Big match verdict: Swindon Town 1-2 Carlisle United

Anyway, that was last season. Same score, different…well, everything. Try as Paul Simpson might to keep us all on the level - and even the boss was eager for a glass of wine on Saturday night - these latest events just whiffed of promotion, and there is no shame in saying it.

Not when it’s so ridiculously better than before. United’s previous visit to the County Ground came two managers ago, and was followed by a steep fall.

Enter Simmo. And now this. Four victories in a row, second place offered to and then snatched back from Stevenage with a cackle. Four points above the play-off places – and something else, that both the Blues and their rivals must now know.

That they go to the end, always. That they find a way. That, if needed, they can call on a striker who knocked his shoulder out of place in December to win a game in March. That they can win games they probably shouldn’t.

That, with 11 to go, the force of momentum behind this team, and these supporters, is now at the point where you feel nothing can halt it.

Someone might. Someone presumably will, at some stage, over these next two months. It might even be that nice Steve Evans and Stevenage next weekend. But it might not. Carlisle have made statements of different kinds over their preceding three games; here was another.

It said they can come through highly challenging days, in the cold wind and the rain, and still be smiling. United, let us be honest, were not great at Swindon; not really.

Jack Armer celebrates his impressive opener (Image: Gareth Williams / AH Pix)

Their opening goal from Jack Armer was a picture, but little of their work after that showed the firmest handle on the game. Swindon’s equaliser, through Tyrese Shade, was merited, and a point each would have been justified.

Yet so, in their daft way, were the three United got. They did, after all, sign Ryan Edmondson to be an aerial attacking threat. They recruited Owen Moxon to provide quality distribution. Their work on improving their set-pieces was focused and adept. Their durability was attacked by Simpson from pre-season onwards.

So what if all these things converge in the 96th minute, not earlier? Without them, the Blues do not win this game at any time. With them, they do.

The scenes after Edmondson scored will go straight into this season’s photo album. As well as the players on the pitch, others set off in mad pursuit. Paul Gerrard, the goalkeeping coach, was among those bounding down the line. Michael Kelly, the keeper without a minute of league football this season, was one of the first to reach Edmondson.

And those fans – 558 of them, looking down from the Arkell’s Stand, disbelief seizing and shaking them. This is what you travel for, what you suffer for. This sense of somersaulting, last-minute madness. Sheesh.

Jake Cain stops United's Alfie McCalmont in his tracks (Image: Gareth Williams / AH Pix)

The rest can be remembered as a long and often frustrating preamble. Beforehand, the County Ground was treated to a garrulous chap with a microphone whose volume was excessive and singing excruciating. He ventured some ditties about Harry McKirdy in the direction of United’s travellers.

You’ll keep, mate, you felt like saying. But please shut up first.

Then the game. The first half was not a smooth spectacle. Swindon started it better, Rushian Hepburn-Murphy a danger when isolated against United’s defenders, Carlisle growing into things to a point once that early squall blew out.

Swindon’s speedy frontman drilled a half-chance clear, and Charlie Austin, who looked a fair few years beyond his best, saw a long-ranger blocked. United gradually moved into some better areas, often through Joel Senior’s persistence on the right, but lacked panache in the final third.

They did move better onto second balls and, midway through the half, did their old trick of keeping Swindon back in their half probably before the hosts realised it. Chances, though, were sparing: one for Morgan Feeney from an Armer corner, one for Joe Garner from Moxon’s delivery, one for Armer which Remeao Hutton blocked at close range, one downfield for Hepburn-Murphy which saw three Blues players (Feeney, Paul Huntington and Callum Guy) all throw themselves at it, a posse of bodyguards queuing up to take the bullet.

Joe Garner, right, battles with Tom Brewitt in the air (Image: Gareth Williams / AH Pix)

Hepburn-Murphy wasted a sliced Jon Mellish clearance and, at the goalless interval, the game had been more obviously defined by Swindon’s occasional neatness between the lines, via Jonny Williams, and United’s largely error-free focus, amid lots of low-quality to-and-fro.

Then it erupted, when Austin headed a 51st-minute Moxon corner against his own bar and Swindon cleared as far as Armer, who may never have struck a ball as sweetly with his right foot. The half-volley arrowed home. Game on.

Swindon, with urgent appetite, responded. Austin nearly headed them level, Tomas Holy parried a George McEachran free-kick. Jody Morris made three subs, met by Simpson’s two.

Initially, the home changes took brighter effect, and after Jacob Wakeling missed a half-chance, Shade took a better one, fed by Marcel Lavinier amid persistent pressure, and shoving a shot past Holy. 1-1. Sigh.

Edmondson, centre, shows his delight after the winner (Image: Gareth Williams / AH Pix)

Edmondson was on by this stage, a willing competitor on the fringes, but only one side  looked like winning it as time ticked on. The other side then won a couple of late corners, pouncing on Swindon's nerves at the last. Moxon floated one onto the roof of the net, then found Edmondson at the back post with another.

The red sea parted. Edmondson’s wet forehead met the ball. Carlisle won. Ha, ha. Of course Carlisle won. Carlisle win. They just do.