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Rebuilding from rock bottom, progress and abuse

By Ross Parkinson - Carlisle United Supporters' Trust Well that was a tough season. As I've said in this column several times over the season it hasn't been close to good enough on the football side this season. The club have already launched a review and at the time of writing there have already been changes made with I'm sure more to follow. On the footballing side this rock bottom must become the solid foundation on which this club is rebuilt. The slide must be halted. Callum Whelan's interviews after the Salford game gave me hope that there are at least a few in the dressing room that have the will and fight to do exactly that. We cannot go into the National League thinking we are above it. We are where we deserve to be. On paper we will likely have one of the most talented squads at the level but without desire and work rate talent means little. Many teams at that level will relish a visit to Brunton Park in front of a large crowd we have to make sure it is a fortress, ensure that any visiting team dreaming of a scalp goes home empty handed. We've seen the very best of our fans home and away this season with incredible numbers and sold out away ends galore. We are, in my view, without equal on those terms and I'm sure that backing will be there as we embark on this recovery. As a Trust we have continued to build on the progress made in recent years including: - Our new website where you can find out information on every aspect of the Trust here and also the links for our vastly improved presence on social media. - You can also find a link to our defib appeal where we hope to install life-saving equipment at Brunton Park in time for the first game of next season. We have also welcomes volunteers from St John Ambulance and the University of Cumbria who gave fans free CPR. - Our Boardroom Experience draws where members are able to win access you cannot buy to the boardroom of the football club and see Brunton Park from a new perspective. - Our other experience draws including access to the new lounges. - Our offering for junior members has also improved with many winners of our signed shirt draws having very happy faces when they receive their prize. - Our newsletter has also been updated to provide a more modern and user friendly experience. - We have also added more members to our working groups to allow us to gain new skills and ideas to further improve, we thank Gerard, Samantha, Lee, Craig, Mike, Al and Carol for their assistance so far and we look forward to continuing these efforts in future. - We also launched our engagement plan which has seen us hold more meetings with members and fans since December than in many years prior combined. These meetings are invaluable and the feedback received is vital to our continuing improvements. We also held our first X Spaces to give the wider fan base an opportunity to provide feedback and ask questions. This plan has also seen us have a presence in the fan zone at every home game since it went live. We thank every fan, member of not who has popped in to discuss, criticise, ask questions or just chat. Every bit of feedback we receive is passed onto the club and forms part of the decision making process. We are intending to install a permanent setting in the fan zone as soon as possible to allow us to do even more. We've also received plenty criticism over the season. We aren't perfect and we've definitely made mistakes. However I do want to finish up by addressing some who've gone too far. Anyone who's been to a meeting, listened to a X Space or come and spoken to us at the gazebo will see that we do not shirk criticism. It's more than welcome, it's encouraged. However a minority, on social media, have crossed a line into personal abuse. I'm almost certain an anonymous account will immediately reply to this column with a 'witty' nickname and various other nonsense. This level of thing is easy to ignore. However some of the more serious stuff I've seen, from threats, to calls for club staff to be 'lynched' and personal stuff aimed at club staff, at all levels, and Trust board members is too far. More often than not these are anonymous accounts. It doesn't help anyone and the messages you are sending are going to real people. Anyone who follows me on socials will have seen me call a few people out on these kind of remarks and I will continue to do so because we are better than that as a fan base. I would also encourage people to listen to last week's Brunton Bugle podcast where Lee Rooney addressed this issue extremely well. Thanks to all who've read this column over the season. This will be that last column until we move into pre-season. Until then… Up The Blues!