CARLISLE United right-back Joel Senior enjoyed the Blues' playoff triumph at Wembley more than most after fighting back from injury to star in the capital against Stockport County.

In February 2022, Senior got the news that any footballer dreads. He had a cruciate knee ligament injury that would sideline him until November 2022.

Upon his return, Simmo tentatively used the full-back, in an attempt to manage his minutes and prevent a reoccurrence of the long-term injury, however, injuries to Jack Ellis and Fin Back in early 2023 gave Senior his chance to re-establish himself in the United side.

Fast forward to May and Senior was stepping out onto the hallowed Wembley turf, ready to help the Blues achieve promotion, with his lowball into the Hatters area leading to Omari Patrick's equaliser.

"I spoke to the chairman in there and I said, if someone had said you have just done your ACL, you are going to be out for just coming up to a year but you’re going to be playing at Wembley and you are going to get promoted I would have laughed at you," He said.

"To go through them lows and come out the other side and get promoted, I could not wish for anything better.

"It was the best feeling I have probably had in my life, to be honest, there was so many emotions in the game and to have my whole family there, and to celebrate in front of them, it was a dream come true."

Despite the scenes of jubilation at the end of the match, Carlisle were trailing for much of the final with it looking like Stockport were going to break the Blues' hearts.

However, Simmo maintained his belief that his side could secure victory and Senior detailed how this was the Carlisle bosses' message at half-time

He said: "Just that the nerves are out the way now, going into a game like that, a lot of us are young and have not been in a final like this before, so that was out the way and we can go play our usual football and as soon as you get that goal the momentum swings massively and I feel that we was in top from there."

Senior also shared his belief that Carlisle could have won the game in the 90 minutes after the momentum swung in their favour following the last-gasp equaliser.

"We had the chances and the after we scored the goal we felt like we was the only one going on to win and when you do not get that winner you have got to regroup at full-time and get ready for extra time," He said.

"Obviously a lot of us were struggling with cramp and stuff like that but it is all worth it when you go on to win it.

Praise was piled on the traveling Carlisle faithful by the United right-back who lauded the dedication of the fans to make the difficult journey from North Cumbria to Wembley. 

"To have 15,000 make that journey, we did it on Friday, it was about six or seven hours, it is not easy so for them to put all their hard-earned money into this game and to be able to celebrate with them at the end was a special feeling."

After the playoff final it was announced on the club website that the Wembley victory would be Senior's final appearance for Carlisle as he was included in the list of players released by the club ahead of their return to League One.