Steve Herbert: Die hard Crawley fans were well rewarded

As our train pulled out of London Euston on Saturday morning we were engulfed by a snow blizzard and scenes from a winter wonderland of fields covered in white.
A very cold Brunton Park on Saturday.A very cold Brunton Park on Saturday.
A very cold Brunton Park on Saturday.

Not quite what you need when travelling such a long distance to support your football team.

It would of been a heck of a wasted journey had the game been postponed. Fortunately by the time we arrived in Carlisle the snow had subsided and we met up with some of the other die hard Reds fans who had made the pilgrimage to Cumbria.

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The Griffin pub outside Carlisle station was to be our rendezvous point. For anyone passing through the city I would highly recommend it. Great food and drink and very friendly locals.

As to the match itself for the first hour it looked as if the effort we all made to get there was going to be in vain as Carlisle went 2-0 up. On previous visits that would of been goodnight Vienna.

But not under Harry Kewell’s watch. Crawley were actually never out of this game and controlled large parts of it. If anything Carlisle looked the lesser of the two sides. Once again Karlan Ahearne-Grant was the saviour with a superb brace.

Yes the keeper made a bit of a feeble attempt at saving his second goal. But if you don’t buy a ticket you don’t win the raffle. A winner would of probably been asking too much. Special mention to centre halve Joe McNerney who was excellent throughout.

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We finally arrived back at Three Bridges just before 11pm. Hats off to the 75 souls that travelled. It’s a huge sacrifice to give up a whole day and spend lots of hard earned money following your football team to such far flung places. But on this occasion we were well rewarded. Harry Kewell came over at full time once again to thank us for our efforts. Which is much appreciated.

Will I be doing Carlisle again next season should we still be in the same League? Absolutely. Although I may need to earn some kudos from the wife before the next trip.

What the comeback gives us is a huge lift going into the home games with Wycombe Wanderers (Wednesday) and then Cheltenham Town on Saturday.

These next two games could really define what level we’ll be playing at next season.

The play off race is most certainly still on for one more week at least. COYR

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