Carlisle United 1 Wycombe Wanderers 3: If you’d stumbled into Brunton Park a few minutes after this game had finished – and well done, if you’d timed it like that – you might have thought you were witnessing the near-end of a largely positive season.
Carlisle’s manager and players were going on a half-lap of the pitch. Plenty of fans had already left but a good number were still there. The applause was of decent volume, the appreciative message sincere.
When it was nearly done, and almost all the players were back down the tunnel, United’s third-choice goalkeeper paused and turned to the Andrew Jenkins Stand. Another burst of applause came. Tomas Holy stood, waved, did the same to the west side of the ground, then departed.
And you thought: luckiest bunch in the world, these. Seriously. Twenty-nine defeats from 45, relegation with plenty to spare, performance levels consistently low and sometimes subterranean, and not so much a boo or a four-letter chant.
If there is anger at how United have acquitted themselves in League One during 2023/24, it has not particularly spilled over. Again: lucky them. On Saturday the Blues completed statistically the worst season at their home ground in their history.
Defeat to Wycombe Wanderers also made it the worst in terms of losing league games overall. These are horrendous facts; indictments. One can only say the respect afforded Paul Simpson and his players at the end was, principally, because of Simpson, and the way many still regard him, with a degree of understanding at the difficulty of stepping up also mixed in, plus the thought that the necessary improvements might be affordable, for once.
Also: relegation has been such a clear consequence for so long that Saturday was devoid of tension or any knife-edge situation that could have tipped the mood to fury. Instead it felt like a matter of solemn responsibility in the stands, of collective service rather than enthusiasm. We’ll see this through to the end, whatever happens, and hope it's better next time.
And such support is tremendous, truly. Carlisle have averaged 8,000 at home games for the first time in 48 years. Over 23 league matches at Brunton Park, an aggregate of 183,997 people have watched United win three, draw six and lose 14. Somehow it feels more than 14.
The cumulative effect certainly makes it seem that way. And that, way beyond the dispiriting detail of this latest defeat, is the most important factor now. Whatever Carlisle do in the summer, however many players they sign, however many they chase, this campaign has been defined by losing, often predictably.
Can a club get rid of that culture in one close-season? Can the scars heal quickly in players who’ll still be around next term? Can players showing no form and insufficient quality on such a regular basis rise, improve, lift this team, from August onwards? Can the manager?
Watching this game was not the way to find encouraging answers. It felt like United’s attempted turnaround is going to be a longer haul than many would prefer, however bright the off-field project. Some of the goals they conceded to mid-table Wycombe were fit for the dark web. Their version of League One football in response to them was, all in all, abject.
But let’s briefly walk through it, as duty says we must. Beforehand, Brunton Park bathed in warm sunshine and there were returns from the cold for Alfie McCalmont and Jordan Gibson: the recently-disciplined duo starting and on the bench respectively. Other than that mild intrigue, it was not a contest that built itself up: one side already down, one nestling in mid-table.
Where there is Jon Mellish there is at least always energy, and his running efforts from midfield almost found an early chance, but Wycombe then settled as the game’s more accomplished team. Their movement in the middle and final third was brighter than Carlisle’s more cumbersome offerings, and Freddie Potts, slipping away from Harrison Neal, almost opened the scoring.
Then Wycombe did take the lead: an avoidable corner conceded, Harry Lewis unable to deal with Luke Leahy’s deep delivery, and the keeper and the rest of Brunton Park watching in pain as the ball was nudged back into the six-yard box, where Garath McCleary did the rest.
Not, it’s safe to say, the most reassuring moment from United’s January-signed No1 on his last Brunton Park showing before the summer. Wycombe could have added more, through Richard Kone and Josh Scowen, before Carlisle willed their way back into things, McCalmont arriving like a Botchergate reveller just in time for last orders as he pocketed Mellish’s cross with good conviction.
A plume of blue smoke rose from a corner of the Warwick, and why wouldn't people lose a little control? Carlisle had, after all, equalised against the division’s 12th-placed team! The rest of the half was more even, but then four minutes into the second half and…honestly, do you really want a description of Wycombe’s embarrassing second, the way United struggled, scrambled, found the ball at Sam Lavelle’s feet and then lost it as the captain dawdled, unaware of Kone's presence?
Let’s swiftly move on, for our sanity. Dale Taylor nearly got a third, McCalmont put a free-kick too high and from a long way out, as Wycombe’s fans banged their drum, it had the feeling of something people were willing to end, aching to be put out of its misery. Lavelle went off injured, there were substitutions and McCleary headed a basic Wycombe third, before the only bright feature of a colourless day came when Aran Fitzpatrick, 18, made his debut from the bench.
The rest? Not worth mentioning, not relevant, not newsworthy. Afterwards there came the bulletin that the nation will be able to watch this team next weekend, given the trip to Derby County has been selected for live Sky coverage. A four-figure away support will be there, loyal right to the last. Lucky, lucky Carlisle, seriously.
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