Last updated 11:16, Saturday, 05 April 2008

“THE whole weekend left a bitter taste in my mouth.” Those are the words of Billy Gilmour, the Netherhall manager, after last weekend’s Cumberland Cup game with Carlisle.

The Netherhall boss was incensed after losing the game, and by the attitude by the Carlisle management.

Gilmour said: “It’s great playing the likes of Carlisle Utd and Workington Reds.

“For us, the Cumberland Cup is our FA Cup because it lets us pick our wits against top sides but I was very disappointed by the attitude of the Carlisle management.

“Their attitude was very arrogant and even though they said that they didn’t want to sound arrogant, they did.

“We put a lot of effort into getting this game ready and we offered them meal tickets after the game. We wanted to put on a great day for our guests, and they got straight on the coach and left.”

This was the weekend the Cumberland Cup descended into a farce.

Netherhall had arranged their semi-final with Carlisle Utd for Saturday. Carlisle claimed they had no idea they were meant to be playing and had all their first team squad away at Gillingham for a league fixture.

The Cumberland FA had no idea what to do.

According to Netherhall joint manager Billy Gilmour, he had rung Carlisle, spoke to someone there but for some reason the message was never passed on about the game.

So we had Netherhall, sponsors ready, programme produced and all set for the “biggest match in their short history” - Gilmour’s words, not mine. And we had Carlisle, with everyone including the kit man away in Dorset, leaving just the youth team, who also had a league fixture against Wigan, back in Cumbria.

The Cumberland FA rang both clubs to try and sort it out. In the end Carlisle agreed to send their youth team and the match was on.

Carlisle faced a five-year ban from the competition if they had not sent a team to play a scheduled game. Netherhall didn’t want this to happen, they just wanted to play the game and try to get themselves into the final.

Carlisle won the game 1-0 and afterwards the United youth team boss, Eric Kinder, told the club’s official website it was a rough game but added that he would have played exactly the same way if he was the Netherhall boss.

But Gilmour hit back saying there were no bad challenges apart from the one that resulted in one of his players having stud marks down his shin.

But the two did agree that they couldn’t understand why the penalty was given.

Carlisle scored the penalty and moved on to the final while Netherhall are still fighting on four fronts. They are top of the Tesco Cumberland League and in two cup semi-finals and one quarter final.