DAVID  BRIGHTWELL

It was a long hard season for United, when did you realise you were in a relegation fight? It was probably about the middle of January. Pearson had arrived at the club and this normally brings new confidence to the club and players, but that didn’t really happen. We were drawing too many games that we should have won. We were not conceding goals, and I think that we ended up with the second best defensive record in the league, after the champions, Brentford, but we were finding it difficult to score.

In the week before the match how did you feel? Scarborough played at home to Plymouth on the Tuesday and I was listening to the game live on Yorkshire radio. I was hoping that Plymouth could do us a favour, and could not believe it when Scarborough went two up. I had to leave the house at that stage a go for a long walk! That was the only time in all the weeks that it crossed my mind that we could go down.

On the morning of the match did you feel more nervous that usual? No, I was confident that everything would turn out just how we wanted it to.

Even before the game started the crowd was larger and more vocal than previous games, did that affect you? No. The bigger the crowd, the better as far as players are concerned. To see so many people turn out just made us more determined to get the right result. It showed how much the club meant to the people of Carlisle.

We had to rely on Peterborough getting a result at Scarborough. Did you hear that they had scored an early goal while you were on the pitch? Yes, I was taking a throw-in by the East Stand when I heard the crowd becoming excited as Peterborough had scored. They then noticeably got behind the team even more.

When the Dobie goal was disallowed did you feel that it wouldn’t be our day? Those thoughts always go through your mind when something like that happens. You just have to get on with it and try even harder to score.

At half-time were you optimistic? Nigel Pearson was very positive and we didn’t have anything to fear from Plymouth. We couldn’t see them scoring, but knew that we had to.

When Phillips scored for Plymouth what were your feelings?   Oh ****!

McCall headed the ball out, straight to you, and you scored a great goal, equally important in saving Carlisle. At the time you just got on with the game as quickly as you could, did the magic of scoring even register? In a lot of ways, no, because we knew that one goal was not enough - we had to win the game. There wasn’t any point running around the field celebrating when we didn’t yet have anything to celebrate.

At the end of normal time Colin Carter could be heard on the tannoy‚ announcing the Scarborough final score, and lifting the crowd to fever pitch. Did you hear the Scarborough score? I heard Colin and the crowd’s reaction to him, but I didn’t specifically hear him mention the score of the game. I presumed that he was just trying to raise the crowd for one big finale, and guessed that the Scarborough result had gone our way.

Did you know how close we were to time when Anthony went to take that last corner? I asked the referee how long was left when Anthony was on his way over to take the kick, and his actual words were‚'This is your last chance son!'

Dobie header went straight to the keeper did you think game over? No, I didn’t have time to think about anything. Within a split second Jimmy had put the ball in the net and there was pandemonium. People don’t realise what a great header that was.

When did you first realise when Jimmy was there? I never saw him come up for the corner. The first thing I knew was I saw a red shirt jump in front of me and I thought, who the **** is that?

After Jimmy scored the whole ground erupted, did you feel that the match would be stopped? I wasn’t bothered if it was or not. After 87 minutes of a game have been played the result can officially stand - and I knew that we were past that point. The only thing I was worried about was all the players getting off the pitch safely. I was lucky as I was right next to the tunnel, but I think Glassy took another 10 minutes to get in, and he had a nose bleed and everything.

What were your feelings when the final whistle went? Impossible to put into words. A mixture of relief, joy and euphoria. I was particularly pleased for the local lads Richard Prokas, Tony Hopper and Scott Dobie. We went back to the dressing room and saw Nigel, Dave Wilkes and John Halpin, who were as pleased as anybody. The Chairman was in there, and the champagne and lager was flowing. Somebody told me that me mum and girlfriend (now my wife) were in reception, so I went straight down to see them. My girlfriend was in tears and I’ve never seen a smile like my mothers. People don’t realise that it wasn't just the players who were involved in this, it was also family and friends. We had had numerous discussions about‚ what if?, even though I was confident that we would stay up, and it meant everything to everyone involved. I still believe that I will never experience another day like that in football, and probably not during the rest of my life. It was the most unbelievable and dramatic finish to any sporting event that I can remember.

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