When Martin O'Neill's Wycombe blew Blues out of the playoffs
Last updated 11:35, Monday, 12 May 2008
THE END of season playoffs, which were first introduced in 1987, have become an established feature in the football calendar.
Whatever else may be said, life at Brunton Park during this period has seldom been uneventful. Almost every campaign since that date has been enlivened by a promotion challenge or, more often, a battle against relegation.
It is, therefore, surprising that only once previously have the Blues reached the Football League playoffs.
United were unlikely participants in the 1994 competition. For most of that season they were in the bottom half of the table.
It was only by winning their last four games, including a victory over champions- elect Shrewsbury Town, that the Blues scraped into seventh place in Division Three on the last day of the campaign.
For Wycombe Wanderers it was a different story. In their first league season, Martin O Neill’s side had consistently been in the promotion frame.
Unfortunately, they failed to win any of their last five matches and finished just out of the automatic promotion slots in fourth place.
On Sunday 15 May 1994, a season’s best crowd of 10,862 gathered at Brunton Park hoping to see Mick Wadsworth’s men continue their run of good form. In fact, it proved to be the visitors who had much the better of the encounter, running out 2-0 winners with a goal in each half.
Despite this setback, more than 1,000 Carlisle fans headed south three days later in the hope that the Blues could overturn the two goal deficit.
An early Wycombe goal in the second leg soon ended those hopes as the home side won 2-1, Simon Davey’s late penalty coming as very much a consolation effort. It was the Wanderers, therefore, who earned the right to appear at Wembley in the playoff final.
They were no strangers to the old stadium having twice won the FA Trophy final in the preceding three years. They duly made it a hat-trick of wins by overcoming Preston 4-2 to reach Division Two.
Twelve months later, Carlisle were to follow Wycombe into the Second Division but as outright champions rather than through the playoffs.
