Tag: Williamson

Mike Williamson hasn’t lit the house on fire since coming to Carlisle United, but a recent kind gesture after Charlie Wyke’s horror injury certainly helped to curry favour with the club’s supporters.

The pre-season expectations for the Blues have been all but thrown out the window. With Paul Simpson at the helm – a manager that has won promotion from League Two more times than he hasn’t – and a seemingly strong summer window, all the noise coming from Brunton Park was about getting back to the English third tier as quickly as possible.

Even after Simpson’s sacking four games into the season, chairman Tom Piatak still said that promotion was what Carlisle were aiming for. Now, though, being second bottom of the league after 14 games, eight of which Mike Williamson has been in charge of, the attitude towards finishing in the top spots has changed.

One of the reasons why there was so much hope for the season to come was because of the acquisition of players like Wyke. The striker’s record at the level above was a strong one, and his pre-existing relationship with the club made it feel like the perfect fit.

Unfortunately, against Cheltenham Town, when he suffered a catastrophic injury, he felt like the signs were pointing towards something else.

Charlie Wyke’s horror injury

Shortly after coming on against Michael Flynn’s side, Wyke was challenged from behind by Luke Young. The tackle, while not malicious, fractured his left fibula and ruptured: “all the ligaments and tendons,” as he put it to Wigan Today.

Nearly three years on from a cardiac arrest while playing for Wigan Athletic that came close to ending his life, Wyke is now facing another major setback. He has had surgery on his ankle, but it is a long road back for someone that has had too much of their career taken from them already.

He has had a tremendous amount of support in the aftermath of the injury, but the actions of his current boss really rang true with the Carlisle faithful.

Mike Williamson’s kind action after Charlie Wyke injury

The forward revealed to Wigan Today that, after the Cheltenham game had finished, United’s head coach came and sat with Wyke for hours.

“I know I need to stay positive, and I’ve had some good conversations with the gaffer (Mike Williamson)…to be fair, he came with me to the hospital, and he sat with me for eight hours, which was unbelievable of him.”

Williamson hasn’t hit it off right away at Brunton Park. Whether it’s his more relaxed, understated demeanour, or his tactics, or the fact that he’s following on from a legend of the club, there just hasn’t been that connection between him and many supporters.

At the start of that Cheltenham game, the Carlisle section of the crowd was so anxious and ready to jump on his and the players’ backs from minute one. They certainly gave the crowd reasons to not be happy, but it wasn’t a pleasant atmosphere at all.

Some supporters were calling for him to be sacked after the game, but, when Wyke’s quotes came out, even those who didn’t agree with him still keeping his job held their hands up and said ‘You know what, that was a lovely, honourable thing to do.’

The next game, against Wigan in the FA Cup – a game that Wyke had been so looking forward to before his injury – the crowd were much more supportive of Williamson and his players.

Now, was the head coach’s kindness towards his number 10 the main reason for the positive reaction that Carlisle got from the home supporters? Not entirely. The pressure was off them because of the higher calibre of opposition that they were playing against, plus the early sending off of Ethan Robson really got those in attendance riled up.

Even if the improved mood in Brunton Park against the Latics had nothing at all to do with Williamson’s lengthy support of Wyke in his time of need, what he did showed the quality of the person in charge at Brunton Park, and it seems to have warmed him up to some that weren’t so sure about him.