Brunton Park
Carlisle United v Lincoln City
February 4th 2003, 7.45pm
By Nathan Jackson

Given that we had already played Carlisle twice in the season, once in the league and once in the FA Cup, both times Carlisle having at least one man sent off (or three in the case of the league game) and still managed to lose both games no-one on the coach up to the country's most isolated club was hoping for anything more than a draw, all 17 of us that made the journey on the coach anyway.

We stopped twice on the way, once at Scotch Corner near Newcastle (which sells absolutelyey gorgeous cheeseburgers) and then again outside of Carlisle in the service station where one of the other people on the coach managed to find a vending machine with stuff like rape alarms in it.

We got to the ground hoping that the game would still be on because it had been snowing for the past week or so and there were people outside the ground trying to tell us the game was off even though it wasn't. When we got out of the coach, I began to regret my decision to not bring a coat as I almost literally froze on the spot.

We were finally let in a meagre 30 minutes before kick off and I was the first person in the away end for about 5 minutes and received chants from the home supporters such as "You've only got one fan."

The match kicked off and there were massive piles of snow all around the pitch and in the programme, Roddy Collins (Carlisle manager) had indicated that he was absolutely desperate for this game not to be called off for the 2nd time in a row because he was extremely confident of getting a comfortable victory to boost their hopes of avoiding relegation.

Within 6 minutes, Lincoln were ahead which brought delight to the 41 Lincoln fans who braved the cold and weren't so pessimistic like the regular away fans who decided to stay away. Carlisle's atmosphere was a bit down on the previous time we had visited in the FA Cup but they were still creating a fair bit of noise. We could even hear the random shout of "JUDAS" whenever former Carlisle man Scott Willis got the ball but he silenced the home fans by putting the Imps 2-0 up just after the half hour mark. He ran from his own half to the far end of the away box and cooly curved it over the keeper and into the goal. If you've seen Figo's goal for Real Madrid vs Man Utd, it's exactly the same. Figo just saw Willis's goal and thought, I should do that.

 

Half time emerged with Lincoln absolutely dominating the game with over 80% of the possession and Carlisle only having 1 shot in the entire game which went over the terraced stand full of Carlisle supporters. I went down to get some food and was gone no less than two minutes after the half time whistle as I was walking back up the stand with my half pint of coke and a snickers when I heard all the Carlisle fans clapping. I turned around to see the Carlisle players were re-emerging.

When Lincoln's players re-emerged they continued to dominate the game and went 3-0 up on 67 minutes when Peter Gain turned around 4 Carlisle defenders who were all within 2 metres of him and then smashed a shot from the edge of the area. It quickly became 4-0 when Carlisle's keeper completely missed the ball when attempting to clear a back pass and Paul Smith snook round and slotted into the empty net.

By now it was extremely cold and the majority of the Carlisle fans, 4-0 down started to leave but all Lincoln fans stayed and cheered their team on with Carlisle fans chanting "We're gonna win 5-4". By the time Carlisle did manage to score, there were less than 500 fans left in the ground and it was literally the last kick of the match.

Everyone who was there that night from Lincoln couldn't believe what they had just seen, scoring 4 away from home for the first time since we got promoted in 1997/8 when we beat Doncaster 4-2. We were still in shock and gave a standing ovation at the final whistle to our players. Everyone quickly went back in their cars or on the coach and it still hadn't set in that we'd won 4-1 away from home.

Carlisle's ground is quite nice considering it's quite old and the position of the away fans is quite unique with quite a large section of the away end going past the player area due to the planned pitch move 5 years away which never happened. There is always a good atmosphere created at this ground even though the majority of fans aren't very friendly to say the least. I will definitely go to Carlisle again if I get the chance.
 

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