MEMORY LANE

Steve Harris

@steveharris84

Steve looks back 18 years to a fantastic win in Cumbria

CARLISLE UNITED 1-2 TORQUAY UNITED 29/04/2006

At the end of the 2004-05 season, the Gulls said goodbye to midfield maestro Alex Russell and leading scorer Bayo Akinfenwa, who signed for Bristol City and Swansea City respectively, whilst the team-mates they left behind said hello again to League Two.

With many members of the side that were part of United’s promotion winning triumph against Southend two years earlier still with the club, there was some optimism that Torquay could challenge for an immediate return to League One.

However, Leroy Rosenior was unable reproduce the magic of their previous spell in the Division. Despite a good FA Cup run, which saw United reach the third round for the first time in six years where they were beaten by Birmingham City, then of the Premiership, after a replay, Rosenior left the club at the end of January 2006.

Former Exeter City manager John Cornforth then stepped in as Caretaker Manager before taking on the managerial reigns on a permanent basis.

Unfortunately, Cornforth was unable to halt the Gulls’ slide towards what would have been a second successive relegation and Atkins was drafted in as a consultant by Chairman Mike Bateson in a similar manner to the roles Neil Warnock and Colin Lee performed in 1993 and 2001 respectively.

With six games remaining, Cornforth was dismissed and Atkins took charge for the Gulls’ final six matches of the season in what Bateson described as the ‘final roll of the dice.’

After losing their first game of Atkins’ reign against Cheltenham Town, Torquay then recorded three successive wins against Macclesfield Town (a), Wrexham (h) and Stockport County (h) before their penultimate league game of the season away at Carlisle United.

In the 1992-93 season, the Gulls had beaten the Cumbrians to retain their status as a Football League club; could lightning strike twice?

It would be a slightly harder task this time, as Carlisle were searching for a victory that would see them clinch the League Two title.

The Gulls went into the game on the back of an emphatic 4-0 home win over Stockport County, whilst the Cumbrians were eager to get their hands on the league title in front of a crowd of just under 14,000.

Carlisle, unsurprisingly, began well as their former Sunderland, Leeds and England Under-21 striker Michael Bridges started finding space and 26-goal leading scorer Karl Hawley, who would later join the Gulls, looked a constant threat in the opening stages.

Nevertheless, United’s defence didn’t cave in and this gave them the platform to take the lead in the eighth minute.

Jo Kuffour proved to be a menace to the Cumbrians with his pace and he drifted towards the right hand side producing a cross which found Kevin Hill, who leapt above the Carlisle defence and headed home to give the Gulls the lead. It was Hill’s ninth goal of the campaign, and his leap to connect with Kuffour’s cross was probably one of the nearest things that you are ever likely to see to human flight – as he seemed to hang in the air momentarily.

Still with the title within their sights, Carlisle continued to apply pressure to the Torquay backline as Bridges forced a save from Gulls’ keeper Andy Marriott and Hawley had a header which glanced wide.

The Cumbrians were playing without any wingers which meant that they were vulnerable to being hit on the counter attack, something right winger Martin ‘Buster’ Phillips and Kuffour looked to exploit and – very often – did.

In the 30th minute, Kuffour read a flick-on from strike partner Lee Thorpe and crashed a shot against the post with Carlisle goalkeeper Kieren Westwood well beaten.

Eight minutes later, Steve Woods blasted over at the far post after the Cumbrians’ defence had failed to clear a corner from Darren Garner as Torquay continued to press.

They soon got their reward as four minutes before the break a cross from Phillips was nodded into the path of Kuffour by Thorpe, and the diminutive striker found the back of the net with a shot on the turn to score his fourth goal in as many matches to double the Gulls’ lead.

After the break, Carlisle boss Paul Simpson added extra width to his side by bringing on Simon Hackney for Derek Holmes, and pushed Bridges further forward to play in a partnership with Hawley.

The change seemed to work when they forced Torquay into conceding a corner three minutes after the restart. Chris Lumsdon took the flag-kick for the Cumbrians, which their Spanish left-back Zigor Aranalde nodded home past Marriott to reduce their arrears to a single goal.

Now the pressure was on the Gulls to defend as Carlisle pushed forward in numbers in search of an equaliser, but Torquay – inspired by their central defensive pairing of Steve Woods and Craig Taylor – stood firm.

Ten minutes from time, it seemed as though their resistance had been broken when Marriott – under pressure from Cumbrians’ substitute Glen Murray – appeared to have punched the ball into his own net. However, referee Clive Oliver disallowed the goal for an infringement and the Gulls’ side and their travelling supporters breathed a huge sigh of relief.

With five minutes remaining, Carlisle boss Simpson then sent himself on as a substitute in a bid to get something out of the game – but it wasn’t to be and Torquay held on to secure their fourth straight win.

From being in a seemingly impossible situation, the Gulls were now in touching distance of retaining their status as a Football League club.

The Cumbrians had to wait until the following Tuesday to finally get their hands on the League Two title, when they beat Rochdale, whilst Torquay made their own safety mathematically certain with a goalless draw against Boston United at Plainmoor on the following Saturday.

Torquay (4-4-2): Andy Marriott, Matt Villis, Steve Woods, Craig Taylor, Stephen Reed, Martin Phillips (Matt Hockley 75), Darren Garner, Danny Hollands (Morike Sako 90), Kevin Hill; Jo Kuffour (Paul Robinson 84), Lee Thorpe