Carlisle 2 Walsall 1 - 18 March 1995
The Saddlers arrive at Brunton Park on Saturday for a match between two sides that are comfortably placed in mid table.
For Carlisle United fans in particular, this is a rather strange experience. In fact it is over twenty years since the Blues have played out the last month of the campaign without either the prospect of promotion, the play offs or, more commonly, relegation to keep the interest alive. At least the run to the final of the JPT Trophy did something to retain this tradition.
Back in 1994/95, the Blues were very much on the up.Mid March 1995 saw a rather nervy 2-1 defeat at Rochdale's Spotland ground in the second leg of the Northern Area Final of the Auto Windscreens Shield. But with a 4-1 win in the bag from the first leg at Brunton Park, United were able to go through 5-3 on aggregate and qualify to meet Birmingham City in the final.For the first time in the club's history, Carlisle United were to appear at Wembley.
Four days later, on Saturday 18 March 1995, Carlisle returned to Division Three action with the visit of Walsall. The Blues were already looking like champions elect. They had lost just twice in the league all season and were unbeaten at Brunton Park.
Manager Mick Wadsworth had, on the whole, bought wisely but one of the encouraging aspects of the club's success was the presence of a number of Cumbrians in the squad. Although there was rarely a majority of locally born players in the line up, the team that featured against Walsall included Tony Caig, Darren Edmondson, and Richard Prokas while Jeff Thorpe would make a crucial contribution coming off the bench.
The Carlisle side that day also contained two less familiar faces who would soon become regular members of the Brunton Park set up. Midfielder Steve Hayward was making his league debut for the club after joining from Derby. Meanwhile, Warren 'Sumo' Aspinall, having played at Exeter the week before, was making his first appearance in front of the United faithful.
As for Walsall, they were also very much promotion contenders, despite a slow start to the season which included a home defeat at the hands of the Blues. Manager Kenny Hibbitt parted company with the club soon afterwards to be succeeded by Chris Nicholl, one time manager of Southampton.In Kyle Lightbourne and Kevin Wilson, the Saddlers possessed two of the best strikers in the division and by early January Walsall had risen up to second place in the table.
They were even then, however, some points adrift of a Carlisle United side in the middle of a sequence of 19 league games without defeat, a club record that has yet to be surpassed. United had also featured in the F A Cup third round, losing to First Division Sunderland only after a replay. As we have seen, Carlisle then reached the final of the Auto Windscreens Shield. They faced the prospect of playing a Birmingham City team, the champions of the Southern half of the competition. They had begun their own progress to the final by defeating Walsall in the Preliminary Round.
With the majority of the 7,769 crowd already looking forward to the prospects of a trip to the twin towers, it was the visitors who took an early lead through Saddlers' Player of the Year Wilson. Playing some attractive football, the visitors looked good value for their lead until well after half time.
Midway through the second half, Jeff Thorpe came off the bench to replace a tiring Steve Hayward. And Thorpe it was who set up United captain and centre forward David Reeves for the equaliser. Six minutes later, it was Reeves who struck again after playing a one two with David Currie to score what proved to be the winning goal and keep the unbeaten home record.
The victory increased United's lead at the top of the table to 14 points as second placed Chesterfield could only manage a goalless draw at home to Wigan. A week later, Scunthorpe became the Blues' latest victims and this time it was new boys Hayward and Aspinall who contributed Carlisle's two goals.
For despite the understandable distraction of the impending visit to Wembley, the Blues managed to successfully concentrate on the league until the Easter weekend when they lost at Bury. Two days later and much more surprisingly, they slipped up at home to a Hartlepool side inspired by ex Blues boss David McCreery. With the Auto Windscreens Final being played in the weekend after Easter, it was not until the end of April that a 1-0 victory at Colchester, with Reeves again on target, guaranteed both promotion and the league title for the Cumbrians.
As for the Saddlers, they successfully recovered from the reverse at Brunton Park, losing just one in their last eleven matches. They travelled to Bury for the final game of the season in the knowledge that they needed just a point to be sure of securing the second automatic promotion place. With Walsall fans making up nearly half the 6,000 plus crowd, they played out a goalless draw, enabling the Saddlers to join Carlisle in Division Two.
David Steele
