Barrow AFC 1 Carlisle United 2: Kristian Dennis has played more than 250 professional games and, at 32, has reached the sort of football age where a calm head and wise demeanour is supposed to take steady hold.
Not, frankly, a sodding chance. Had Carlisle United’s supporters not been there behind the left side of the Barrow goal in the 75th minute on Saturday, Dennis might have kept on going, over the back of the stand, out of Holker Street, towards the A590 and who knows how much further on?
If their canny old(ish) head up front has caught the bug, how must the rest of the United contingent feel? Dennis’ celebration, after scoring the clinching second here, was yet another image of remarkable new times concerning the Blues.
Had a Carlisle player leapt into the crowd three weeks ago, chances are those on the terraces would have run off in all possible directions, or worse. Now? Five wins from six, a 12-point – yes, twelve – cushion to the drop zone and, this weekend, a nuggety (and, for those fans) thoroughly enjoyable win in south Cumbria to add to the recent pool of happy new memories.
No wonder everyone’s feeling…well, a little giddy. No wonder those following United right now have thrown off their old worries and fears like Roddy Collins used to lash his overcoat into the dugout.
No wonder Carlisle United, whatever the issues and concerns that still lie up the road, just now feel like something of possibility again.
Are these elaborate conclusions to draw after beating League Two’s fourth-bottom team in order to go 17th? Only if you think the Paul Simpson uplift is simply that: momentary improvement, rather than evidence of something profound returning to the Brunton Park club.
Those thinking bigger can be forgiven their vision right now. What we have here is a team and fanbase reunited, assembling behind one inspiring figure, a Cumbrian whose place in the Mount Rushmore of United managers is looking ever more secure the longer this rescue job goes on.
United very much appear to have tapped into something here and one only hopes they have the wherewithal to make the most of it for the long term. The short term, after all, is looking better than it has for months, and Carlisle, although seldom spectacular, were value for the victory they hustled out of a willing but limited Barrow side, whose six-point buffer does not appear enough for comfort to set in just yet.
Simpson’s team, in an often scrappy footballing spectacle, produced the game smarts to take the edge. There was an element of control and opportunism even when things were rather gruelling to watch.
In the bright sun and a firm breeze, this first league meeting at Barrow’s ground in front of fans since 1964 began as an ugly throwback: percentage stuff, aerial play, fear of the first mistake informing the opening stages.
Barrow wasted the first chance, Josh Gordon failing to convert Patrick Brough’s cross, but from there the defining pattern emerged: of Mark Cooper’s side trying to build gradually from the back, but Carlisle hungrily exposing the risk and spreading doubt through the home defence.
United lost Callum Guy to an early knee injury but rode this hurdle well. Dennis was full of canny darts and feints, and their opening goal summed up their activity in the middle part of the half: a positive break from Gibson, and a fizzing finish past Paul Farman from the right.
At other stages Carlisle lost opportunities in narrow margins, but Barrow seemed caught between their passing approach and the need to utilise Aaron Amadi-Holloway’s aerial strength. One great chance came from the latter route, Mark Howard saving superbly from Brough, and Barrow then turned things up for the first 15 minutes of the second half.
It was almost enough to make Carlisle crack, with John Rooney’s set-pieces consistently testing and Matt Platt heading one of them against the bar. Eventually, though, the squall blew out and the Blues’ most cunning operator then had his say.
Dennis’s anticipation has been a valuable component of United’s recovery under Simpson, and this time it brought him a goal, the striker swooping on indecision between Barrow’s defence and keeper, flicking the ball into the net past Remeao Hutton’s futile goalline lunge, and then taking flight into those delirious fans.
The old Carlisle – the one that finds a manhole to fall down at the click of the fingers – then threatened to reappear when Howard struggled to clear a corner and Ollie Banks fired home. Beyond that, though, Barrow did not look as though they knew how to penetrate Carlisle some more.
Dynel Simeu was outstanding in defence again and there was a degree of resigned desperation in the hosts’ final efforts: an air-shot from Gordon, and an overhit Rooney free-kick which told you that all conviction had left those in blue and white shirts.
Those in black, meanwhile, were having a rare old time. You will, by now, have seen the photo of Simeu roaring to the heavens at full-time. Really, he’s hollering for all of us: the many who feared what this season was becoming, and are now disbelievingly happy to have this astonishing changearound to drink in. Let it keep going, and going, and going.
READ MORE: Now that's how to celebrate! Brilliant photos from Carlisle United's win at Barrow AFC
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