Just occasionally, you almost believed it was indeed 1995 again, or 2006 again. When Michael Bridges flicked the ball up outside the penalty area and volleyed it on off the post, for instance.
When Simon Hackney broke into a sprint down his old left wing. When Darren Edmondson started covering good ground on his old right side. When Jeff Thorpe collected the ball and ran at the opposition defence.
When Steve Hayward stepped up and scored from the spot. When Karl Hawley finished with ruthless aplomb. When Stephane Pounewatchy strode forward for a corner then eased back to his defensive position at regal pace.
When Kevin Gray went into at least one weighty challenge. When Tony Elliott saved, saved and saved again…
Truly, it was fantasy stuff, the product of our nostalgic imaginations, actually happening here in front of us at Brunton Park again. This being 2022, reality of course had to step in too.
“After knocking the ball past him, it was a blow to realise I had to run after it,” joked Thorpe, clad in his deckchair shirt, about his one-v-one with Danny Livesey....
“Simmo – get him off,” beseeched Bridges when a pass to Chris Lumsdon resulted in uncharacteristic miscontrol from the midfielder...
Paul Murray, whose efforts along with Lumsdon’s were key to this game happening in the first place, shanked a shot into the Waterworks End....
Paul Proudlock, magician of the late-80s and early-90s, got a sight of goal from the edge of the box; safe to say he has hit more venomous efforts in his time than this tame trickler...
But frankly – who cares? This was a day for Carlisle United, the club’s successful past, not the ageing present. A colourful reunion involving so many former heroes.
Ah, who are we kidding – they’re still current heroes, aren’t they?
It was all in aid of a former players’ fund, a thoughtful and sensitive collection aimed at helping the lot of some who find post-football life challenging, as well as distributing money to certain community causes.
It also provided a timely and touching reminder both of what Carlisle United means to all these players, and what the Blues are and can be like when the place is at its best.
Mick Wadsworth and Paul Simpson were in the dugouts: another managerial match-up from fantasy land, Simmo attracting perhaps the biggest cheer of the day among all the names announced. There was recognition for the game’s several sponsors, including the family of Dean Henderson, Manchester United’s Cumbrian who had backed the match ball.
Then out they came: the nineties team a surprisingly emotional sight in those iconic green, red and white stripes after all this time, the noughties lads in the current away kit and warming up with a keenness that suggested they could perhaps do a job for Simmo’s present vintage.
As expected, the younger of the two sets of veterans had the better of the good-natured game, but not without the experienced quality of some of the nineties stagers still shining back down the decades.
The popular Pounewatchy, back here for the first time since 1998, looked if anything leaner than in his playing days. Hayward’s command of midfield space and the ball has clearly not been eroded by all the years. Poignantly, Andy Hart, a young pro in the “deckchair army”, was actually playing on this pitch for the first time. Murray started at left-back – as he did his first-team Carlisle career.
Richard Prokas put himself determinedly about, although perhaps without the same spiky tackling intent. For the noughties team, Bridges, in his number nine shirt, was full of stately, canny movement, cultured flicks. One deft dink of his put Hawley in, and the 2005/6 assassin gave Elliott no chance.
Lumsdon volleyed in a second, but a touchline ‘VAR’ check of questionable technology ruled it out. Then, a penalty to the nineties team, and Hayward took us all the way back to Wembley 1997 by sending it in the same direction; this time past Matty Glennon as opposed to Colchester’s Carl Emberson.
Next, a Bridges shot diverted in by Danny Graham. Hawley and Bridges chipping wide. Edmondson materialising on the edge of the other box and also going for a chip; Livesey making his first United goalline clearance for about nine years.
Hackney doing as he used to, and gobbling up space in front of him, only to hit the post. Thorpe dropping the shoulder; Gareth McAlindon leading the deckchair line; Graham hitting the bar; Hawley – still in solid striking shape, it has to be said – putting the noughties team back in front.
Three more legends gracing the grass at half-time – Les O’Neill, George McVitie and Tot Winstanley sharing their treasured United memories, then treating the crowd to a brief kickabout from the gods.
In the second half, an indelicate Gray challenge on Thorpe which brought a blue card – me neither – from ref Kenny Brown whose kit, like those of his linesmen, paid tribute to the dearly missed Tony Hopper.
We were then taken on time travel to some of the most spectacular days of the recent past when Peter Murphy backheeled a free-kick and Bridges flicked it up and cruised it beyond Elliott. Still got it.
As, clearly, has Elliott, the 52-year-old reviving memories of Chesterfield ’95 with a superb triple save from David Raven, Jeff Smith and Brendan McGill. If you’re short of a keeper this summer, Simmo…
More were cheered off and on. By the dugouts, non-playing heroes like Dean Walling and Derek Mountfield observed and cajoled. Mark Boyd, part of a team of 11 Cumbrians who finished the game in the deckchairs, completed the scoring from the penalty spot, 4-2 to the (slightly) younger men...
The rest of us, a 1,389 crowd, looked on fondly, wishing it could be 1995 again, or 2006 again; grateful that, for one sunny, breezy and warmly special afternoon, it very much was.
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