My Greatest Game: Richard Tracey remembers the day goalkeeper Jimmy Glass scored to keep Carlisle in the Football League

Goalkeeper Jimmy Glass’ 94th minute goal which kept Carlisle United in the Football League in 1999 is one of the football greatest moments.

It was even ranked 72nd in Channel 4’s 100 Greatest Sporting Moments and an 18-year-old Richard Tracey was there that day. The now-Emley AFC manager was upfront for Nigel Pearson’s Carlisle until the 55th minute when he was replaced by former Barnsley striker Paul Bagshaw.

From the floor of the dugout, Tracey went from despair to ecstasy when he watched the on-loan Swindon stopper Glass run up for the last-ditch corner and proceed to volley home from close range with the last kick of the game to rescue Carlisle and relegate Scarborough back to the Conference. 

In the latest ‘My Greatest Game’ Tracey shares his memories of the unforgettable day.

Carlisle United (Brightwell 62, Glass 90+4) 2-1 Plymouth Argyle (Phillips 49) – Saturday 8th May 1999 

The Teams 

Carlisle United: Jimmy Glass, Rob Bowman, David Brightwell, Damon Searle (Peter Clark 72), Graham Anthony, Tony Hopper (David Bass 74), Richard Prokas, Richard Tracey (Paul Bagshaw 55), Stuart Whitehead, Scott Dobie, Ian Stevens

Plymouth Argyle: James Dungey, Jon Ashton, Jon Beswetherick, Paul Gibbs (Darren Bastow 44), Mick Heathcote, Martin Barlow, Simon Collins, Stephen McCall (Brendan McGovern 74), Glen Crowe, Stephen Guinan, Lee Phillips (Paul Wooton 82). 

Referee: F Stretton (Nottingham)

Attendance: 7,599

“Jimmy Glass only played three games for Carlisle United, but he’s one of Carlisle’s greatest players. It sounds crazy. 

“I remember the day starting with Nigel Pearson the gaffer coming in with a bottle of whisky and saying ‘look everyone have a quick swig and make sure you calm you nerves, and if we win it doesn’t matter how it happens’. It was a brief talk and a very jovial few minutes. He wanted to take all the pressure away from us. I don’t think people at the time would have realised that it was a really young side. Michael Knighton as chairman had a lot of success selling Rory Delap, Matt Jansen, Paul Boertien so he was going out of his way to recruit young lads who had potential to move on later to bigger clubs.

“People forget Nigel Pearson managed Carlisle that year. I’d only experienced a few managers prior to him. At Sheffield United Howard Kendall involved the young lads a lot, Nigel Spackman not so much. At Rotherham with Ronnie Moore, it was a much smaller squad so everyone was involved. You could with Nigel that there was something about him. His methodology, his organisation. He had an authority that you just respected. He was really quiet and unassuming, but you would never cross him. Not that you saw him angry. You respected him because he had a terrific career. I was gutted when he left at the end of the season because I had signed for him.

“We knew what we had to do against Plymouth. We simply had to win and hope Scarborough didn’t. Plymouth had played Scarborough in midweek and they got rolled over 3-0 which us bottom of the league below Scarborough. We hoped Plymouth would come and roll over, but it is never the case. 

“There was huge pressure on us that day because it was either Professional Football or Non League football. We also saw the outcome for Scarborough. What happened to Scarborough probably would have happened to Carlisle if it had gone the other way. Nobody talked about finances, but the feel you got around the club told you defeat against Plymouth could have catastrophe consequences. Even after the Plymouth game and over my time at the club, money was tight. No players could come in if no-one had gone out. 

“Nothing really happened in the early part of the game. I had one chance in the game which was after about 20 minutes. Graham Anthony whipped a free kick in and I got across my man and glanced it against the bar. That was really the only chance. We went in at 0-0 at half-time and I suppose tension had been created because it had not been open and it was a bit of a shut shop. We hadn’t shown that we were going to create anything either.

“Then in the second half Lee Phillips picked up the ball and went past five players and smashed it in the bottom corner from 25 yards. Later on I became team-mates with Simon Collins who played for Plymouth that day and he said Lee Phillips never scored a goal like it again. We were 1-0 down and you could sense the whole ground sort of take that deep breath in and say ‘oh no’. We got back into it through our captain and our most experienced player David Brightwell who scored a goal no-one would expect him to score. It was in the corner of the box and he’s just volleyed it and it bounced into the far corner. He was our leader and when we needed it, he stood up to be counted for us.

“I had come off several minutes earlier and that was the worse part of it, knowing that you couldn’t do anything. It was sickening and I gutted to come off because you knew you couldn’t have any influence. I just sat on the floor in the dugout, just hoping, but not expecting. 

“Once as Brights equalised, the atmosphere became electric and people were urging and urging the team to get forward to get the goal. The interesting thing was that there was a delay because Plymouth’s Paul Gibbs broke his leg on the stroke of half-time. It meant we running behind schedule and Scarborough’s 1-1 draw with Peterborough finished long before us. The Scarborough fans were on the pitch celebrating and I heard the Scarborough chairman even popped some champagne, thinking our game had finished

“It was getting really vibrant in the ground. I don’t remember the tannoy announcement which said there were four minutes left to save Carlisle because you’re too involved in the game, but I know the guy who said it and I’ve seen his interview where he talks about what he announced. 

“It got to the 94th minute and we got a corner. Jimmy looked at Nigel who just said ‘go for it’. Graham Anthony took it and I remember him from Sheffield United as a young pro and he was a brilliant technical footballer. When I first went there Scott Dobie wasn’t even in the squad, but he had started to do well. He was a big physical presence. Graham has set up the corner and he’s driven it and Scott has arrived and got a free header. He headed as sweet as you want and it has just hit the goalkeeper and as it fell Jimmy was there on the move and he’s just volleyed in the bottom left-hand corner. The place went absolutely mental. I remember it like it was yesterday.

“We all ran to the side of the pitch, but when you saw all the fans run on from all sides of the ground, it probably wasn’t the smartest idea. Jimmy got piled on and when he managed to get up, he’d bust his nose. The referee even landed on the ground because tried to either jump on or hug the ref. The game wasn’t even finished and it took four or five minutes to get everyone off the pitch.

“If you watch the video, the Plymouth asked the ref how long was left and he said ‘one second’. Apart from the two players who took the kick off, pretty much the rest of the team lined up near the tunnel to get out of the way quickly because they knew what was coming with the next pitch invasion. There probably was only a few seconds to ago, but the ref could have thought ‘sod this’ because of all the fans on the pitch. We were thankful there was no time for them to equalise.

“We spent 20 minutes in the changing room and then we went out into the stand to take the applause of 6,000 fans on the pitch.

“We went out that night, my brother came as well, and I don’t think we bought a drink, but the point is that Jimmy was adamant he was going home to the South Coast or wherever home was and not coming out with us to celebrate.

“One of the lads stole his car keys so he had to come out with us.

“It wasn’t quite off 6am when the night out finished, but I don’t think anywhere in Carlisle was open at that time in those days. But it certainly was three or four in the morning. 

“I’m never seen Jimmy again since that night out. Unfortunately Tony Hopper the midfielder passed away last year with motor neurone disease at 41. 

“I went up three years ago for Tony’s charity game and it was great to see Stuart Whitehead, David Brightwell, Tony, Scott Dobie and most of the other lads. Jimmy couldn’t make it. He lives on the South Coast so it is a long way. It is the other side of the country.

“The circumstances of why Jimmy came to Carlisle were crazy as well. Carlisle had sold Tony Caig to Blackpool on deadline day, but we had a young lad called Knighty (Richard Knight) from Derby, but then he got recalled which left us without a senior goalkeeper for the last three games.

“The FA gave us special dispensation to get another goalkeeper and the Swindon manager Jimmy Quinn allowed us to sign Jimmy Glass on loan. Nigel Pearson has even said he had never heard of Jimmy Glass before Jimmy Quinn rang him.

“Jimmy is still remembered now and there were even rumours in Carlisle of a Glass Statue being made. What did happen was the highlights were shown on Match of the Day. I think it is the only non Premier League game ever to have highlights shown on Match on the Day. They put it on that night because of the size of what happened, the swing of the goalkeeper scoring in the last minute and keeping a club in the Football League. 

“Even myself I had only been at Carlisle a couple of months before the Plymouth game. I played a few games on loan and then signed permanent on deadline day on a swap deal with Will Varty who went to Rotherham.

“It is a funny story how I ended up at Carlisle. I played for Rotherham United reserves against a strong Newcastle United side. It was at Newcastle and Stuart Pearce, Rob Lee, Georgios Georgiadis, Paul Dalglish, Lionel Perez and we beat them 1-0 and I scored a decent goal. I got a phone call from my agent to tell me to play in a trial game at Bolton Wanderers for a select team in front of a load of managers. Ronnie Moore wanted me to go and get more first team football so he gave me the opportunity to go. We drew 2-2 with Bolton. I scored one and Paul Bagshaw scored one. Paul was at Barnsley at the time. Nothing happened until the week after. I had been training at Rotherham earlier and I lived next door to a pub and I was in there playing darts. I wasn’t drinking. Me and my mate went in there a lot to play darts. All of a sudden my phone rings and it was my brother who tells me ‘you need to get home because Nigel Pearson is on the phone and he’s not happy because I’ve told him you’re in the pub’. I sprinted the 30 metres it was home, picked the home up and his first words were ‘are you in the pub drinking’? I was like ‘no, I’m not drinking, I’m in the pub playing darts because I live next door to it’. He was like ‘alright, well we’ve agreed to take you on loan so you need to be up here for nine in the morning to sign all the forms’. I turned round to my dad and said ‘where the hell is Carlisle’? He was like ‘it is a long drive lad, you better get up early’. I went up and my first game was against Halifax and we got 1-0. We had ten or eleven games to turn it around and myself and Baggy signed at the same time on loan. 

“Although we were nearly fell into Non League football, I don’t regret moving to Carlisle. I had turned down a new contract at Rotherham to come because Carlisle offered me playing time. We always had belief in the changing room that we could get out of trouble and because they offered me playing time I was happy to take the risk of relegation when I signed permanently. Will Varty who went the other way won back-to-back promotions with Rotherham. I don’t regret missing out on those promotions because although Ronnie Moore had played me and offered me a new deal, the money was so poor. Rotherham’s money was always made up out of appearances so unless you were playing, you weren’t getting much. At Carlisle I got my first living wage.

“I lived in a bed and breakfast for 18 months with a number of the other lads. Paul Heritage, Rob Bowman who was part of the Leeds youth cup winning team, Stuart Whitehead, Marc Bridge-Wilkinson were and that created a really positive environment. We had a good crack and we kept each other going in difficult times. 

“It was my best period in the Football League and my first real opportunity.

“They played me upfront in my position, whereas when I went to Macclesfield they played me on the left-wing, but they did have Lee Glover and Kyle Lightbourne upfront, two very experienced forwards. 

“I look back at my time at Carlisle and I scored seven times in x number of games during the following season and for a 19-year-old I don’t think it was a bad return. I was still learning my craft as a striker in a team that wasn’t dominating games.

“The Plymouth game has to be my best moment in football because it is one of football’s greatest moments. If you pick up a book like the top 50 moments in football it finds itself in there because it was such a unique moment. It is surreal for me that I was involved in it, but is something no-one can ever take away from you. You work so hard to have a football career and it is not easy, people will tell you that. You have to be dedicated and make sacrifices. It is odd that you celebrate coming second bottom more than you would have done if you had won promotion, but it was about what was at stake and I am proud to have being involved in it. For a goalkeeper who only played three games at a club to score such a goal, it is Roy of the Rovers stuff. It was incredible. 

“When you are living it you don’t realise how big it was. Maybe two or three years when people are still talking about, you think this is going be around for a long time. It is funny now working as a teacher because the kids haven’t got a clue about it.”

Richard Tracey was interviewed by James Grayson