Carlisle United: Countdown to Jimmy Glass miracle part nine

While Carlisle United faced four days to save themselves as a Football League club, one of the city’s finest footballing sons of recent times was in a curiously pivotal position when it came to influencing their fortunes.

Steve McCall did not play for the Blues in 1998/99, but in the last week of the season would face their immediate relegation rivals, and then Carlisle themselves.

The Cumbrian who had hit the heights with Ipswich Town was now with Plymouth Argyle, who were bobbing along safely in the middle of Division Three, with very faint and largely unrealistic play-off hopes still breathing. Player-coach McCall and his Devon team-mates would be kingmakers in the bid to remain in the league.

First, it was a trip to the McCain Stadium, where a Wednesday night showdown would determine whether Scarborough could overtake United going into the final weekend. Three days afterwards, 38-year-old McCall and Plymouth would make the long trip to Brunton Park for a potentially devastating afternoon in Carlisle’s long history.

McCall, from Morton, was in no doubt about who he wanted to win that grimmest of races. The day before the Scarborough-Plymouth game, he said: “We want to win and do Carlisle a favour. That is my ambition.

Steve McCall was hoping his home-city club would survive in 1998/99 (Image: News & Star)

“I’m getting some stick for it down here. It is going to be a long week for me, but I have to be professional.

“I have a job to do here. We are going out to win both games. I just hope that if we do win both, Scarborough slip up in their final game.

“It is going to be very difficult for me and very frustrating. I had hoped it would be all over by now, but it is going to the last game.”

Scarborough, who began 1998/99 managed by ex-Carlisle boss Mick Wadsworth (pictured) before Colin Addison took charge from January, had the opportunity to send Carlisle into non-league (Image: PA)

McCall’s connection with his home-city club also extended to a loan spell in the 1989/90 season, while he had been a Sheffield Wednesday colleague of Nigel Pearson, who was now United’s manager. His position as assistant to Kevin Hodges at Plymouth was his latest role in an impressive career of achievement.

All of this sat underneath the confident headline WE’LL DO YOU A BIG FAVOUR on the back of the News & Star. For which the Blues and their fans could only be grateful. If that favour didn’t come off, and Scarborough won, United would go into the last weekend needing to win and hoping the Seadogs didn’t - otherwise, the Conference's jaws would open.

The nightmare scenario was too bleak to contemplate. Everything crossed, then, Steve…