Bring on Leeds says Ward as United prepare for play-offs
Last updated 11:37, Monday, 05 May 2008
Carlisle United 1 AFC Bournemouth 1: Carlisle's attempts to relight the flame of their automatic promotion bid had already taken in a pre-match appeal to the Almighty and a rousing appearance from a World Cup winner by the time their goalkeeper, Keiren Westwood, went scampering forward for a corner and then back again in the closing minutes.
Westwood, having taken receipt of a player-of-the-year trophy before Saturday’s game, probably felt sufficiently super-powered to seek out his own personal Jimmy Glass moment. But this was one of those 999,999 occasions out of a million when the miracle fails to strike, so United’s yellow-shirted custodian was obliged to lurch hurriedly back to his own box as Bournemouth tried to drop a final bomb on Carlisle’s season.
They failed, as it happened, and the Cherries’ punishment was to fall off League One’s tree on a quite abnormal day of drama on the English game’s third tier.
During this engrossing season’s 46th episode, United tried everything to turn a stumbling promotion push into an unforgettable crescendo. Reality TV star singing to the heavens in front of 12,223 football fans? Check, in the form of Andrew Johnston, local teenager of Britain’s Got Talent fame, who now goes down in history as the first choirboy to be roared off stage at Brunton Park.
Legend of the national game? Check, as Jack Charlton shuffled onto the pitch to perform the half-time Golden Gamble draw. The unknown quantity of youth? Check: Gary Madine and Darren Campion were given full United debuts and distinguished themselves in the furnace of battle. Last-day piece of selection tinkering? Check, again, as Marc Bridge-Wilkinson was dropped for the first time this season, Grant Smith assuming his midfield role.
None of which, sadly, could deliver Championship football to Cumbria. Nottingham Forest, for so long this season the unsteady giants of League One, claimed that prize after sneaking past Yeovil while Doncaster, who started the day in second place, were cut down by Cheltenham. Events at Whaddon Road and Brunton Park consigned Bournemouth to League Two, and their tearful players – generously applauded off by Carlisle’s supporters – suddenly put United’s recent drop from second to fourth, and a play-off confrontation with Leeds, in its proper context on the scale of pain.
The jury may not go into session on Carlisle’s campaign until their attempt to achieve promotion via Wembley succeeds or fails. “It’s a fantastic effort for this football club to be looking to play Leeds United in a play-off,” said John Ward, before sneaking in an early psychological jab on the Yorkshire enemy. “We go in there as the underdogs and we’ll probably let them do the bit of chit-chat that they want to do,” United’s boss added.
“We’ll just try and see if we can beat them over two games. There’ll be two full houses and everybody’s going to be excited about it.”
United’s final eight games of the 46-game campaign yielded a solitary win. Conclusion: their finishing position of fourth is precisely where they deserve to be. It’s a season which can be classified as one of so much progress, but only in the next fortnight will we discover how damaging their failure to dip for the line has been.
Saturday’s duel, in many ways, summarised their fortunes this spring. Plenty of anxiety, a few sparse moments of cutting class, and a frustrating finish. In the beginning, nerves seemed to besiege Carlisle’s most experienced player, Paul Arnison, who endured a wretched first half but mercifully found his range after the break. So did Carlisle, but by half-time they were simply content to be level with Kevin Bond’s battlers.
Bournemouth, fuelled by six straight wins and prompted by Darren Anderton in midfield, crafted chances for Sam Vokes and Max Gradel in the first 20 minutes. Then the elusive, occasionally theatrical Gradel tore in from the right and drove for goal, only to see his shot deflect against the underside of the bar.
After Simon Hackney had fired Carlisle’s first shot of the game innocuously at David Forde on the half-hour, Gradel fell under an aerial Chris Lumsdon challenge and, while prone, had the ball thrown at him by Greg Abbott. A talking-to from referee Michael Jones, and a quiet censorious word from manager Ward to his assistant, quickly diffused the red mist. The game resumed.
After the interval, United finally sprung into plausible attacking life. Smith’s excellent ball deserved better than Danny Graham’s off-target finish, then Madine and Scott Dobie narrowly failed to work the trick with successive headers. After a penalty appeal at the other end, when Gradel’s shot seemed to bounce off Smith’s elbow, Carlisle’s pressure eventually told. Hackney’s corner led to a brace of headers from Peter Murphy and Smith, before the ball squirmed away from Forde and Dobie buried the chance.
By this point, United were looking to Yeovil for an unlikely comeback at Forest to make their pursuit of second place relevant. It never came. What did come was a Bournemouth equaliser; a questionable decision to penalise Graham, Lee Bradbury’s decent free-kick, Vokes’ determined header, and sub Brett Pitman’s poked finish. Expect Bournemouth’s dominance at all stages of this 68th-minute set-piece to be dwelt upon by Ward when he tries to put Carlisle’s house back in proper order this week.
The visitors, scenting their escape, pressed further. Pitman, unmarked from a corner, drilled dangerously across the penalty box but neither Jo Kuffour nor Danny Hollands could convert the close-range chance. Kuffour was then dragged back by Arnison when driving towards the area.
Dobie and Hackney booted late chances over for United, and finally the strains of the day showed up in Bradbury’s angry swipe at young Campion after an injury-time drop-ball. With Dobie clean through, it remained a perplexing time for referee Jones to pull back play and issue a yellow card to Bradbury; a paltry punishment compared with the more lasting hurt that was heading the Cherries’ way moments later.
For Bournemouth, whose 1,500 hopeful fans brought blow-up bananas and sharks into the Waterworks End at start of play, the ultimate deflation was at hand. For United, at least two more nights of wild, unscripted drama, starting at Elland Road in a week’s time.
“Grant them everlasting rest,” runs the final line of Pie Jesu, the hymn delivered by the vocal prodigy Johnston here on Saturday. Over 180 manic minutes against Leeds, it’s an appeal which will find few takers in this still-expectant city.
