Just one step from Wembley
Last updated 10:35, Wednesday, 14 May 2008
ONE of the country’s most respected national newspapers yesterday carried a dozen paragraphs on the significance of promotion to Leeds United, before tacking on a modest few words about Carlisle at the end. Any scribbler who still regards the Cumbrians as a footnote or an irrelevance to these nerve-ripping play-offs should now have his accreditation confiscated and advised to seek alternative employment.
Last night’s performance of nerve and quality from John Ward’s men slashed the word “underdog” from all credible descriptions of United between now and Thursday, when this extraordinary semi-final will reach its fizzing conclusion. Carlisle’s one-goal advantage is significant, but so was Leeds’ injury-time strike in a two-legged end-of-season dispute where momentum is often king.
Shame we don’t have more time to soak up the full dramatic value of Carlisle’s victory before going again. United triumphed at Elland Road before more than 36,000 raucous people, in a match whose stakes were skyscraper-high. It goes down as one of the most impressive and satisfying wins in the club’s recent history and that alone needs to be recorded with relish today.
Honesty obliges us to say that Leeds were, at a push, value for Dougie Freedman’s consolation effort at the death. Neither Ward nor Gary McAllister need any lessons here about the psychological implications of the Scot’s 96th-minute goal. But don’t let any Yorkshire voice question the Blues’ right to leap into the second leg with the advantage.
McAllister was entitled to wear his optimistic look by the end of this mini-classic, but Ward is in the preferable position of requiring a draw at home to bring Wembley’s giant arch into view. Both he and his team earned that tantalising scenario last night.
Trepidation usually triumphs over optimism in the brawl for the average football fan’s soul. Ward, however, needs to keep the positive thoughts swirling around Brunton Park over the next 72 hours so the memory of Freedman’s goal doesn’t leave lasting bite-marks on his players. That shouldn’t be hard when he spools back over this potentially defining performance.
Was this the United team who had flagged so damagingly in the pursuit of automatic promotion? Were these the same players who were “running on empty”, in their manager’s recent words? Was this the collective who were lucky to be fourth-favourites in the play-offs, such was the pessimism of bookmakers and plenty more observers both inside and out of Cumbria?
The questions need to be posed, because Carlisle went about their work here as though the last frustrating month hadn’t occurred. Any anxieties were tossed aside with their first attack, when Danny Graham pounced on a weak Paul Huntington header and crossed for the recalled Marc Bridge-Wilkinson, whose volley clattered the outside of the post.
More soon of Bridge-Wilkinson, who excelled in his advanced midfield role while the indomitable Chris Lumsdon worked defensive wonders further back. The game quickly reached a breakneck pace and in the 13th minute Keiren Westwood made his first spectacular statement of the night, tipping wide a Freedman curler.
An expert Bridge-Wilkinson cross then found Graham at the far post, Casper Ankergren beating away the striker’s header. A couple of lacerating runs from Simon Hackney later, and United were clearly hitting a dangerous stride. As, occasionally, were Leeds, particularly when they mounted a zipping counter-attack on the half-hour before Westwood saved magnificently from Jermaine Beckford.
The first explosion was due, and it arrived after Hackney earned a corner through terrific persistence against Frazer Richardson. Television replays supported Leeds’ claims for a goal-kick, but United took full value from their fortune - Bridge-Wilkinson’s delivery was headed clear, but Hackney then bashed in an expert volley which spun past the rooted Ankergren via Graham’s backside.
Another remarkable Westwood save to thwart Beckford concluded the first half, at which point more questions loomed: could United learn from April’s errors at this ground, and see through the early demands of the second period? Yes: emphatically so. Was McAllister’s deployment of left-footed midfield dangerman Bradley Johnson at full-back actually working in Carlisle’s favour? That has to be our conclusion. Would Huntington’s nerves eventually consume him? No, to the young Cumbrian’s credit. And could Ward summon something even more stunning from his troops?
The latter query received the most decisive answer within five minutes. With Elland Road rumbling with unrest, and moments after Ankergren had denied Bridge-Wilkinson from golden territory, Grant Smith charged through midfield and found Hackney, who then fed the overlapping Evan Horwood.
His tidy cross was slid home by Bridge-Wilkinson, and once you had absorbed the fact Carlisle were two goals ahead against their high-profile enemy, you marvelled at the polished passing and bladed edge they had summoned again after these last few maddening weeks.
McAllister’s response was to withdraw Beckford for the more aerially-dangerous Tresor Kandol. The expected white tide then came in the form of several threatening crosses, a Jonathan Douglas volley blocked by Peter Murphy, a header from the same midfielder which Westwood athletically tipped over, a David Prutton blast which may or may not have collided with a Cumbrian arm, a late Johnson free-kick which the redoubtable Arnison repelled with his head, and then a Huntington chance which Murphy snaffled.
By this point, Carlisle’s bouncing fans were moved to taunt Neil McDonald - their former manager now on McAllister’s staff - in song. Then came the sting. First, Leeds sub Andrew Hughes pursued a dangerous challenge against Horwood and was booked, but the resulting arguments crucially extended the minimum four additional minutes.
Then Huntington, with enviable composure, darted past United’s late replacement Gary Madine and quarterbacked a fine, deep final ball into the area, which eventually dropped at Freedman’s lethal feet. In the chance went, and out of the window flew the idea that Thursday’s rematch will be anything other than hell for the blood pressure.
Still, Carlisle have already earned credit for refusing to allow their promotion campaign to die, and for unmasking Leeds as a team of human beings, contrary to many reports. If this season of all the emotions now ends on Thursday, the obituary will be torture to write. The alternative, needless to say, will be too electrifying for words.
