Big match verdict: Sutton United 1-1 Carlisle United

Another epic, then another, and maybe one more. United have not finished this campaign in top nick but nor, let’s face it, have Bradford City. Nor have Salford City, beaten on the final day. Even Stockport County – the team to avoid, most agreed – couldn’t beat Hartlepool United. And nearly everyone beats them. 

Welcome to the business end, then. Amid the nerves and the strange to-and-fro, Carlisle are there. That still needs to be the headline this morning. From fifth bottom to fifth, and a shot at League One – let that achievement have its moment, as much we know they’ll need to be better than this to reach the ultimate. 

Symbolically, it was at Valley Parade where Paul Simpson picked the final bones out of an awful season which he salvaged last May. Twelve months on and a mighty play-off occasion beckons Carlisle at Bradford’s ground on Sunday. 

Well, we’d have taken that. By jove we would. United’s flag at the upper reaches of League Two is real progress. Their chance to make good on their position now is a challenge, given their form and plenty of this performance – but the opportunity to work out a way is thanks to what Simpson has done, what a brighter and better squad have put on the table over 46 games.

Kristian Dennis battles with Sutton's Ben Goodliffe (Image: Richard Parkes)

Can they figure out a way past Bradford, a side from whom they’ve taken four points this season but who have unignorable stature at this level? Well, good luck answering that one, five days out. At Sutton, the Blues started badly, finished better, did not particularly look a side about to sweep everyone aside on their way to the third tier. 

They did, though, keep going. After a bad first half, they got better, figured a few things out – never massively convincing, but enough to ladle enough pressure on their hosts to take a point. 

We will accept that resolve all day. The need, though, is for a side with some obvious absentees to somehow get on the front foot earlier, play their best hand sooner. A start as mediocre as this one risks being flattened at Bradford.

Simpson, short of the banned Jon Mellish, used the early kick-off at Gander Green Lane to try out Jack Robinson at wing-back, with Jack Armer tucking in at centre-half. It was a new scheme for the final 90 minutes. The very first signs were encouraging, Armer bombing on past Robinson in the second minute as though he'd been watching Mellish boxsets in the dressing room. The next signs, across the park, were less bright. 

Jack Robinson, on his full debut, tries to get a cross in (Image: Richard Parkes)

Sutton, without a point in six, came at Carlisle with appetite and physicality. They moved the ball quicker, attacked with greater brio. David Ajiboye, who nuisanced the Blues twice last season, appeared in the mood for similar. United were slow of thought and deed. Alfie McCalmont, recalled to give the Blues a busier midfield presence, cleared the bar early on but from there, Sutton perked up. 

Ajiboye, in the 16th minute, swept past Armer and won a free-kick. Rob Milsom failed to do anything with it but the move told you where things were heading. Carlisle were not confident in their approach and shortly afterwards they conceded, Enzio Boldewijn allowed space to pass to Kylian Kouassi, and Kouassi allowed to turn and fire into the bottom corner. 

At least Mansfield, the side who could have made this day a mildly worrying one, were not enjoying a goal fest at Colchester. Carlisle’s sluggishness was not going to cost them the play-offs. Yet it looked capable of denying them any sort of step into them. 

When Callum Guy was caught on the ball midway through the first half, Simpson threw up a hand in frustration. When Armer overhit a pass, the manager turned and rubbed his head. When Kristian Dennis battered the crossbar from a free-kick, a few cobwebs ought to have fallen from the blue bodies. 

Callum Guy slides in (Image: Richard Parkes)

Instead, they remained a stranger to danger. Omari Patrick struggled to break clear, Dennis found chances and relevant involvement elusive, the Blues in general failing to work the ball in short and snappy ways. Ajiboye, late in the half, narrowly failed to chip a second after a mix-up between Tomas Holy and Paul Huntington, and the sense was of Carlisle limping to the end.

It had to get better. Thankfully it did. Mercifully, they added pace to their game after the break, passing with more zip and Patrick remembering his lines as he lined up defenders and started going past them. Gradually, chances came, one from Patrick which was glanced just out of Ben Barclay’s reach. Changes then came, including Jordan Gibson on the right, a cross which Jack Rose nervously shovelled wide, not much more that was clear-cut but eventually the equaliser: a Barclay long throw met by Harry Beautyman then headed home by Joe Kizzi – both Sutton players. 

Carlisle fans celebrate the equaliser (Image: Richard Parkes)

And the away end – 1,366 of them on this ludicrous early start so far from home – sang of Wembley and of Simmo. They roared the Blues on their way. It is one win in six (also one defeat in six), and now they face a side with one win in five in order to reach Wembley, and a taste of honey at the very end. 

Welcome to the promotion race. And, to repeat: Carlisle are in it. Let that optimistic, glad reckoning take this bruised but hopeful team towards the light now.