Carlisle United: Countdown to Jimmy Glass miracle part five

Carlisle United’s Football League survival was back in their own hands. They had finally succeeded in bringing in an emergency loan goalkeeper for the rest of the season. 1998/99 was going down to the very wire.

So what were the Blues doing? Scouting more goalkeepers.

Manager Nigel Pearson, perhaps naively given the uncertain shape of United that spring, was planning for the future. Swindon Town's Jimmy Glass, who’d made his debut in the 3-3 draw with Darlington, was only with the Blues for the rest of the campaign which, for Carlisle, involved just two further games.

As such, thoughts of 1999/2000 – whichever division Carlisle would be in – were occupying certain thoughts. One name linked with the Cumbrians in some quarters was the Liverpool goalkeeper Tony Warner, who was on loan at Aberdeen.

Tony Warner was being linked with Carlisle even after the signing of Jimmy Glass (Image: PA)

Pearson said: “I have not personally looked at him, but with our scouting system he will have been looked at.”

So had several others. United, having sold Tony Caig to Blackpool for £5,000 on deadline day, then lost the recalled loanee Richard Knight, had been scouring the market for candidates.

Three hopefuls had turned out for the reserves in recent weeks, among them Middlesbrough’s John Jackson and Aston Villa’s Adam Rachel. The latest second-string game saw Derby County’s Tom Phillips keep goal in a 1-0 defeat to Rochdale.

That game involved outfield trialists too with Boro’s James Middleton and Sunderland’s Stuart Ingram getting a run-out. “They have both done well,” said Pearson. “We have had the chance to look at well over a dozen players.”

Whether those players would be pushing for contracts in Division Three or the Conference was down to the remaining 11 days of the campaign. United, in second bottom, were four points above Scarborough, but the Seadogs had a game in hand. Above both were Hartlepool United, who could seal safety by beating Leyton Orient in a midweek game.

United's dramatic draw with Darlington left survival in their hands with two games to play... (Image: News & Star)

Two former Blues men, Peter Beardsley and Paul Baker, were in the Monkey Hangers’ ranks, and they were also looking forward to facing the Blues the following weekend. The crucial trip to Victoria Park yielded a sell-out of away tickets, Carlisle fans snapping up a 1,119 allocation several days before the game.

Until then, United had to sit and wait, continue bedding their new keeper Glass into a struggling squad - and hope nerve could be held. The barely-controlled draw with Darlington had seen character but also some crumbling defensive work from Carlisle – reasons why they were down there, but also clinging on.

The game had also proved heated on the touchline and it emerged that Carlisle police were set to report Darlo manager David Hodgson to the Football Association. The News & Star said a written report was to be submitted over the Quakers manager’s touchline conduct following the awarding of a penalty to the Blues.

A complaint about Hodgson’s behaviour and language was made by “a member of the public, sitting near the Darlington dugout”.

Football’s stresses, then, even gripped those safely in mid-table. For Carlisle, the countdown to more critical action ticked slowly on…