The first eight games have been a case of deja vu. The fans frustration is that we can be a good team on our day but we have too many periods in games where we don't click. We seem to be slow starters in games. I noted with interest that when it was mentioned to Chris Lumsdon ( who does an excellent job of the co-commentary ) that we had not scored in the first half this season, he said that in his day we would always look to get really fired up and try to get an early goal. Now the game may have changed and be a bit more tactical but particularly at home should we not be looking to whip up the crowd and get some early momentum ? The formation of the team is a constant cause for debate. Are you pro or anti diamond ? Is it a 4-5-1 or a 4-3-3 ? For me Thirlwell and Tiawo in the same team is too negative. We signed the striker that fans were craving for and with 3 goals in 2 games, Lee Miller has made a great start. My personal opinion is that he thrives on crosses and so we must play with wingers. I still feel we are vulnerable in both full back areas. Our current full backs lack positional awareness at times and in some ways are too attack minded whereas the should be first and foremost defenders. Two clean sheets out of eight is not a good enough return. If you don't concede, you don't lose. I know everyone wants to see exciting football but ultimately it's results that get the fans in.

I've had some dialogue with the club recently around commercial activity. The London Branch have agreed to raise money towards an upgrade of the floodlights. Our £1000 initial donation we hope will be followed by a further £4000 over the next two seasons under what we are terming the ' Shine A Light ' appeal. We hope to work with the club on fund raising initiatives starting with a raffle later this year. Merchandising opportunities are being researched with a baseball cap seeming to be a popular choice. There is still lots to do to get more fans interaction with the club. There is no recognised formal fans engagement process that has in the past led to ideas launched by the club falling flat. I was personally disappointed with the turnout at the fans forum. Does this mean that all is well with United fans. Reading the messageboard you'd think not !

Are the Club doing enough to get fans into home games ? The much criticised new ticketing entry system should help in this regard. One of the benefits is customer profiling. The Club should be able to quickly build up a history of attendance for each fan that will allow them to target offers at absent fans. I still think that we miss a big trick by not looking for a small team of volunteers that could proactively call fans and offer them tickets for matches. There are no costs involved here as they are volunteers. What about packages for businesses to bring clients along ? Why not get out and about and ask people what it would take to encourage them to come along ? How many of the occasional fans just need a little nudge over the phone with an incentive attached ? Although it is not the be all and end, it would significantly improve turnover if you get more people into Brunton Park. Once in they buy a pie, a beer, programme, etc and they might come back. Possibly the presence in the city centre at Debenhams will help to raise the profile. This along with the bus travel offer are good moves but so much more could be done.

These are only my views as an exiled fan. I hope that if you see things differently you will look to contribute to this fanzine.

Keep well,

Simon Clarkson

A warm welcome to season 11-12 to United exiles all around the world. Such is the appeal of this fanzine that I know without doubt it it is posted out to ever corner of the globe. This does not happen by accident and like any brand your reputation can be left in tatters if you overstep the mark but I can assure all readers that we do not engage in phone hacking - we rely on you the readers to contribute. Pause to think what you might be able to do to make this an even better read and send your items into Geoff. We are in particular keen to take on board some more Carlisle based fans but surely they all can't be like ' Grumpy Old Blue ' ?

The benefit match for Sean McDaid was a great gesture from the club and it's a real shame that he had to retire after making such a good start. Left back for me is a concern this season, as Robson still adjusts and I've yet to see O'Halloran play. Is there enough pace at centre back ? I think we could do with a youngster there to compliment the experience but the problem with loans is if they come in and do well, they'll get signed by someone else like James Chester. The additions of Welsh and McGovern seem to be very sound with Noble being a great coup on loan. There's no question that our midfield is strong. As I write this two weeks before the season, the fans are craving a striker. It's a tough one for Greg as fans have repeatedly asked for him to give the youngsters a chance. I think he'll give Loy & Madden a chance for a few weeks.

I hope that fans can be attracted to home games with a little bit of creativity around matchday offers as we adapt to the economic pressures that would appear likely to get worse before they get better. We need to speculate to accumulate, be more creative with initiatives and not be afraid to get something wrong. Finding the balance between effective decision making and fans consulatation is crucial. This is why it is such a shame that there does not appear to be a visible engagement between an official supporters group and the club. There has however been a lot of work between ourselves, CUOSC and the United Trust over the summer but until we get full engagement from the club, there is a limit as to how much we can do.

Do you ever stop and think why people join the London Branch ? Well I have asked a lot of Members of late and the main reasons are social interaction on matchdays, the banter, the accounts of days gone by and excitement of future events which make being away from ' home ' that much more bearable. I'd like to welcome Mike Carruthers onto the Committee in his new role as social secretary. As a highly motivated and organised guy, Mike will inject plenty of ideas and enthusiasm into the role and already has lots of socials lined up to cover for the loss of lots of southern games this season. We have all benefited from Mike's excellent organisational skills with his excellent summer trips. I hope Nigel Moss our new summer trip organiser can keep the good work up. Al Millington has already pulled out the stops and overseen the advance booking of train tickets for four games already including a group outing to Brunton Park on 8th October.

I hope those Members who are still yet to renew do so soon. The fist, albeit small increase in fees this decade is primarily due to costs of this publication but we felt that we did not want to cut the number of issues. Let's keep positive, get behind Greg and the team, so to make us all truly United.

Simon Clarkson

August 2011

I think this was a good season overall - clear of any major relegation worries and a win at Wembley. This season was an excellent one on the social front with group travel remaining a really good experience. A big mention must go out to Al Millington who handled the logistics of Match Day Organiser. The friendships that are forged over the season make the defeats easier to take and the victories all the more sweet when you celebrate together. My personal highlights were the days out at Hillsborough and Wembley and for next season I have Bramall Lane & Deepdale on my to do list. I'm sure you will echo my appreciation of our Information team lead by Dave Brown who will take on the popular weekly e mail circulation vhtb. He is competently supported by HTB Editor Geoff Graham, Webmaster Paul Parke and Publicity Officer Jane Jardine.

The excellent partnership with the Civil service Club sees us use it for Branch meetings and the odd extra social. The staff there again pulled all the stops out for our Wembley pre match party which included a guest appearance from former Blues player Lee Maddison. Our conscious decision not to do our own merchandise this time but instead promote the Grace Little Centre through #teamabbott t shirt sales was a very rewarding achievement. We hope to get a good photo of many of the 35 members attending the summer trip to Berlin wearing the t shirts.

The Branch has continued to increase sponsorship of the club. To get over 60 members in Foxy's for the Orient game was a great effort and to have the JPT trophy present was an extra bonus.There are positive signs that the club are becoming alive to increased fans interaction as demonstrated by a constructive meeting between reps from the Supporters' Club, United Trust, London Branch and the Club represented by the new Commercial Manager Clair Fidler. There are early signs that she will bring in some much needed creativity around matchday offers. Some initiatives have worked this season such as the real ale at the club but we need a mechanism for fans to make other suggestions. It's some time since a fans' forum and there does not appear any clear opportunity or structure for suggestions to be put to the club. We can't just believe that financial backing of Greg to produce results on the pitch is all that is needed to bring the fans back. There is a lot of effort around how to best re-generate fans interaction with the Club as most fans are in agreement that there are lot of things that the fans can do to support the club in addition to cheering them on during games. I am now a lot more confident that the main players involved in these discussions can come to agreements so as to get the momentum going.

Our Branch football team finished the season on a high with a 3-0 victory at Harlow Town. We follow the play offs with interest as our only other three games this season were against supporters of teams involved. A big thanks goes to the tireless work of captain and organiser Chris Tembey. I've really enjoyed stepping away from playing and barking out instructions from the touchline ! Like all roles within the Branch we look to ensure we have resilience going forward. You won't be surprised to learn that we will be looking to fine tune procedures for next season particularly around phasing out the use of cheques. For those of you who can I would please ask that you set up a standing Order for your membership renewal. Our AGM on 5th July at the Houses of Parliament will provide both an excellent social evening and the opportunity to re-align our army of volunteers. I hope to see you there.

Simon Clarkson

There has been a tremendous response to our next sponsorship game at Brunton Park and it has showed that by making it Easter Monday we caught a few Exiles back in Cumbria for Easter. By subsidising the cost and making it just £25 each it is sure to be a great day out and at the time of writing we have had to start a reserve list, having gone well over our initial allocation of places. After last years hectic social calendar we are having a quieter season this time. We do however have a great night lined up on 8th March with our friends from the Hartlepool supporters Branch. I hope to see you there.

It is great to see the Football League getting a bit more coverage on TV through the Football League show and the Late Kick Off programme. Greg has worked on his media image and all of it is good exposure for the club. We even managed to feature on the Take it Like a Fan show last week. It seemed a bit unfair that Greg got such a tough question in order to win his tenner. In fact we are now awash with information that confusion sometimes reigns. Take the pre match for the Oldham home game when information was circulated that the pitch was looking doubtful. Chinese whispers led to the excellent Chris Lumsdon who does the BBC Radio Cumbria commentary with JP, turning back home before he got confirmation that the game was on. Perhaps because there are so many lines of communication available nobody knows which one is most reliable ?

So who likes the loan market or who like me has some concerns ? I think we have had 11 loans this season alone and that can't be right. Surely it allows players to be stockpiled by the bigger clubs, so as to prevent their immediate opposition having them. The 25 player squad rule in the Premiership does not seemed to have made a difference. I bet there is a real murky side to the wheeling and dealings nowadays, particularly in relation to who pays the wages of loanees. It must be a nightmare for the tax man. Do players get two separate wage packets from clubs if the salary is split ? I'd love to see some figures around total number of loans across clubs and compare that too results. I'd still prefer to see a settled side as the downside for us is the James Chester type situation where a player does well and his parent club sells him on to another club. The consequences of the loan market was solely responsible for our FA cup defeat at Torquay and as a result we missed out on some serious cash.

Is the availability of goal clips on the internet and live football on TV having an effect on attendances ? We can all speculate as to why our attendances are down and no doubt the tough economy plays a big part. So rather than speculate, why don't we as a club ask the fans why they don't go as much now ? A simple survey which will give the club the opportunity to capture full details of supporters and rationalise databases. Communication, particularly by e mail is such an important piece of a clubs strategy that it needs to be maximised. How many CUFC fans are there out there ? Does anybody actually know ?

Some initiatives have worked this season such as the real ale at the club but is there a mechanism for fans to make other suggestions ? It's some time since a fans forum and there does not appear any clear opportunity or structure for suggestions to be put to the club. It may well be that the advertised marketing/commercial post will produce someone with the dynamacism that is needed in this area. We can't just believe that financial backing of Greg to produce results on the pitch is all that is needed to bring the fans back.

I write this at the end of January knowing that it's going to be a busy last 4 months of the season with games coming thick and fast. You will note I have not mentioned one possible London game at all. As Carlisle fans we know better than to count our chickens....

Simon Clarkson
Chairman

Looking back over the year, the first few months were very busy due to the Everton match and the post Brentford celebratory event that saw an excellent social gathering followed by the Wembley preparations. Although ultimately disappointed by the on pitch performance at Wembley we duly acknowledged that it was an occasion worthy of celebrating, not least of all for the much needed cash injection for the club.

Our Branch numbers again reached an all time season end high after once again sponsoring a match at BP. Our excellent partnership with the Civil Service Club sees us use it for Branch meetings and the odd extra social. To have 30+ members going there for a Christmas social just emphasises where we have got to as a group of people who can come together and not only raise funds for the club but have a good time whilst doing it. In the future there is the proposed fans forum at Brighton, we are sponsoring the game against Orient on easter Monday and there is the summer trip to Berlin.

One of the real benefits of membership is your inclusive Teamcard and I was delighted to see the generous donation by members to pool their unused points, amassed a whopping £530 that was handed over to the Youth Team. The coach Eric Kinder expressed his sincere thanks for this fantastic gesture.

I hope those that have not already done so, look to purchase Ian Jardine's HTB 250 book that pulls together the history of the first 250 issues of HTB. We now also have Branch pin badges available to buy as well as a limited stock of our polo shirts. If you are stuck for Christmas presents, give us a shout.

It's been a very busy year for the committee members within the Branch but that's the upside to a bit of success. We have all joined the Branch as a result of our passion that only fellow Blues can appreciate. The social interaction on matchdays, the banter, the continual accounts of days gone by and excitement of future events make being away from ' home ' that much more bearable. An FA cup run ( this was wrote before Tamworth ) combined with another possible trip to Wembley in the JPT all just adds to the excitement. I am confident that 2011 can be even more successful as we harness the enthusiasm of supporters group to all push together in the same direction - onwards and upwards with Team Abbott.

Finally I'd like to give a warm Branch welcome to Jane Jardine who is taking over a new role as Branch PR Officer from next year. Let's hope we have lots to keep her busy with !

I wish you all a Happy Christmas and a successful New Year.

Simon Clarkson