Carlisle United Football Club

A specially designed penalty shoot-out inflatable – complete with CUFC and Virgin Trains branding – will be positioned on the pedestrian area adjacent to the House of Fraser from 11am to 2pm on Saturday 5 April [v Swindon] and Saturday 26 April [v Oldham].

Fans of all ages will be invited to join our Community Sports Trust team, OLGA the Fox and former-United midfielder Chris Lumsdon at the shoot-out, with members of the first team squad set to take their place between the sticks on shot saving duties. 

“Everything will be free of charge,” deputy managing director Suzanne Kidd explained. “It’s for all age groups but it would fantastic to see plenty of youngsters come along and have a go.

“The challenge is to score as many points as you can by getting the ball through the holes at the back of the inflatable goals and spot prizes will be given out. These will include small items from the shop, home and away shirts, places on our Summer Soccer Schools and some family ticket vouchers.”

And a special thank you has been given to Virgin Trains for their sponsorship of the project.

“Virgin Trains are going to be our main sponsor next season and they were very keen to be involved with our community activities,” Suzanne continued. “We're building up a good relationship with them and they've been really supportive with the design of the inflatable goals. Virgin Trains have asked if we'll go down to the Cumberland Show with them in June, so there’ll be plenty of chances for people to have a go.” 

Virgin Trains Customer Experience Manager Sue Howarth said: “We were delighted to be asked to sponsor this challenge and to help with bringing the club closer to the local community. 

“As well as sponsoring the match and travel kit we have been looking for other ways to strengthen our bond with the club and its supporters and we feel this is an excellent way to help us to achieve that. We look forward to working closely with Carlisle United in the months and years to come.”

The first outing of the penalty shoot-out challenge coincides with #cumbriaweekend, with two pairs of return travel tickets to London*, supplied by Virgin Trains, up for grabs to mark this special event. And Carlisle United will have two pairs of match tickets to be won as part of the big #cumbriaweekend giveaway. 

“We want to raise awareness of our home matches along with creating strong links with the children in the community,” Suzanne said. “It's something that’s free for children to have a go at and it will give the players a good chance to meet a lot of fans. We want people to have fun and feel more involved with the club.

“This is one of many events that we'll be doing in terms of fan engagement. We've listened to feedback from fans across various channels about this type of thing and we're really pleased we're now in a position to put something like this into place. 

“We’ll be looking to carry this on next season and we also hope to hold a similar event here at Brunton Park ahead of the Good Friday game against Walsall. We'll have further details about that closer to the time but, along with the season ticket holder training session on 14 April, we hope fans can see that we’re trying to build stronger links with the community. 

“We have to say thank you to Lummy for volunteering his time, along with John Halpin and the Community Sports Trust. We know how busy everyone can be on a match day but we feel this is the best day for us to do something like this. We'll be taking up plenty of programmes and pens to make sure the kids can get autographs and to make sure they have something to remember the day by.”