Derby County 2 Carlisle United 0: Young fans loped over the advertising hoardings, huddling and laughing together as though waiting for the end-of-term school bell. A thick whiff of pyrotechnic smoke was in the air. Finally the referee blew his whistle, a minute or two early, and the pitch was soon covered in cavorting bodies: a sweaty, celebratory mess.
Yes, Brunton Park was quite the scene, 11 months ago. How emotions can change so quickly, how the picture in front of your eyes shifts. Less than a year after those play-offs of heart-thumping emotion and success, Carlisle slipped back out of League One as though they’d never been there.
This time, it was someone else's party. Derby's was in considerable swing as Paul Simpson was ushered into a small room off Pride Park's tunnel area to give his post-match, post-season thoughts. There was talk of Carlisle’s respectable performance in this 2-0 defeat, the latest injuries, the need for “difficult conversations”, the last appraisals of a condemned campaign.
And suddenly, this journey, this third-tier experience United had yearned nearly a decade for, was over with barely a trace. When will they step back this way? Soon, is the hope, the intention. Yet no certainty can be attached to that until summer unfolds, and work aimed at routing a losing culture from this blatantly ill-equipped team and squad begins.
Living with opponents like Derby was always going to be a daunting demand. This we knew the moment Taylor Charters' penalty rippled Stockport County's net at Wembley last May. Yet it was a challenge Carlisle were desperate for. As things turned out, the Blues have been that d-word in other ways: nowhere near the level not just of the Rams, who are now back in the Championship, but everyone else in League One.
That’s the indictment of what United have done this season. Not the theme of struggle in itself, but the collective, gaping shortcoming. The gap between their output and those of the other 23. The statistics that shine harsh light on things. They go down with 30 defeats from 46; just about two-thirds of their efforts from August to April returning nothing.
So now they must learn how to be good again, in League Two. No doddle, that. Their most recent time at that level saw a dramatic and unlikely crescendo, but this is now a different sort of rebuild. It demands a renovation of mood as well as quality, a retrieval of firm belief alongside the other things they’ve lacked: strength, poise, pace on the pitch.
It also comes in the new climate of financial expectation. United need to start well, compete well, owner Tom Piatak said last week. The weight on the shoulders of Simpson and his staff needs no further explanation. This summer the manager will take an early holiday and have a knee operation. Then the other surgery must occur.
Game 46 of 46 was set up to be Derby’s day, with Sky cameras present, Rams legends filing into Pride Park, giant flags propped up between the black and white seats. Igor Stimac dished out player of the year trophies, and there was a clamour of black and white. Yet chants of “United, United” cut through the Derby racket: the heroes of this Carlisle campaign, making themselves heard one last afternoon.
Carlisle, limping out of this campaign with only 17 in their squad, conceded inside five minutes, Max Bird finding space to nose through challenges before lasering a shot inside Harry Lewis’s near post.
Pride Park erupted. The canter to promotion seemed on. Yet United, to give them credit, responded by putting together some spirited spells of possession. They served Paul Warne’s defence with a few concerns as Derby sat back, rested on the last of their promotion nerves.
Alfie McCalmont forced a couple of blocks in the box and handball appeals. With Dylan McGeouch back in midfield, there was a little more composure on the ball – an elusive quality too often in this Cumbrian campaign. Some free-kicks went United’s way, to home agitation.
In Carlisle’s box, Sam Lavelle timed a slide impeccably to deny James Collins. Ebou Adams, a bright danger for the hosts, had an acrobatic finish disallowed for offside. On it went, Georgie Kelly’s dipping header forcing Joe Wildsmith to save. When Derby broke from the corner and robbed United, Lewis was out of his box to tackle Nathaniel Mendez-Laing.
It was, in a general sense, reasonably even. Yet there was never a sense of true drama about things, not really. The idea of Carlisle getting two goals to put Derby’s chances into the blender looked remote. As the second half began, Mendez-Laing almost set up Collins, and then, just before the hour mark, United failed to clear a long Wildsmith free-kick, and Collins poached it clinically.
That was the end of the uncertainties. We then had 30 minutes of procession football, Carlisle showing willing but nothing that could be confused with dangerous creativity, Derby declining to take a couple of final chances, substitutions breaking the remaining flow, inflatable sheep waved in the crowd, those flags billowing, 30,000 people dancing and rocking.
United’s fans also sang, and bounced, in defiance of it all. Then, two minutes into the allocated additional four, Ben Toner blew, and on came the fans, Pride Park’s green grass soon smothered by churning waves of bodies, and that was that: one club returning to what feels its rightful place, another departing to a level they’ll immediately want to escape again.
Has it all been worth it? Yes, if that means Wembley 2023 is imprinted on supporters’ memories forever. Yes, if it also means Carlisle’s limitations, across the board, have been held to the light, shown us what's good, bad and necessary for this level. But only to the fullest if they can act on that information. Simpson said he had “learned a lot” about himself and others along the way. He, and United, must now pass the rigorous examination they’re about to be set.
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