Where goalkeeper Jimmy Glass is 25 years on from Carlisle goalscoring heroics

Jimmy Glass is a name no Carlisle United fan will ever forget thanks to his goalscoring heroics.

A keeper finding the back of the net at the other end of the pitch is a rare enough occurrence. But loanee Glass did so in the last minute of their final game of the 1998/99 season to keep them in the Football League, 25 years ago to this day (Wednesday, May 8).

Relegation rivals Scarborough thought they’d done what was needed with a 1-1 draw with Peterborough United, with their fans invading the pitch. But the greatest of great escapes broke their hearts.

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Glass was only 25 at the time but he retired just two years later. He briefly took up a job as an IT salesman before becoming managing director of a taxi firm, for whom he worked for over a decade.

The 6’4″ former shot stopper wasn’t done with football, however, becoming a coach at Non-League Poole Town in 2011. And then in 2016, he returned to former club Bournemouth.

His two seasons with the Cherries from 1996-98 were the only time in his career he enjoyed regular first-team football, and they offered him another opportunity to be player liaison officer and a hospitality host.

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He remained in the south coast club’s employment until last summer, at which time he left to take up the role of general manager at Wimborne Town. The role includes “managing and developing the club’s operational programmes, community initiatives and footballing infrastructure”.

And his work off the pitch appears to have had an instant impact on it, as Wimborne were promoted to the seventh tier of English football last month. They were crowned champions of the Southern League Division One South.

It means they’re already a third of the way to the target Glass set following his arrival, explaining to Buzz in November: “My aim is the National League in the next four-to-five years.

“If I’m out by a year or two, so be it, it’s not massively important if we’re not there. If we fall short and end up in the National South it’s not the end of the world.”

While Glass only made three appearances for Carlisle, arriving on an emergency loan towards the end of that miraculous season, he’s obviously regarded as a club legend and always will be. Scarborough’s fate, liquidation in 2007, may well have awaited them had it not been for him.