Close to 13,500 Carlisle fans packed into Brunton Park on Saturday and they most certainly played their part as they cheered the lads on to a memorable outcome.
“It’s been brilliant, absolutely fantastic,” manager Paul Simpson agreed. “I said when I came back in February, whatever year it was, let's all have a go. Let's join in. Let's join the football club.
“Let's get on board and let's see where the ride can take us and, I've got to say, all the businesses have, all the fans are coming out, everybody's enjoying what they do, and everybody's enjoying what they're seeing.
“And I know everybody wants to see winning football. They've seen it again here. We've shown real character.
“I think supporters can see that there's a group of players who all want to try and do things properly. It's now extended our season for another week. It's going to be madness this week, getting all of the tickets and everything organised. It's something to look forward to though, and I can't wait.”
“The fans were magnificent, but everybody was,” he added. “I thought the staff were as well. We had to make decisions and calls all the way through, there were a lot of things that went on, and we were talking about it all the time.
“Thankfully we got ourselves over the line and we can have a good week now instead of finishing on Monday.
“But the fans, they were unbelievable, especially at the end. I mean that was incredible. The noise at the end. I'll be honest, I was a coward, I got down the tunnel as quickly as I could.
“I knew it would have been difficult to get in if I hadn't got up there, so I went up there, got up the tunnel, and then it was an eternity waiting for the players to come back in to congratulate them. But it's all worth it in the end, and as I said, we've got one biggie to go now.”
Speaking more about having achieved it together, he added: “We were worthy winners and I can't tell you how proud I am. It's just been absolutely fantastic.
“From coming back in last February and then the changes that we made in the summer, the way the staff have all dug in, everybody on the football side have rallied round, the non-footballing staff, the commercial, the hospitality, everything.
“Everybody's had a monumental effort to get us to where we are today to allow us to have over 15,000 fans in the ground, and now we've got to make sure we do things right this week and get ourselves ready to go.
“A lot of them are young fans as well, and that’s what we want. That's what we need. We need everybody to come and support the club. I've said this before, it is the only way this club is going to keep building and keep developing, that we get more people coming through the turnstiles.
“I totally get that there's a cost of living crisis and every pound is a prisoner for people. If we can get them through the door and we get performances like that, and however many home fans were here, I bet they had a good time.
“I bet they're ready now for next week. I bet they want to go and get tickets for Wembley if they can afford it. And if we can get the logistics right. So we need them, we want them all to stick with us.
“It's not easy because there are dips and troughs that we go through, but there's also some real highs, and this is one of those.”
“And now we want to finish it off right,” he concluded. “You have to go and do it properly, and we’ve had little targets all season.
“The first one was to get enough points to stay up, then it was enough to try and get to the play-offs, then it was get to the final. We’re there, and we want to go and finish it off properly.
“There’s a huge carrot at the end of it for us. It’ll be an incredible crowd. Stockport County have got a massive fan base, we’ve got a huge fan base, and I know that Carlisle city centre will be deserted next weekend. There’s just so much to look forward to.”
