on Earth would you predict anything other than a draw?!

Yesterday 12 predictors (AndySK, BoltonTerrier, Bonzo, garyroberts’leftfoot, gmarah26, HD8 Blue & White, Otleyblue, Otley-Terrier, Schofield7, upatthetown, Watching The Defectives & yorkie69) all backed the 1-1 scoreline but surprisingly didn’t see the goal coming from a Colchester United players head.