We’ve said it before, as have many others, but that was one heck of a season for midfielder Owen Moxon, both personally and for the club he now plays for.
Topping most of the performance stats tables – from passing to assists – for most of the season, he was also a key ingredient in the success the Blues ultimately went on to enjoy.
He was much in demand post-match at Wembley, so we had to wait until we got back to Cumbria (which feels like an age ago now) for our turn to talk to one of our own.
Going for the jugular, we started with the penalty shootout.
“It was just a massive relief when I saw that it had gone in,” he admitted. “I was nervous for everybody else when they were taking theirs more than I was for my own.
“As I was walking up for my mine I was thinking that it wasn’t the winner, but if I’d scored we’d effectively won because there was no way Charters was missing his. He just doesn’t.
“There was a bit of pressure, but they’d missed one and that took a bit off, to be honest. But it’s done now and I’m just buzzing with the whole outcome of it.”
Despite all of that he did admit that it was a moment he didn’t want to go wrong, with a puff of the cheeks just before the run-up started perhaps an indication that he is, after all, just a little but human.
“I think I do that will all of my set pieces,” he told us. “I try to calm myself down because the game can be a bit frantic at times.
“You definitely need to try and settle yourself in those moments, and the whole penalty thing is over in a matter of seconds when you think about it.
“It’s about hitting it right, then it’s done. The relief I felt - I’ve never felt anything like it before, it was amazing.”
Over the course of that game, and the season that had gone before, there was more of the character that had got us to where we were on show from everybody.
“I think we need to start games at a goal down!” he joked. “Every time we go behind we always seem to be better.
“They got a bit of luck with their goal but, to be fair, I think they were the better team in the first half. They didn’t trouble us too much in terms of clear-cut chances, but we took a while to get going.
“Like I say, they got their luck, and sometimes you need that. As soon as the goal went in we totally stepped up and that was how it was through that whole season. If things went against us we didn’t sulk, we just got on with it.
“Going into extra time everybody was knackered, and for me I can’t even remember how many more games it was I played than I was used to from last year. That was definitely playing its part in how my legs felt, and that’s when you really do have to dig in.”
On what it felt like to win the game, he told us: “It’s the proudest day of my life and one I’ll never forget.
“One of my mates put a post on social media from a year before, when we were all in Portugal and we had our Carlisle tops on in memory of my mate Grant, and in the video I was kissing the badge and saying that the Blues were going up.
“Some might say that I’d already predicted it was going to happen, but I couldn’t have imagined this. It’s just brilliant.
“Lifting the trophy and hearing the cheer was unbelievable. It’s a massive stadium, so I didn’t know how full it was going to look, bus as soon as we walked out we could see from corner flag to corner flag that it was Carlisle fans everywhere.
“That’s another reason why it’s probably the best and proudest moment of my life. I keep watching Omari’s goal back and it gives you goosebumps when you see what happens behind the goal. All of the lads can’t thank the fans enough this year.
“We all kept saying that it’s game by game and let’s give them something to cheer about at the end, and we’ve definitely done that.”
The reward for all of that effort, of course, is a place in League One next season.
“Wow, how many years has everybody been waiting for this,” he said. “For us to do it this year, and to be part of it, it’s just the proudest thing I’ve done in my life.
“It’s going to be a big year next year because there’s a lot of big teams in there, but with the character we’ve shown all season it tells us there’s no reason why we can’t go and compete and give a good account of ourselves.
“It’s like us going to Wembley, we wanted to win. That was my third play-off final, I’ve lost two before, so we weren’t going there just to make numbers up as far as I was concerned.
“I didn’t want us to be leaving there without having won. I don’t know how I would have coped if it had gone the other way.
“League One is going to be the same next year. We’ll do our best week in, week out, give it everything in every game, because that’s what we’ve done since I got here. We’ll see where that takes us, but hopefully we’ll do well and the fans will keep backing us.”
And ending with a bit of reflection on his first year back in the professional arena, he said: “The only way I can sum it up is that it’s been a bit of a dream, to be honest.
“I did expect it to go this way, but now that it actually has all you can describe it as is that it’s a dream.
“I would have loved automatic promotion, but the best way to go up is Wembley, a play-off final, wow. As much as it’s nervy, and I know it’s easier playing in it, but as a fan – I know some of my mates were telling me they had no idea how they’d coped.
“To be able to do that, it really is just a dream. I played at Wembley, I’d never even been there before, so the first time I go is to play on that pitch.
“I scored a penalty there and we’ve won, it literally is just fantastic. I’ve loved every minute of it.”
