Carlisle’s season in the sun 50 years ago remains the game’s greatest achievement (and don’t take our word for it… listen to Bill Shankly!)

Bill Shankly called it football’s ‘greatest achievement’ and half a century on Carlisle United’s promotion to the top flight is still under scrutiny.

Perhaps it was the scale of the improbability, the audacity of such a modest club, or the added drama of the false ending.

Whatever it was, the slide back into the EFL cellar as the 50th anniversary approaches has emotional resonance.

New American owners promise investment and better times ahead, yet their first full season in control begins far removed from the heady heights of April 1974.

It was a month when Cumbria first became a county, an amalgamation of Cumberland and Westmorland. Terry Jacks topped the charts with ‘Seasons in the Sun’ which proved prescient and Carlisle ended their best campaign with a 2-0 win against Aston Villa.

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The goals scored by Joe Laidlaw and Frank Clarke in front of almost 12,500 at Brunton Park.

“We thought we were up,” John Gorman recalls. ‘We hugged and lifted each other. It is celebrated on the field. Then we realized we weren’t up and we had to wait for Orient.’

Carlisle finished third and it was the first time three teams had been promoted from the second tier in English football.

Until then it had only been the two best. They knew this well. They finished third without reward in 1965/66, in the first spell under Alan Ashman, a manager who then went on to West Bromwich Albion, where he won the FA Cup, and Olympiacos in Greece before returning to Carlisle in 1972.

Ashman worked with Dick Young, the longtime coach and later director of the club. “Alan left the training to Dick,” says Gorman, whose long coaching career included spells as assistant to Glenn Hoddle in England and Tottenham.

‘Dick would have passed, passed, passed, passed. We were a push and run team. We would spend all our time working on skills, repetitive drills, practicing with two feet. Dick was one of the best. I based a lot of my coaching on what I had learned from him.

Alan would spend most of the day in his office. He had come out for 10 minutes in his big sheepskin coat, looked at us and went back in. We wondered what he was doing, but he was signing players and building the team.’

Ashman built a good team, led by their inspirational young captain Bill Green at the heart of the defence. Allan Ross was a legend in goal, amassing a record 466 Carlisle appearances. Peter Carr, bruises on right back. Gorman, an attacking force at left back.

There were Les O’Neill, Stan Ternent, Ray Train and Graham Winstanley. There was the versatile Chris Balderstone who, two months after the win against Villa, top-scored for Leicestershire in the Benson and Hedges Cup final at Lord’s.

Two years later, Balderstone faced the West Indies pace attack on his Test debut. In between, in September 1975, after moving to Doncaster Rovers, he took part in both the County Championship and Football League competitions on the same day.

He was 51 not out after the first day’s game against Derbyshire at Chesterfield, drove to Belle Vue to draw 1-1 with Brentford, then returned to complete his century the next day (run out 116) and take three for 28 as Leicestershire won by 135 runs and won the County Championship title.

Carlisle had a number of attacking options. Bobby Owen, Dennis Martin, Laidlaw and Clarke. “So many goals in the team,” says Gorman.

They finished third after beating Villa, but Leyton Orient still had one to play, also against Villa, the following Friday. Orient trailed by two points and it was two points for the win, but they had a better goal average so any win would take them up to third place and oust Carlisle.

Almost 30,000 packed into Brisbane Road in anticipation, the number swelled by quite a few interlopers.

“More in hope than expectation,” admits Malcolm Fawcett, one of those away, cheering on Villa in his blue and white scarf. “With Carlisle it’s usually the hope that kills you, but the anticipation seemed to reach Orient.”

Another recalls that the home team ran out with bunches of gladioli in their arms. ‘They handed them out to the crowd before the game,’ says Harold Bowron, 80. ‘I remember thinking, ‘I wouldn’t do that’. I would have saved that for last.’

Some Carlisle players and staff went to the game, others gathered at the Cumberland News offices. In the end, it turned out to be a night of joy for them and one of despair for Orient, who fought back from a goal down to equalize but couldn’t find a winner.

Carlisle was up. Jubilant fans made their way from Brisbane Road to Trafalgar Square and celebrated with supporters of Liverpool and Newcastle, who were in London for the FA Cup final.

It was an interview ahead of the final at Wembley when Shankly, who started his managerial career at Brunton Park, said: ‘Let me tell you about my old club Carlisle United, who last night were promoted to the First Division for the first time. It is the greatest achievement in the history of the game.’

Hatched from that euphoric night, the London branch of Carlisle’s supporters club is still going strong. Forty years later, they made t-shirts with the quote.

Gorman still holds his own and is not about to fall out with Shankly, even though he and Hoddle led Swindon Town to the Premier League in 1993. “Very similar,” says the 74-year-old. ‘A good group of players, good characters, playing attractive football.’

Carlisle were top of Division One three games into the next season, with wins against Chelsea, Middlesbrough and Tottenham, but they were relegated never to return.

At least not yet. They haven’t made it past the third tier since 1986. The season in the sun is a fading memory in the border town, but those who were there won’t forget the achievement or its magnitude.

Promotion specialist Challinor is successful again

Dave Challinor was appointed player-manager at Colwyn Bay in the Northern Premier in May 2010, the same month Stockport County were relegated from League One.

Since then, Challinor have won promotion seven times. First with Colwyn Bay, three times with Fylde, once with Hartlepool and on Saturday for the second time with Stockport, completing their journey back to League One.