Sam Johnston sets the record straight to PNE fans. We don’t hate your club, we just hate your berk of a manager…
I’m going to make this as short, simple and as sharp as I can. This is not a subject that I want to linger on or spend too much time worrying about but I feel I need to say something. This, off the back of news that a Football League chairman has made a formal complaint to the FA about the comments of an opposing manager, seems apt.
Over the last few days I’ve been called misinformed, bitter and even inbred by people who claim to have a much more credited opinion of a gentleman who we all know and love. Some of these people, like me, were in attendance on Tuesday night to witness another episode in the long running psychodrama that is Graham Westley. This was not the first time I’ve experienced his touchline and on field pantomime nor will it be the last.
In the haze of conversations which followed Tuesday night’s JPT game some people may have misunderstood my stance. In that I was commenting about a man, not a club. The man in question could have had any club badge embossed on his chest and it would not have made any difference.
The club badge he wears at the moment makes the issues tricky; it’s difficult to have a sensible conversation about Preston North End without it descending into name calling – but that misses the point entirely.
Whilst adorned with the badge of another club, namely Stevenage Borough, Westley a name as a top quality wind up merchant. As a Carlisle fan I bore witness to this on a couple of occasions in The Conference as his players feigned injury and wanted to sort their socks out ten yards from the touch line as they were being subbed – take a bow Anthony Elding.
Fast forward six years and a few divisions and the Stevenage of League One were no different. Now his new team are doing the same infuriating things.
On the two occasions Carlisle have entertained Preston at Brunton Park under his stewardship the running theme has been one of pure gamesmanship. Whether that be extended pre match warming up, “serious” head injuries (of which there were three on Tuesday whilst Carlisle were attacking) or just generally pushing the limits of what is allowed, Preston have been rank with it.
Just to muddy the waters for us Carlisle supporting Westley loathers he, as mentioned, manages Preston. This poses its own set of dilemmas. How to sustain a through dislike for a man whilst not coming across as a “misinformed, bitter and inbred” fan from a “little town” who is looking to ignite some sort of childish rivalry?
The two issues, hate of Westley and inherent dislike of PNE are, by proxy, interwoven and it is very had to split the finest of hairs. Unfortunately, as my previous encounters have proven it is very hard to do.
I can’t say I have undertaken an entirely holistic survey of Lancashire based football fans, nor do I want to, but the ones who I have encountered have not been overly susceptible to by views on Graham Westley’s unique management style nor have they been polite in telling me how wrong I am.
But I must say for the record – I don’t care that it’s Preston and I’m not interested in any kind of rivalry. I would be having the same grumbles if Westley was the manager of Margate.
All I care about is that absolute idiot that calls himself a professional in charge of a club with such a proud and successful history which is now being smudged by this man’s pathetic ideas of victory.
For a club whose fans seem hell bent on suggesting there’s little or no rivalry between our two great clubs, Preston supporters seem far too touchy for words on the subject of their ‘Mr. Motivator’. Perhaps they’re a little more ashamed of what goes on under their nose than they’re happy to admit.
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24 Responses to It’s Not You, It’s Him
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You might want to try and read your own managers comments, as he indirectly blamed anyone and everyone for Tuesday. Our rivals are Blackpool and Burnley in the main . Are yous seriously suggesting that GW and his teams are teh only people in football who indulge in gamesmanship??? Or that Carlisle donn’t, if you are honest that on occasionCarlisle do indulge in it then how musch is to much ?? Get real fella
I think I have actually shat myself with laughter. Read the piece before reacting like that, mate. It even says ‘I don’t care about Preston’, for fuck’s sake.
#notourrivals #yeahright
Thank you for proving my point. With great hilarity I appricate your feedback.
Stop bleating about GW and I quote from your original post ……The two issues, hate of Westley and inherent dislike of PNE are, by proxy, interwoven and it is very had to split the finest of hairs. Unfortunately, as my previous encounters have proven it is very hard to do ????? Read your own post you dope
Apologies re my last two posts……….I for get to add EH at the end of them….EH
Descending into name calling only again proves the point that you can’t sustain a sensible convocation about the subject. Thank you again. Eh!
Quite blatently you’re whining nob. You got beat, get over it. If you care to name a team that does not use “gamesmanship” feel free to inform us. As for the rivalry, We are your closest team at over 80 miles away and so you are entitled to view us as a local rival, however since we live in the civilised world, there are lots of teams around us.Sheffield United are closer than you lot, so why would we see you as loacl rivals?
Have you read this? That is entirely the point, beyond a handful of fans we genuinely don’t care about Preston. The rivalry is a complete confection whereby you say we say your rivals when we don’t. That is the bottom line.
We do, however, hate Graham Westley. He was a fucking cheat when we were in the Conference and he still is. That he’s at Preston is beside the point.
As for his method – there’s ‘gamesmanship’ and there’s ‘cheating’. Delaying an opposition player in a penalty shootout by distracting the ref and telling players to feign injury when the opposition attacks are both the wrong side of that line.
That isn’t to say he’s a bad manager – he drills discipline into his team and gets them playing half decent football. Preston will be good this season and he’s at the root of that. Good luck to them. Just a shame he’s such an unsavoury prick.
But yeah, don’t engage intelligently at all, it’s obviously bitterness.
All you’re proving is that you’re a bunch of chippy idiots.
It seems to me to be vice versa. A handful of fans don’t care about Preston while the rest build up this fictitious rivalry each time it comes to the two teams meeting.
Having spent the majority of my life living in one or the other cities i noticed when Preston were relegated Carlisle fans were full of excitement to play Preston where Preston fans were more up beat about a game at Gigg Lane!
Yes Graham Westley is a wind up merchant and by all means he does that well. However when it comes to time wasting i do not hesitate it saying the fans of the team time wasting are more often than not blind to it, whereas the opponents make it out to be worse than it actually is.
That is wrong. As with all things on ‘the internetz’ a handful of noisy dickheads predominate in dialogue. I assure you, 90% of Carlisle fans don’t really care if we play Preston or Prestatyn. We only bring a lot of fans cos it’s near and, last year, was on Boxing Day – traditionally our best attended home game of the year due to exiles being in town.
This article makes no sense.
These comments are proving my point entirely. My dislike for Preston NE is minimal/none existent when compared to the utter loathing for his grace Westley.
I saw Westley’s management when I would accompany my mates to watch our local side Stevenage play at home (just to note, I’m a Spurs fan NOT a Boro fan, I would just go for the banter and cheap, well cheaper, football). And I would cringe as like clockwork a player would drop to the floor mid way through the half and all the players would run to Westley for a ‘water break’. I found it shameful, and even more so my mates would try and defend it. It seemed as long as he was winning there was nothing they wouldn’t tolerate. In the end my hate for Westley grew so much I stopped going. I think any good management he possess, like your piece says his discipline is sublime and the lads at Stevenage would seemingly run for hours, probably because of those water breaks but anyway, any of that good work is quickly undone when he insists on dragging a football clubs name through the mud with him. I hope for my mates sake his ‘style of play’ is forever associated with other clubs and not Stevenage. Preston should watch out if they stick with him for much longer it’ll be there’s to keep.
Btw Looking forward to our cup tie at your place later this month. Don’t expect us to go easy on you.
Thanks James. Good to know I’m not the only one. Should be a good old ding bong at Brunton Park. (is that you Slim?)
Once again I quote >>>>>>>>>>>>>>The two issues, hate of Westley and inherent dislike of PNE are, by proxy, interwoven and it is very had to split the finest of hairs. Unfortunately, as my previous encounters have proven it is very hard to ????? Inherant dislike of PNE ???? Then it goes on to say but we don’t care about PNE it’s only about GW???? No wonder we call you Dumbrians honestly Igive up I really do…. Another quote never argue with an idiot as you will never win springs to mind.
Again you’ve not quite grasped the argument. The constant name calling further still qualifies what I have said.
Westley is an easy target. His reputation goes before him. There will be some elements of truth there… but every time some blogger writes an article like this, it feeds the myth, so the next blogger lazily sees what he expects to see, rather than what is happening in front of his eyes. It’s a vicious circle.
Based on such reports, when Westley arrived, we expected to become a team of giants, playing hoofball. Instead, now he’s built his own team, our average height is probably lower than most teams… and he’s never played hoofball since he arrived – even when we were desperately bad last year. Things are looking up now though.
Westley definitely has something of a screw loose somewhere, he’s both an abrasive and engaging character… but I don’t believe his gamesmanship is any worse than Carlisle’s… or most other teams. It’s just that you choose to notice when a Westley substitution takes a while (without noticing that everyone does the same)… and when a Westley player goes down, you assume from he’s feigning it (from your vantage point 100yds away). There was zero evidence of this last year, and I haven’t seen any with the current crop of players. Come back in a few months when we’ve seen more of them.
I don’t know… maybe Westley gained this reputation when he was a very young manager… but I think you (and many professional media people) should view through more objective eyes. On the other hand, you’re perhaps just giving your readers what they want to read.
By the way – nothing it’s not Carlisle United I object to… it’s bleaters like you and your unsportsmanlike manager!
Is this a joke?
It has to be my favourite comment. You genuinely believe every single word of it as well, don’t you?
I’m sorry, but if you can’t see it then perhaps football isn’t the sport for you.
Im a PNE fan and Westleys is an arrogant win at all costs manger and i cant fine any fault in what you’ve written, but hes our manager and we will support him and the team. I don’t like what he does and what you have wrote is what every other away fan is either thinking or saying the same as you. But he’s a winner for the time being and i have no doubt he will take us up by fair means or foul!
Once again you fail to see the contradiction in that you say you only care about hating Westley whilst reminding us of your dislike about PNE???? Then go on to say you see Preston as being just another game / club ??? Your words not mine fella. It may interest you to know that with two minutes to go and being down to 10 men you called your right back over to take a throw (your bench did), then at the last minute sent him away and told another play to come over and take the throw??? So thats not time wasting when down to 10 men then??? Get real guys you are as culpable as the next club when it suits. I’ve been watching PNE for years so don’t bother to tell me that you don’t put on a special turnout for PNE as a club, as an individual I accept you may feel differently but we know you hate us in general terms, do we care ? Do we FU*K
I think you may have missed the point with regards to our manager stopping our player taking a throw. He did it, and was right too, because it’s exactly what your team had done for 80 minutes.
As soon we went down to 10, Preston actually started to play football and Westley had the brass balls to point to his f**king wrist! Quite simply he’s a clown, a vile, cheating, hypocritical f**king clown.
Sorry Mr Mc one last thing……If you know the history of our two clubs then you will remember of course that John Beck in the early 90′s complained that you guys messed around with your showers and changing facilities that season (a trick he was no stranger to himself in fairness when at Cam’bridge). Funny how it was only Preston who got that treatment that season don’t you think??? It’s not you it’s him lol Yeah right.
Ok, my dislike for Preston only manifests its self as much as a dislike for any other team. Like when Leeds came down to League One and we ended up having several ding dong games with them. It’s true more people come to games we Carlisle are playing the “bigger” teams in the league and yes, Preston are probably seen as one of those.
We as Carlisle fans have been witness to Westley’s antics for many years now through encounters in the Conference etc. From what I’ve seen recently he hasn’t changed at all. Please take this as a personal affliction against Westley not as a fanbase from Cumbria. Although many people or “dumbrian’s” up here agree.
[...] while their current manager is in charge, with a Carlisle fan this week having some particularly harsh words to say about Graham Westley. Despite the common depiction of him as a long-ball manager, when I saw Westley’s Stevenage in [...]