Saturday morning and it was over to a mates in Corstorphine for breakfast and also to see a wonderful 50th birthday present from his wife, a commissioned painting by Martin Speight (personally delivered by the ex Sussex player as well!!) - it's of the country ground Hove, with hand drawings of Mushy, Adams, Goodwin and Moores and the 2003 Championship trophy- its fantastic!
Ians birthday was on Friday, so Sussex gave him a great 50th present by winning the title again
After several sausage and bacon baps it was time to head to haymarket and catch the 9.58 to Carlisle. The place was awash with Celtic fans heading down to the old firm game, and they were none too pleased when the Glasgow train was just 2 carriages long!
Our GNER train was pretty empty, but we joined the other Albas (and Andy S) for the hour long scenic trip to Carlisle.
We arrived about 11.30 and were soon tucked up in a nice pub serving ale for the proper beer drinkers. We met up with the Albas from Glasgow (and other places - probably about 30+ of them now) and it was nice to see lots of people again.
Miles's daughter sat patiently reading Charlie and the Chocoloate factory, but got slightly agitated when it took miles 20 minutes to buy her a packet of crisps, my fault for stopping for a chat with Miles!
They did the raffle for the signed Oatway shirt (they sponsor him - any player sponsored by the Albas need to be careful -
first it was Virgo - SOLD,
then Cullip - SOLD,
then they defaulted to Shabaan who broke a toe,
then it was Oatway and he is now injured!!!! ).
We headed over the road to another pub about 1.45 and then at 2.30 walked to the ground. The Albas were out on force with the several saltires and some amusing songs (mostly written and sung by Miles!).
Why some of the Brighton tossers in the ground decided it was slag off Scotland day really annoyed me. It was mainly some fat tw&t in an orange T-shirt who had more spots than brain cells. Some
Brighton fans are really an embarassment at times.
We got in the ground just before 3pm and the away attendance was given as 367, I thought it looked a few more.
Its was hot, very hot, so I took a seat up towards the back to escape the sun. The Albas sat down the front to try and turn from a slighly light blue skin colour to a pink look!
The game - well not sure what to say. The first 45 minutes was back to the Gillingham days, every player had a stinker, but the defence was shocking.
The first goal saw El-Abd fail to clear with a header and they scored with a good shot giving Kuipers no chance.
Next goal saw ragged defending, a cross came in and Santos was beaten to the ball for 2-0. Carlisle could and should have been 4 or 5 up at half time.
Reid hobbled off after about 25 minutes (ligament damage, he's out for the season) and Fraser replaced him.
Cox had his first poor game, but the youngsters were always going to have a bad game some time, shame they all had it together.
2nd half and much to everyones relief no Santos. EL-abd back to centre back, Hart to right back and Molango up front. Harty did his best to get himself sent off by constantly pulling players back when they turned him.
Molango ran hard but his control is poor, his vision is poor and I fail to see what he brings to the team (other people on the train back disagreed and thought he was one of our better players - so perhaps I had already decided he was rubbish and didnt see anything to change my mind!).
The third goal saw Carlisle make easy pass after easy pass followed by an unchallenged cross, followed by Mayo not even jumping to defend followed by Kuipers watching the ball loop over his head.
Revell shortly pulled one back with a neat finish, but it was just a consolation.
Kuipers - 5 looked worried - but perhaps for a good reason
El-Abd - 4 beaten time after time at right back, looked better at centre back
Mayo - 5 easily beaten at times
Santos - 3 comedy 45 minutes (but it wasnt all that funny really!)
Lynch - 5 very shaky game as well, but didnt let it worry him and he looked better with El-Abd
Cox - 5 lost possession again and again and was physically pushed out the game
Hammond - 5 cant remember him doing much
Frutos - 4 a passenger
Reid - 5 injured early on
Revell - 5 battled but not many chances - nice finish for the goal
Hart - 6 my MOTM as batteld as usual and gave 100% at right back when asked
Molango - 6 for effort, making the runs, but needs to do something with the ball
Fraser - 4 game passed him by - should have done better with a headed chance
Rents - 5 game passed him by when he replaced Frutos