Jon Mellish — a tale of two players.

“End the Mellish experiment”

“Mellish is useless in midfield, how is he still starting?”

“We can’t go any longer with Mellish”

All tweets from September just gone.

You could make a hearty meal with all the egg on face here.

But to be fair, it would take Nostradamus levels of foresight to predict the transformation Carlisle’s Jon Mellish had since the start of October.

3rd October. The first Cumbrian derby. An empty Brunton Park. 24th Minute. Goal.

From the moment that goal against Barrow went in, it was out with the Mellish of old, in with the Mellish of new.

10 goals in 12 games have followed that one, including an extra time brace against Hayes & Yeading to save the Cumbrians from embarrassment.

Attitudes towards the South Shields native have since altered dramatically, with his head being photoshopped onto Cristiano Ronaldo holding the Balon D’or, and also onto God himself.

Mellish’s improvement, like a lot of Carlisle’s recent changes, can be put down in part to Chris Beech. It was a reserves match against Kendal Town in February that proved “Project Mellish” worked in theory, with him bagging a hattrick against the non league side whilst playing in the middle of the park.

It took under a month for Mellish to transform himself from a laughing stock to an irreplaceable piece in the Carlisle United puzzle that has been getting Blues fans optimistic for a long overdue return to League One.