Carlisle ace relishing EFL play-offs 12 months after working as delivery driver
A lot can change in a year.
In May 2022, Carlisle United were reeling from a League Two relegation battle which they survived thanks to the remarkable return of manager and club legend Paul Simpson. For Owen Moxon, he was still playing part-time football for Scottish side Annan Athletic while working as a delivery driver.
Fast forward 12 months and local lad Moxon, who was released by the Cumbrians as a teenager, is now the driving force behind boyhood club Carlisle's promotion push. The Blues begin their play-off campaign away to Bradford City on Sunday, as they eye their first promotion since beloved boss Simpson took them to League One 17 years ago.
The trip to a jam-packed Valley Parade represents another impressive milestone for Moxon, who ranked top of the assist charts in League Two and earned a spot in the Team of the Year after his first season of English professional football. "I backed myself to do it," Moxon, who with 16 only trails Manchester City's Kevin De Bruyne for assists across England's 92 pro teams, tells Mirror Football.
"It's not been a surprise to myself that I'm doing it, but you've gotta keep yourself grounded, keep doing it week in, week out, not let it affect your game and keep improving. That's what I've done all year and those sort of stats have just backed it up."
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Moxon has also, naturally, been given the tag of hometown hero. Local band The Watterwucks - aptly named in reference to one of Brunton Park's terraces - have even recorded a song for him, and it's not the typical, 'He's one of our own' tune which rings around his home stadium every other Saturday.
For most, the sharp rise to local fame might be hard to handle, but Moxon takes it all in his stride. "Maybe once the season's done, I can sit back and reflect, and then maybe it'll be different," the 25-year-old explains. "At the moment it's just game on game, so you can't really take your focus off that too much, but there are obviously times when you sit back and it is brilliant.
"I'm proud of everyone in the team this year and how they've done, not just myself personally, but again right now it's about finishing the job and getting promotion."
Going up with Simpson's Blues is a lifelong goal for Moxon, yet it all looked like a pipe dream nine years ago. Just as hundreds of 16-year-old footballers around the country have been told over the past few weeks, Moxon received the crushing news that he wouldn't be going pro back in 2014.
Owen Moxon was released by Carlisle United aged 16 (Stu Forster/Getty Images)After spending three years as a youngster at Queen of the South just above the border in Scotland, he went part-time to Annan in search of more minutes. For many, that'd signal the end of the professional dream. Not for Moxon, though, who wouldn't change much about his journey.
"I wouldn't have done anything differently because it's turned out okay at the moment," the midfielder insists. "You can look back and feel hard done by that you never got given the chance earlier because I back myself and feel like I would've done this earlier on. But I just look at it as the way it's meant to have happened. This sort of journey I've been on, it was meant to happen."
As you'd expect of his humble character, Moxon has spoken to the Blues' latest batch of released teens, who can now use him as an inspiration and be reminded that all is far from lost after missing the first opportunity to go pro. "I said to them, 'If you want it bad enough, you need to decide whether this is definitely what you wanna do and if it is, you need to just stick at it'.
"It might take a year, it might take five years, and I think I'm a good example of that happening. So, I've spoken to some of them and I don't know if it's helped them or not, but I'd like to think it has. It's just one of them things, if you wanna do it, what's meant for you won't pass you by."
Moxon might be new to the English game, but the play-offs are a familiar challenge. After shining for Annan and becoming boss Peter Murphy's midfield dynamo, he helped the Galabankies reach two play-off finals, suffering heartbreak on both occasions.
After Carlisle finished fifth in League Two - ending up seven points adrift of the automatic spots due to a dip in form at the crunch point of the campaign, still 15 places higher than last term - Moxon is more determined than ever to succeed. "The past month or two, results have been a bit up and down," he admits.
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Owen Moxon wants to banish his play-off demons (Ivan Yordanov/MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images)"You can look back and say, 'Well if we got results here, here and here, we would've gone up automatically'. But there's no point in looking at that, it's done and now it doesn't matter about whatever we've done in the league; it's two fresh games and it's cup finals, basically. Anything can happen, football's a mad game and we're not taking anything for granted. We just wanna go and win both games."
Carlisle finished locked on 76 points with Bradford - managed by Manchester United hero Mark Hughes - after a gruelling 46-game season. The Blues' five extra goals on the Bantams proved the difference to win home advantage in the second leg, having drawn 0-0 at Valley Parade in March following a 1-0 victory at Brunton Park on Boxing Day.
On Sunday, though, 2,440 fellow Cumbrians will travel down to Bradford with Moxon, who's relishing the chance to continue what's been a fairytale campaign for him. "It's not quite Wembley but they've got a big stadium and I'm sure when we bring it back to Brunton Park, it'll be packed as well because the fans have been brilliant this year," Moxon adds, having witnessed first-hand a huge upturn in the mood at his local club.
"They're two massive games and this is exactly what you wanna do when you're a young lad. You don't think about the other aspect of football - the money and the sort of fame that comes with it - you just wanna play in these games in front of full stadiums, so I'm sure everyone will be right up for it."
If Moxon does get to Wembley and faces off against either Stockport County or Salford City, there'll even be a special guest for him. His dad, who works away in Russia, has pencilled in a return if London comes calling.
"He'll be back if we get to the final. He works over there but he's made sure that he'll be back for it," Moxon says. "My family come to every home game and some of them are at the away games, so it's nice for them to be able to come and do that in my hometown. It's not far for them to travel from what they've been used to."
Have your say! Who'll be promoted from the League Two play-offs? Give us your prediction in the comments section.
Mark Hughes has taken big-spending Bradford City into the play-offs (Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/Getty Images)The looming question here, certainly for Carlisle fans, is will Moxon still be a Blue by August? Transfer speculation continues to simmer, with talk of a big-money move to Swansea spiking in January, and Moxon firmly believes that he can make the step up to third-tier football, especially if he helps Carlisle get there.
"You've always got to back yourself," he declares, having also finished with the successful most tackles (152) and most goal involvements of any midfielder (21) in League Two, as well averaging the highest WhoScored player rating per game with 7.52. "There's no point in doing it if you're not gonna back yourself to be able to go and play as high as you can.
"Obviously, the focus at the minute is doing that with Carlisle, getting us up into League One and playing there. It's probably where the club deserves to be after the year we've had as well, so I'm looking forward to it."
As the lyrics to Moxon's Cumbrian dialect-filled song go, "we hope he doesn't gan, 'cause that'd be pure shan."
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