Carlisle United goalkeeper Mark Gillespie, the man who sealed former Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers' fate

It was the morning after scraping past Carlisle United that Liverpool decided that Brendan Rodgers’ time was up. They had drawn 1-1 with the League Two club and progressed to the fourth round only after winning the penalty shoot-out 3-2.

What was a fatal embarrassment for Rodgers, then, was also an evening of immense pride for Keith Curle’s team. The season after fighting hard to stay in the Football League, they are now pushing for promotion, playing a brand of football rarely seen in England’s fourth tier.

The hero of that night at Anfield, and of their promising season, is goalkeeper Mark Gillespie. He made save after save under those famous floodlights, including in the shoot-out from Philippe Coutinho and Adam Lallana. It was not quite enough to win Gillespie and Carlisle a place in the fourth round, but they did win admirers.

“Without a doubt it was the highlight of my career,” Gillespie tells The Independent, ahead of tomorrow’s game against Morecambe at Brunton Park. “Playing in front of a sell-out at Anfield would be big for any goalkeeper, and I have played all of my career in the lower leagues so far. It was nerve-wracking but brilliant walking out to ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’. I didn’t want to just go out and play there, I wanted to do well.”

That is just what Gillespie did, athletically denying Coutinho, Danny Ings, James Milner and the rest, taking the game to a shoot-out. Gillespie and goalkeeping coach Simon Tracey had done research beforehand on Liverpool’s takers, helping him to save from Coutinho, while he also guessed right to deny Lallana. After the game Adam Bogdan told him he was man of the match and James Milner gave him his shirt.

It was a performance that underlined Gillespie’s talent and the fact that he is, along with Dan Bentley at Southend, probably the best young goalkeeper outside the top two tiers of English football. Not only is he athletic and commanding but, under Keith Curle, he is working on a new side of his game.

“For the last few years the manager has put a very strict passing game in place,” Gillespie says, “and we are reaping the rewards at the minute. We look to pass it out from the back, which is new for me, but I’m really enjoying it and we’re getting results. Credit to the manager, we’ve got a real identity now.”

It helps that Carlisle have the best pitch in League Two but they are showing that attractive football is not an optional extra at their level but a means to getting results. They have started the season well, winning five of the last seven, looking better than the side who flirted with relegation for much of 2014-15. Only a good run in April kept Carlisle in the Football League, when Gillespie returned from injuries that were threatening to spoil another season for him.

Gillespie burst into the Carlisle team at the start of the 2012-13 season, at the age of just 20, when the team was still in League One. But in November 2013 he tore the lateral ligament in his right knee. Six weeks later in rehab he tore the meniscus in the same knee, ruling him out for the rest of the season. “It was like a snowball,” Gillespie says. “It was hard to take, as it was my first injury in football.”

Without Gillespie, Carlisle were relegated to League Two. He started the 2014-15 season back in goal but after playing the first 11 games, he knew something was wrong, and needed a second operation to clear up the cartilage in his right knee. “It was setback after setback, and it does get to your confidence.” That ruled him out for four months, and soon after returning he suffered groin problems from an imbalance in strength between his two legs.

Only in the second half of last season did Gillespie return, back to his best, keeping his team in the division, showing the potential he did in the Newcastle United academy up until his release at 16. Gillespie is from the Throckley and a big Newcastle fan, having grown up going to St James’ Park with his dad. He joined the academy at eight – he was in the same year group as his good friend Paul Dummett – but was released at 16 for not being athletic enough.

Since then, though, Gillespie has grown to six foot three and has gained experience that many other goalkeepers of his age would envy. “I got into the Carlisle team at 20 and, even with the injuries, have played nearly 100 senior games now. I was always confident that, given a shot, I could do something with my career.”

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