Thanks to Harold J Bowron, of the London Branch, for this excellent Fan View from the trip to Swansea last Friday:
When the football fixtures are published in June each year my wife and her three lady friends look and see to which away fixture they would like to accompany me, not to go to the game, but to go shopping.
This year they chose Swansea, as two of the friends are from that area. The game was brought forward to the Friday evening which suited us, as we would stay the weekend returning on the Monday to Edinburgh and that left Saturday and Sunday to do what we wished. The three ladies would fly and we would go by train.
Friday morning arrived, the taxi was ordered for 05.20hrs so that we could get as much time as possible experiencing the wizardry of Wales. The train departed thirty minutes later and we would have breakfast after a little while.
We had only journeyed 1.5 miles when we came to a grinding halt outside Meadowbank Stadium; the overhead power had been turned off because a freight train had caught fire on the opposite line some three miles ahead. Two and a half hours later we re-commenced our journey, we now had power so we could also have a good old British Rail breakfast, the main course comprising eight different items.
We arrived in Swansea three hours late, but still three hours away from kick-off. All I had to do now was to meet my fellow London Branch member who would supply me with my ticket which I had ordered through the ticket deposit scheme. No problem, he was outside the away end at the allotted time.
In to the ground we go and I was most impressed with the £27m Liberty Stadium, just like a smaller version of the new Wembley! Away supporters are nearly always behind the goal and this was no exception, not the best of views!
Graham was on the bench and Lumsdon would start for the first time this season. The first ten or fifteen minutes saw Carlisle come under a great deal of pressure, but our defence stood firm, just! We could not get hold of the ball. After eight minutes Graham came on for Thirlwell, who was injured. During this period Garner had been appealing for supposed fouls against him, but the referee quite rightly just ignored him. I find this an irritating part of his play. Then when the game was fifteen minutes old he made a tackle which the referee didn't like and he received a verbal warning. Thankfully the young man heeded this and had no further indiscretions.
We then started to get more of the ball and we had a twenty minute period when we just about matched Swansea who were proving to be very capable opponents. The last ten minutes of the first half saw more Swansea pressure and we observed Westwood producing a particularly good one handed save. A header off the line by Garner resulting in him ending up on his back in the side netting, but the referee had blown for a foul anyway. Whenever Robinson received the ball he always created a danger to us. However the half time whistle blew and we were still on level terms.
The second half started with us showing a great deal of determination when Smith was upended in the penalty area just in front of the Carlisle fans, after only two minutes. I presumed Graham would take it and he did. In preparing for the game I assume their goalkeeper would look at any videos of Carlisle penalties. Graham had taken our only other goal scored from a penalty during our home game with Oldham. He had taken that one and placed it to the goalkeeper's left hand side. When Graham ran up to take this one de Vries dived to his left, but the versatile forward did the opposite and scored another sweet penalty. He should have scored again in the 63rd minute when Westwood sent a long ball down the middle, but with only the goalkeeper to beat he somehow lost his balance and the opportunity had gone.
We were holding on and I felt that if the score could remain the same at the final whistle it would have been a bit of a smash and grab raid. Unfortunately, it was not to be.
That man Robinson was causing more trouble and in the 81st minute sent in a very low shot which Westwood went down to scoop up. The ball, however, bounced off his chest into the path of Duffy who slotted it home. One of Westwood's rare mistakes, or just hard luck; very difficult to tell from the distance that I was away from the goalmouth. This must have been a great blow to our team, because they had defended so doggedly, but worse was to come. Only two minutes later Robinson started another move with a pass to Anderson who sent a bending ball round Westwood into the far corner.
The away dressing room could not have been a happy place after this game. It was so disappointing to have held out for 33 minutes after scoring, to then concede in such a manner. Before this game we had the lowest 'against' goals in the four leagues having let in only two, this result doubled that figure. We were, however, up against a team who will probably be knocking on the door of promotion at the end of the season, so we must not get too downhearted. Our two defeats have been our last two games, so we need to get our shooting boots on against Bristol Rovers next Saturday.
We spent Saturday in Mumbles mostly on or around the pier experiencing wall to wall sunshine. It was my wife's birthday and a Red Arrows air display was laid on, it helped to raise my spirits! Our return home to Edinburgh via London on the Monday was without incident, having taken only seventy five minutes longer than the plane!
Harold J. Bowron
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