It’s almost 3,000 miles from the Cape Verde islands off the coast of West Africa to Carlisle but the people of Cape Verde have long been accustomed to making their living away from the islands, often as seamen. Robert Alan (Bob) Delgado’s grandparents, both Cape Verdeans, married in Cardiff in 1918, and Bob’s father, Peter, was born in 1923. Bob himself was born in that city in 1949.
The distance from Cardiff to Carlisle is somewhat less daunting, around 300 miles and it was Carlisle who gave Bob his first Football League start. Bob had initially signed for Luton Town but never appeared in the Hatters’ first team. He was 23 when he made his debut for Carlisle on 19th February 1972
By the time the 1972/73 Christmas fixtures came round Bob had already appeared in 20 games for Carlisle. He played on 23rd December and, according to a handwritten note on the programme, was named as sub for the game on Boxing Day. But the authoritative English National Football Archives show that, if indeed he was on the bench, he certainly didn’t get on the pitch. I don’t suppose Bob would have minded too much as he no doubt shared in the win bonus following a thumping 6-1 victory over Preston, making it a happy Christmas for Carlisle fans everywhere. Four successive League defeats in the new year, with an aggregate score of 2-17, saw Preston manager, Alan Ball (father of England’s World Cup winner of the same name), dismissed in February.
Ricky Heppolette was in Preston’s 1972/73 squad and is described in the Carlisle programme as ‘the only Anglo-Indian player in the Football League’. But he wasn’t in the Preston team at all for the Boxing Day fixture as he had already been sold to Leyton Orient for whom he played in a game at Queens Park Rangers.