Carlisle United have been thrown into chaos with the sacking of manager Roddy Collins after a 1-0 defeat on Saturday to Shrewsbury Town. Coach's Tony Elliot and John Cunningham have resigned in protest leaving the Cumbrians with no-one in charge of 1st team affairs.
Youth team coach Billy Barr will be temporary manager for the teams trip to York City. Billy has become the sixth man to take charge of Carlisle since Keith Mincher quit after 1 week in the 1999 pre season. Since then former Cobblers boss Ian atkins has also had a short spell with the club.
Carlisle United FC issued a joint statement with lawyers acting for Michael Knighton 07/04/02:
DESPITE RECENT MISLEADING STATEMENTS TO THE MEDIA ON BEHALF OF JOHN COURTENAY BOTH MICHAEL KNIGHTON AND THE BOARD OF THE FOOTBALL CLUB ARE STILL HOPEFUL OF AN EARLY CONCLUSION TO THE NEGOTIATIONS RELATING TO THE SALE OF THE CLUB TO JOHN COURTENAY. A RESPONSE HAS BEEN AWAITED FROM COURTENAY'S LAWYERS THROUGHOUT THE DAY AS TO WHEN AND WHETHER HE INTENDS TO PROCEED. A MORE DETAILED STATEMENT WILL BE ISSUED AT A PRESS CONFERENCE TO BE CALLED AT 12:30PM TOMORROW AT BRUNTON PARK.
Roddy Collins had told BBC Radio Cumbria after threatening to quit if Carlisle united had not been sold to Courtenay by Wednesday:
“If the club is not John's by then we will both walk away,”
“There is a Second Division club we will talk to about the possibility of buying that.”