2005 Conference National play-off Final

The 2004-05 Conference National Playoff Final took place on 14 May 2005 and was contested between Stevenage Borough and Carlisle United. It was held at the Britannia Stadium, Stoke and had an attendance of 13,422.

Match summary

Carlisle had the first major chance when the ball fell to Derek Holmes and he turned and shot, but Alan Julian in the Stevenage goal saved comfortably. Stevenage's first chance came when they had a corner which they took quickly and Anthony Elding shot just wide from outside the area. The same corner routine had paid off in the Semi Final as it had led to Dino Maamria's winning goal against Hereford.

At the other end, Holmes flicked on a long ball for Glenn Murray who controlled the ball on his chest and shot in one movement from 14 yards out, but Julian again saved well. Carlisle then took the lead in the 23rd minute after Tom Cowan's cross was headed into the bottom corner by Peter Murphy. Stevenage pressed forward looking for the equaliser, with Jon Brady finding Darryn Stamp at the back post with a good cross, whose header was deflected over. At the other end, Goodliffe cleared a header off the line to keep Stevenage in the match.

The second half saw Stevenage try everything to get an equaliser.Elding blazed over from just inside the area, George Boyd hit a well worked free kick over the crossbar while Michael Warner had a good run into the area, cutting inside onto his left foot before seeing his goalbound shot saved by the feet of Matt Glennon. In stoppage time there was a late flurry with the ball bouncing around in the Carlisle penalty area with shots raining in from all angles. But Stevenage could not break Carlisle down and it was the Cumbrians who won and gained promotion back to the Football League at the first time of asking.

Match details

2005-05-14 19:30 BST	Stevenage Borough	0 – 1	Carlisle United	Britannia Stadium, Stoke-on-Trent Attendance: 13,422 Referee: J Moss (West Yorkshire)
			Murphy  23'

STEVENAGE BOROUGH GK 1 Alan Julian DF 2 Michael Warner DF 5 Jason Goodliffe (c) 81' DF 6 Barry Laker 52' DF 25 Ronnie Henry MF 15 Dannie Bulman MF 33 Justin Gregory MF 7 Jon Brady FW 9 Dino Maamria FW 37 Anthony Elding FW 27 Darryn Stamp 66' Substitutes: GK 17 Mark Westhead MF 4 Rob Quinn MF 23 Simon Weatherstone 81' MF 21 George Boyd 52' FW 20 Jon Nurse 66' Manager: Graham Westley

CARLISLE UNITED GK 1 Matt Glennon DF 3 Tom Cowan DF 6 Kevin Gray (c) DF 21 Danny Livesey DF 16 David Beharall MF 17 Chris Lumsdon MF 7 Brendan McGill MF 8 Chris Billy MF 4 Peter Murphy FW 25 Glenn Murray 71' FW 9 Derek Holmes 86' Substitutes: GK 20 Kieren Westwood DF 2 Paul Arnison MF 28 Adam Murray FW 23 Magno Vieira 71' FW 19 Karl Hawley 86' Manager: Paul Simpson

MATCH RULES 90 minutes. 30 minutes of extra-time if necessary. Penalty shootout if scores still level. Five named subsititutes Maximum of 3 substitutions.