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Which is the bigger derby game your looking forward to next season , a Cumbria one v Carlisle......or a Morecambe Bay.....Lancashire one v Morecambe.

Has to be Morecambe for me

Carlisle. Morecambe weren't even a piece of dirt on your shoe last time we were in the league.

Barrow v Morecambe sounds like an 80s fixture from the HFS Loans League. Barrow v Carlisle sounds more like a league fixture.

Bradford City and Bolton away

Morecambe is the true derby, Carlisle is a semi derby being as Cumbria is not a proper county, Bolton and Bradford are the big games, plus anyone we get the EFL cup/ leasing.com trophy who’s in a higher league ie Sunderland or Ipswich or even Fleetwood or or Blackpool.

I’m from the Generation that was born in Lancs but for me Carlisle would be the bigger games

doesn’t bother me this sort of thing. In my mind our biggest rival is whoever we are up against at the time

mickmike wilson wrote: ↑Sat Jul 25, 2020 1:44 pm I’m from the Generation that was born in Lancs but for me Carlisle would be the bigger games

I don’t get it though. Carlisle are nothing as a club, certainly not a big club, Barrovians have nothing in common with them, we have completely difference cultural outlooks, Barrow looks South, Carlisle looks east to Newcastle, we have completely different accents and we are different media regions. Carlisle might as well be in Outer Mongolia. In addition 20 years of living in Barrow and I’ve never set foot in Carlisle in my life as I’ve never had a reason to go there. Whereas I visit Lancashire and the North West regularly,

Carlisle is definitely the derby. Same county, loads of links with ex-players, managers etc, and two clubs with substantial Football League history.

EABluebird wrote: ↑Sat Jul 25, 2020 1:57 pm

EABluebird wrote: ↑Sat Jul 25, 2020 1:56 pm
I don’t get it though. Carlisle are nothing as a club, certainly not a big club, Barrovians have nothing in common with them, we have completely difference cultural outlooks, Barrow looks South, Carlisle looks east to Newcastle, we have completely different accents and we are different media regions. Carlisle might as well be in Outer Mongolia. In addition 20 years of living in Barrow and I’ve never set foot in Carlisle in my life as I’ve never had a reason to go there. Whereas I visit ROLancashire and the North West regularly,

Like or loath it we have been placed into Cumbria for FORTY EIGHT YEARS time to move on mate

As the crow flies Morecambe would be seen as our nearest neighbours but by strict county boundaries (no matter how much we might disagree with them) it's our Cumbrian neighbours, Carlisle who arguably qualify as our derby opponents.

For me, the Carlisle match has greater appeal, if for no other reason than it's been a long, long time since we last played them in a League match whereas our league encounters against Morecambe feel very recent to me. Plus, there is the fact that we are only too accustomed to beating Morecambe 7-3 whereas to the best of my knowledge we have never done that to Carlisle and would like to have the opportunity to do so.

The last time we played Carlisle in a league match was in the old Division 4. The home encounter took place on 16th March 1964 in front of a Holker Street attendance of 2385. It finished 2-2 with our goals coming from Ernie Ackerley and Jackie Maddison. I am sure I will have been there because I always was (never mind measles, mumps, viruses etc etc) but I have to confess it's one I have no recollection of. The full team was:

Caine, Arrowsmith, Cahill, Eddy, O'Neill, Clark, Maddison, Brennan, Ackerley, Barrett, Corkhill

The match at their place came on 17th April 1964 and will have been our last league meeting. They won 4-1, our goal coming from Tommy Thompson. The attendance was 9538. The team was:

Caine, Murray, Cahill, Hale, Arrowsmith, Clark, Howard, Brennan, Ackerley, Thompson, Corkhill

They finished 2nd and went up into the 3rd Division. We finished bottom of the 4th.

The old 4th Division had only come into being at the start of the 1958/59 season; prior to that we had always been in 3rd Division North from its inception in 1921 until North and South came together to form a nationwide 4th tier in the summer of 1958. In those six years between 1958 and finishing rock bottom in 1964 this was the first time we had ended up at the foot of the pile (though we had come very close on a few other occasions in the seasons before 63/64).

So, we have not experienced a kick-off off against Carlisle in a league match for 56 years, 3 months, 8 days and 6 minutes (the last bit will be outdated by the time anybody reads this). I reckon that accounts for why I look forward to the Carlisle match even more than the Morecambe one. I mean, our number 6 from those matches, Ben Clark, is 87 now . . . that's how long ago it is.

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