NEWS CHANNEL
MK Dons assistant boss John Gorman writes exclusively for MK NEWS every week.
WhenIleft Celtic to go to Carlisle I would be lying if I didn’t say I had some doubts.
I had a row with my wee girlfriend because Iwas actually sold, for a reasonable amount of money for a young player, but I didn’t want to go – I was only 20 going on 21 when I left. Bob Stokoe signed me.
I thought ‘Carlisle, where’s that?’ but it ended up being a good move as I got a move to Tottenham from there.
It was a good club which was well run, and we got promoted from the league which is now the Championship.
We went into the top league which for them was a big thing, every time I go back there’s a story about it.
It was a great time as we played a great brand of football and had one of the best coaches ever, DickYoung.
We all respected Dick and I still relate to some of the things he said, he was my mentor.
It’s great to go back there as they don’t forget you. Even this week, ahead of our match on Saturday, I’ve had phone calls from the local papers up there.
They do appreciate good football and when we won 3-1 earlier this season they clapped us off the pitch, a memory which will live with us.
I had six seasons there and was player of the year three times, but Iwas ambitious and ended up getting moves.
We had players like Stan Boules, who went on to QPR, Chris Balderstone, an excellent footballer and cricketer, Dennis Martin and Les O’Neill.
Every player moved to a big team, we had a squad of about 16 like we have now.
Carlisle are now a team who always seem to be there, they never give up. They are battling away down in sixth position, just behind us, so Saturday’s game becomes even more crucial.
We want to beat them after a great performance against QPR.
Every single player contributed and could have been man-of-the-match, I thought we were outstanding.
We deserved to go through but we’re hoping to win the replay and go on and play Chelsea, which would be fantastic.
