Home-grown talent will always be vital to a club like Carlisle United.
So it was encouraging that Saturday’s excellent 2-0 win at Tranmere was fashioned by a side with four Cumbrians in the starting line-up.
That was the first time since April 2015 that United have had a quartet of Cumbrians in the line-up.
Saturday’s home-made four were Taylor Charters, Jack Ellis, Paul Huntington and Owen Moxon, with manager Paul Simpson and assistant Gav Skelton also Cumbrian born and bred.
Simpson said: “I was told before the game that we had four Cumbrians in the side for the first time in a while, so that’s a really good thing. We had four in the team, a couple in the dugout, and that’s really good.
“We have to have that at a club like ours because there isn’t a bottomless pit of money. It does matter to us that we can do that, and I think it matters to the players.
“I’m not saying that players who aren’t from here don’t care, because they do, but when you’re from the area there’s a closer affinity with what’s going on. I’m really pleased for them all.
“All of them will feel pride when they hear something like this. I can only talk about how I feel coming back and being the manager of Carlisle United.
“I’m quite sure for the players from here that playing for the club is a big thing. We’re talking about two young players in Jack and Taylor who’ve come through the system.
“Hunts who’s gone away from Carlisle and had an absolutely brilliant career and hopefully giving us, I’d like to think at least, three years to finish his career. That’s me giving him a bit of a challenge there.
“And then Owen Moxon who left the club, went away, didn’t spit his dummy out, got knuckled down and has come back in and been excellent. And who knows, maybe there might be somebody else who gets a turn soon as well.”
The last four to play together in a Carlisle side were Patrick Brough, Kyle Dempsey, Danny Grainger and Steven Rigg. They helped the Blues to a 2-0 win over Plymouth, a result that kept the club up that season.
Grainger and Rigg are reunited at Workington as manager and player; Brough is with League Two rivals Barrow and Dempsey is currently with Bolton.
