Michael Walker talks to Carlisle United manager Roddy Collins who, from the lowest league point possible, retains high ambitions
Carlisle United are propping up the league again, 92nd in the land. It has become an annual pilgrimage to the barrel bottom, one they have made every year for the past five.
Today they entertain Swansea City at Brunton Park. Swansea are 91st. For the first time two clubs are relegated to the Conference this season; both are already in the land of six-pointers.
So the first question to the Carlisle manager, Roddy Collins, a Dubliner with a boxer's physique - unsurprising given that he is the brother of Steve, the former world super-middleweight champion - was: "Team starting to gel?"
This was not wholly facetious, merely a repetition of a comment made by Collins after Carlisle had won 4-3 in midweek at Oldham in the LDV Vans Trophy Northern Section first round.
It was a second consecutive Carlisle game without defeat and, given the circumstances in which Collins has had to work in his year in and out of control of the team, such results are considered achievements.
Today, though, marks a new beginning for Collins and Carlisle United, he said. For the first time in 10 years Carlisle are operating without the influence of Michael Knighton, the former owner whose tenure ended with fans boycotting matches.
The club moved out of administration last week but it was only on Thursday that the new owner, the Irish millionaire John Courtenay, a friend of Collins, was legally allowed to start investing. Sure enough, Dessie Byrne, the Wimbledon player caught up in the Jody Morris-John Terry nightclub fracas, arrived from Selhurst Park. Collins hopes to have two more players next week and then, he said, Carlisle can concentrate on reaching the play-offs.
That is big talk for a club bottom of the table.
"We're only 10 points off it now," Collins said, "and we can only get better."
Those who know this 40-year-old will be unsurprised to hear him being bullish about anything. Collins has talked a good game since he first went to Arsenal as a 17-year-old on trial. It did not work out at Highbury, or at Fulham; and, when he eventually did make his debut in English football, it was as a striker for Mansfield Town.
Later he would go to Newport County but it was back across the Irish Sea where Collins was to establish himself as both player and manager.
Struggling on and off the park, Bohemians, his hometown club, brought Collins back to where he once played. Two results stand out from his time there, both from the UEFA Cup in 2000. In the qualifying round Bohemians knocked out Aberdeen on away goals; in the next round Bohemians won 1-0 at Kaiserslautern. Sadly they had lost the home leg 3-1.
They were triumphs that proved a point even the family Knighton could not ignore, though there was another reason why they hired Collins five days before the start of last season.
"I'd decided Bohemians weren't ambitious enough so the only way for me to progress as a manager was to come to the UK," Collins said. "I applied for jobs and I got this one."
Did he realise the situation he was stepping into?
"Oh yeah, I knew it was chaos. I wouldn't have got the job otherwise. And I worked for 20 grand. I must have been the lowest-paid manager in the world. That's what I worked for. It broke my heart. I've a wife and five children."
Just to be clear, that is £20,000 per annum, not per month or per week.
"I paid my own accommodation here, my own car, my own expenses. It was a hard slog and I did feel aggrieved but I knew why I was doing it and what I wanted. I felt that, if I could make a name for myself, then I could get another job. I knew Knighton wouldn't keep me here because I was too ambitious and I wouldn't work for 20 grand again."
Collins had three interviews on the back of lifting Carlisle to 17th with five games to go. That may seem odd recognition but Carlisle's previous three finishes were 23rd, 23rd, and 22nd. Moreover, he had to deal with Knighton. Once Carlisle were safe, Collins walked out. Carlisle won none of those remaining five games. He returned when he knew Courtenay was definitely taking over.
"I worked really hard with no funds, no help, no resources, nothing," Collins said of last season. "This year we've had no pre-season, so I gave myself a 10-game period to assess things. John Courtenay owns every share of this club now. That's why I say our season starts on Saturday. John wants us in the First Division in five years."
Five years was also the length of time Roddy Collins spent in the corner of his brother Steve.
"I just helped out, kept time, greased him up," said Roddy, a handy fighter himself. "I was there for all the big fights - Eubank twice, Nigel Benn twice. I'm a great believer in boxing, what it teaches you about concentration, respect and how to rest. I've had six bags put in the gym and a boxing ring goes in next week. The players will box twice a week."
The aim is to play flowing football with a boxer's intensity. Swansea beware, Carlisle are starting to gel.
