Soccernet
Keeper's Glass fibre
saves Carlisle's status
By Patrick Collins
Sunday, May 9, 1999
In one of the most astonishing finales to a football season that the English game has ever known, Carlisle United preserved their place in the Football League with a goal from their goalkeeper, Jimmy Glass, that earned them a 2-1 victory over Plymouth Argyle.
Ten seconds remained of the match which was about to end their 71-year existence in the Football League when Carlisle were awarded a corner. Scarborough had already drawn their game, and the point they had gained seemed sufficient to relegate Carlisle.
Answering the despairing pleas of the Brunton Park crowd, the red-jerseyed figure of Glass, a keeper on loan from Swindon Town, loped the length of the field to reach the Plymouth penalty box.
Graham Anthony swung over the right-wing corner, and it fell to the head of Scott Dobie. The header was parried on the line by the Plymouth keeper James Dungey, but the ball fell to the feet of Glass.
With a ferocious swing of the right boot, Glass thumped the goal which consigned poor Scarborough to the Conference, set the seal on an improbable fairytale and created a rich slice of football history.
There was an immediate pitch invasion as the fans came capering over in delirious profusion. And the dancing figures took two or three minutes to leave the field. The game was restarted, and immediately the final whistle sounded to signal the extraordinary reprieve.
Minutes after the whistle, with the fans still gathered on the field, the Carlisle manager Nigel Pearson appeared from the directors' box to pay tribute to his players for their efforts. It was as well, perhaps, that he was not joined by his chairman, Michael Knighton, who reigns unchallenged as the most hated man in Carlisle and, quite possibly, the whole of Cumbria.
Knighton had always seemed destined to go to his grave as The Man Who Made A Complete Prat Of Himself At Old Trafford, when he performed conjuring tricks with the ball in front of the Stretford End after appearing to buy Manchester United.
Until young Glass advanced up the field in the dying seconds, Knighton seemed likely to win the title of The Man Who Did For Carlisle.
He has run the club on his own, faintly eccentric terms for the past two years. Indeed, scarcely a year has passed since he tried management as well as chairmanship.
Needless to say, Carlisle were relegated in his maiden season but what has most bitterly angered the fans has been his reluctance to spend the money which might have lifted them clear of danger much earlier.
Some of that anger has been unacceptable; Knighton claimed this week that his daughter had been physically attacked while waitressing at a local pub while his son had been bullied out of his private school.
But then, most football fans will understand strong feelings since he chose the day before the critical game to announce that Carlisle had made a profit of £1.4million last season - more than Liverpool, Leeds and Spurs. 'Most companies in Carlisle would give their left arm for accounts like these,' boasted Knighton, thereby missing the point by about 500 miles. The stark figures reveal that Carlisle received £2.12m in transfer fees but paid out just £100,000.
And those figures explain the sentiments of the Carlisle faithful. They rightly considered it of desperate importance for Carlisle to remain in the Football League.
If you want to know what a League club means to a town then you need only listen to the results on sports report on a Saturday evening. You will hear nothing of Accrington or Gateshead, Maidstone or poor Workington. All have departed, and a little of their towns' legitimacy has gone with them.
So it would have been with Carlisle. Take away the football club and you would be left with a tidy little Border town which houses several fine pubs, a sturdily impressive 12th century cathedral and the last proper railway station before Scotland.
The Carlisle public did not need reminding of the dangers as they walked down Warwick Road to Brunton Park. And the Plymouth fans, they also understood. They stopped to buy Carlisle lottery tickets because they wanted to make a small gesture to a club in trouble. 'All the best,' they said to the ticket seller, and they sounded as if they meant it.
A man hurried past holding the hand of a small child in Carlisle blue. 'He's the official mascot today, our Michael is,' he declared. And the young lad blushed with pleasure and pride. We can only guess at his feelings on this Sunday morning.
When Knighton appeared, three minutes before kick-off, there was a vast explosion of abuse. Earlier in the week, Cumbria Police had been asked to provide match-protection for the chairman. With an admirable sense of priorities, they declined. So Knighton took his chances, such as they were, while the crowd roused itself with choruses of 'One Greedy Bastard!'
Those chants recurred throughout the first half, and were only interrupted after seven minutes by the news that Peterborough had gone ahead at Scarborough. Mediocre though the standard was, Carlisle were enjoying little of the luck. In the eighth minute they hit the bar through Richard Tracey and in the 24th Ian Stevens had a headed goal disallowed for pushing.
The atmosphere was not improved by the announcement that no drinks would be served in the East Stand at half-time due to technical problems. Then, four minutes from the interval, there was a sickening crack and the Plymouth midfielder Paul Gibbs snapped his leg in a tackle.
The ground was subdued throughout the interval, pausing only to chuckle when second prize in the draw turned out to be a VIP trip to Brunton Park.
Then the silence became morose as Lee Phillips gave Plymouth the lead with a lazy left-foot drive which struck the net with the finality of a death sentence.
But amazing events were at hand. In the 66th minute the captain David Brightwell picked up a clearance 20 yards out, struck a drive which took a wicked bounce and finished in the corner of the Plymouth net for equality.
With the old ground rousing itself to demented excitement, the stage was set for those final few seconds, the glorious intervention of Jimmy Glass and the saving of both Carlisle United and the face of Michael Knighton.
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