We visited Carlisle on the way down to Barrow-in-Furness, mainly to have a look at a second hand book shop in the town centre. As I recall I didn’t buy any books.
As we travelled on to south Cumbria we passed Brunton Park, home of Carlisle United FC, and I stopped to photograph it – or what I could gain access to. (There was some work going on at the ground.)
External view of stands:-
Statue outside club shop on Warwick Road:-
The plaque on the statue commemorates 100 years of the club:-
View of stands from the road round the side of the stadium:-
Pitch and stands (photographed through a fence):-
Further round I was able to get a less obstructed view of the pitch and stands:-
The Dumbarton FC website today contained the sad news that Sons’ great striker from the 1970/71 and 1971/72 seasons, and club legend, Kenny Wilson has died.
He scored 67 goals in his short time at the club including 38 in 36 league games in that memorable promotion season of 1971/72 and 4 in the top division the year after before he moved to Carlisle. He and Roy McCormack were the most potent striking partnership I have ever seen. Just sublime.
I noted part of Kenny’s contribution to our promotion in this post. In a later league game against Raith Rovers he scored all 5 in a 5-0 win. One of those he knew little about. He was standing with his back to goal a few yards out and the ball bounced off the back of his foot and over the line. When you’re hot, you’re hot.
My elder brother dubbed him “rubber legs” due to the way he collapsed when tackled illegally. He won more than a few penalties and free-kicks converted by Charlie Gallagher in those two seasons.
In a pre-season friendly against Carlisle United Kenny scored a cracker I always remember as the “£10,000 goal.” Before the game Carlisle were rumoured to be interested in signing him and willing to pay £10,000 as a transfer fee. When Kenny joined them a few months later they paid £20,000.
Sadly his career after he left the Sons was not as successful in terms of goals scored.
He returned to visit Boghead and the Dumbarton Football Stadium (the Rock) often in the years after he retired from football and always had time to spare for the fans.
And so another part of my youth has gone.
Kenneth Malcolm (Kenny) Wilson: 15/9/1946 – 17/01/2025. So it goes.
And now Stan Bowles, the best football player I have seen live,as opposed to on television, has died. He most famously starred for Queen’s Park Rangers, but it was a Carlisle United player that I saw him dominate the midfield in a pre-season friendly against the Sons of the Rock at Boghead in 1972. He just glided over the pitch and past our midfielders as if they weren’t there. It was sublime.
This video kind of speaks for itself in illustrating some of his skills – but it tends to concentrate on him scoring goals. (I note that the person who titled it had a bit of difficulty spelling extraordinaire.)
I see from his biographical information he shared a birthday with me, though he was some years older.
Stanley Bowles: 24/12/1948 – 24/2/2024. So it goes .
This post’s title is adapted from an Argentinian newspaper headline (¿Qué pasa en Suecia?) I saw on a TV programme about the history of Argentine football when the national team was widely perceived to have underperformed in the 1958 World Cup in Sweden and received a hostile reception on their return to Argentina. (See their Group 1 results if you look on here.)
AS to the meat of the post; after bumbling along just above the relegation zone for much of this season (unlike last where they were firmly rooted there before what seemed an almost miraculous escape) Hartlepool United have gone on a similar late run, not losing in their last seven games and winning five of those. (See League Two table and current form here.)
Of course, by mentioning this I’ll have jinxed it. The ‘Pool will most likely lose at Carlisle tonight, now.
