Football: Thomas gives new boys due warning: Phil Shaw watches an encouraging debut by Wycombe Wanderers

MICHAEL KNIGHTON'S presence in the Brunton Park directors' box, exactly four years after his 'takeover' of Manchester United, underlined the folly of reading too much into the season's opening day. Nevertheless, Wycombe Wanderers were not the only ones entitled to savour a promising start in strange surroundings.

Like the affable Carlisle chairman, who once juggled the ball before an admiring Stretford End, Rod Thomas must have thought he had cracked it when he made the England Under-21 side three years ago. After that the former schoolboy prodigy's name, like Knighton's, became used ever more frequently after the words 'Whatever happened to', and he was freed by Watford this summer.

Carlisle's new 'director of coaching', Mick Wadsworth, knew Thomas from his time in Bobby Robson's FA backroom team and took him to the far north. In an entertaining 2-2 draw with the Vauxhall Conference champions, it was the goal the 22-year-old Londoner made rather than the one he scored which sent most of the Third Division's biggest crowd - nearly 8,000 - away buzzing.

Wycombe, responding rousingly to his early tap-in, were minutes from victory when Thomas controlled Ian Arnold's cross on his chest in a packed penalty area. The little winger then played a back-heeled pass that was more Cantona than Carlisle, and Chris Curran atoned for the headed own-goal that earned him an unwanted niche in Wycombe folklore as their first League scorer.

Martin O'Neill, the visitors' manager, had added reason to rue what he called 'a touch of class'. He asked Watford about Thomas, but the player had gone to ground before resurfacing at Carlisle. 'Perhaps I didn't try hard enough,' he admitted, 'and I should chide myself for that.'

O'Neill seemed torn between relishing the point gained after a 600-mile round trip and cursing the two lost. Wycombe would find it tough, he said, if that was the standard. Yet they will not often encounter players of Thomas's audacity - and did not Barnet leak seven goals on their debut before settling to become promotion contenders?

Knighton, while frustrated that Carlisle had failed to win at home on day one for the first time since 1965, predicted a good season for both clubs. The Cumbrians are due one, two drab decades having passed since they completed the climb from Fourth to First.

At the time, Bill Shankly, a former Carlisle manager, described it with just a hint of hyperbole as 'the greatest feat in the game's history'. No one should be surprised if Wycombe, with their stadium, support and ambitious but loyal manager, emulate them.

Goals: Thomas (19) 1-0; Curran og (41) 1-1; Guppy (76) 1-2; Curran (83) 2-2.

Carlisle United (4-3-3): Day; Burgess, Gallimore, Holden, Curran; Edmondson, Thomas, Reddish (Arnold, 72); Oghani, Davey, Fairweather. Substitutes not used: Joyce, Caig (gk).

Wycombe Wanderers (4-4-2): Hyde; Cousins, Horton (Langford, 51), Kerr, Crossley; Ryan, Carroll, Stapleton, Thompson; Scott, Guppy (Hutchinson, 89). Substitute not used: Moussadik (gk).

Referee: G Cain (Bootle).