Welcome to the third in a series of articles designed to keep you in touch with what is happening in the independent Carlisle United Supporters' Club London Branch and present the exiles view of the goings on at Brunton Park.

At last Carlisle United are off the bottom of the Third Division. With three games in hand on Exeter and York and Torquay firmly in our sights, we now have the opportunity to pull away to safety. It's a chance we have to take and the results since the Arsenal game have shown that we are a better team than our position in the League would suggest.

How much the Arsenal game was the catalyst for this revival is uncertain, but Alastair has already drawn comparison with that season, now many years ago when we lost at home to Liverpool, but the players gained a huge boost to their self belief as they stroked the ball around in the second half. It proved to be the turning point of the season and I have a feeling that the fantastic performance against Arsenal will prove to be a similar turning point.

Usually this season I have wanted the referee to end the games early, but on 6th January I was hoping the game wouldn't end, as United looked as if they might get an equaliser near the end. It was a performance that must have boosted the player's confidence, after all Arsenal had just beaten Leicester 6 - 0 and no-one gave us a chance. The fact that Arsenal won 6 - 0 at QPR in the next round demonstrates how well we did.

Unfortunately, the media coverage centred on one incident taken completely out of context of the game. Egged on by Wenger the media decided to show the 'tackle' by Richard Prokas on Viera to the exclusion of all else. It was not a dirty game. There were only fourteen fouls in the whole game divided equally between the two sides. Three Arsenal players were booked compared to two Carlisle players. So why the hysteria? Two reasons - firstly, Wenger wanted to deflect the attention away from Arsenal's own negative tactics and inability to get a hatful of goals past the worst team in the football league and secondly, it was easy to categorise an anonymous Carlisle side as hackers from the lower divisions.

The facts of the matter are this, Prokas was bringing the ball out of defence, pushing the ball ahead of himself, perhaps too far ahead of himself. Suddenly, Viera sees the opportunity to intercept and jumps into Prokas' path with both feet looking as if he is going to slide into the tackle. Prokas, with his eyes on the ball does the same, only to find that Viera remains upright and flicks the ball to one side. Instead of both players sliding into a fifty-fifty tackle Prokas misses the ball and hits Viera. Was it a sending off offence? I have to say NO having seen at least four worse tackles in the premier league since then, none of which ended with a red card. The last of these happened when Arsenal played Coventry and was perpetrated by a certain Patrick Viera. With the ball already gone, Viera stamped down the shin of his opponent, way over the top of the ball. A typical Premiership handbag fight followed the incident and Viera merely received a booking. The incident wasn't even mentioned in the summing up of the game and I didn't notice Wenger calling for players who carry out these tackles to be sent off. Double standards or what?

Enough of that. The London Branch had a great day out. We met in the London Tavern on London Road and all 150 tickets were distributed successfully, Mike and Steve Kilner ran a quiz, Ian Jardine ran a raffle, and there was a buffet lunch to keep us all going. The best was saved until after the match. Jimmy Glass has become a firm favourite with the London Branch, not only for the incredible goal he scored, but for staying in touch and after the Arsenal game he came along to the London Tavern and met up with the United exiles. Thanks again, Jimmy.

Now its back to more mundane matters - planning the trip down to Exeter, finding out how to get to Chesterfield on a Tuesday night and so on.

The summer trip is beginning to take shape now. Barcelona has been decided on as the venue and the weekend of June 17th as the date. The idea is to stay in a city centre hotel, maybe have a game of soccer against a local side and then take in Barcelona v Valencia on the Sunday. It promises to be a great way of celebrating United's survival in the Third Division.

UP THE BLUES!

Malcolm Fawcett
Editor, Hit the Bar!
Carlisle United Supporters' Club London Branch

Email Malcolm @ malcolm_fawcett@yahoo.com