The club was formed on 17 May 1904 at Shaddongate United's Annual General Meeting when the club's members voted to change the club's name to Carlisle United. The newly formed club initially played at Milhome Bank and later at Devonshire Park, finally settling at their current home Brunton Park situated on Warwick Road.
There is a myth that still persists to this day that the club was formed from the amalgamation of Shaddongate United and Carlisle Red Rose. Carlisle United actually defeated Carlisle Red Rose 3-0 in the 1905/06 FA Cup.
Carlisle were elected to the Football League Third Division North in 1928 replacing Durham City. They won their first game in the league, the side of Prout, Coulthard, Cook, Harrison, Ross, Pigg, Agar, Hutchison, McConnell, Ward and Watson beating Accrington Stanley 3-2.
Carlisle were members of the Third Division (North) until 1958, and Fourth Division until they won their first promotion in 1962. They won consecutive promotions in 1964 and 1965, and established themselves as a Second Division side. They were promoted to the First Division for the 1974-75 season. They won their first three fixtures of the campaign to top the table, but finished the season in bottom place and were relegated.
Another relegation followed in 1977 before returning to the Second Division in 1982 under Bob Stokoe. With players like Malcolm Poskett and Tommy Craig, they mounted a promotion challenge in the 1983-84 season but finished 7th after a late slump, and consecutive relegations followed in 1986 and 1987.
1987-88 saw Carlisle in the Fourth Division for the first time in nearly a quarter of a century, but instead of challenging for promotion their form continued to slump. They finished second from bottom in the league, but at least they were never in any real danger of relegation because of Newport County's exceptionally awful form - which saw 19 points separate the two teams. The following season saw Carlisle's league form took a major boost after three awful seasons and they finished a respectable 12th in the Fourth Division. They reached the FA Cup Third Round, where their run was ended by defending league champions and eventual FA Cup winners Liverpool. 17-year-old defender Steve Harkness was sold to Liverpool at the end of the season. His place in the team was filled by Middlesbrough's Paul Proudlock.
Carlisle's good progress continued into the new decade, but their playoff hopes were ended on the final day of the 1989-90 season by a 5-2 demolition at the hands of Maidstone United. This was a disappoining end to an encouraging season during which the Cumbrians had topped the Fourth Division on Christmas day and for a while in January as well, but in the end they only missed out on the playoffs due to inferior goal difference. A promising start to the 1990-91 season suggested that the Cumbrians were finally on their way out of the Fourth Division, but a disastrous second half of the campaign saw them slump to 20th in the final table and cost manager Clive Middlemass his job in March. He was succeeded by Aidan McCaffrey, who was left needing a substantial overhaul to get Carlisle's fortunes back on track.
In 1991-92, Carlisle endured one of the worst seasons in their history as they finished bottom of the Fourth Division, but were lucky because the demise of Aldershot, combined with the Football League's plan to expand to 94 clubs, resulted in no relegation to the Conference taking place that year.
In the 1992 close season, Michael Knighton took Carlisle over just before the start of the season, and within weeks had sacked manager Aidan McCaffrey following a terrible start to the new Division Three campaign. David McCreery, 35, was appointed player-manager and steered Carlisle to safety as they finished 18th in the final table.
1993-94 began with much promisement with Michael Knighton announced his intention to deliver Premiership football to Carlisle by 2003. He re-organised the management team to appoint Mick Wadsworth as Director of Coaching, while David McCreery was given the role of head coach and 38-year-old goalkeeper Mervyn Day was named as assistant coach. This season was Carlisle's best in years, as the £121,000 record signing of striker David Reeves in October saw them acquire a much-needed prolific goalscorer. They won 10 of their final 14 league games to secure the final playoff place in Division Three, though their promotion dream was ended by Wycombe in the semi-finals.
In 1994-95, Carlisle finally achieved their first major success in 13 years by lifting the Division Three title. David Reeves scored 25 league goals to help Carlisle achieve their long-awaited success which ended their eight-year ordeal in the league's basement division. They also reached the Autoglass Windscreens Trophy Final but missed out on the trophy after conceding a sudden death extra time goal against Birmingham City.
The following season was a tough one for Carlisle. Mick Wadsworth's resignation as manager in December was a major blow to Carlisle, as was the mid-season sale of key players Paul Murray and Tony Gallimore. They finished the season clear of the relegation zone with more goals than 21st-placed York City, who had to replay a game against Brighton which had been cancelled due to crowd trouble. But a 3-1 victory for York sent Carlisle down, just one season after they had won promotion to Division Two. In 1996-97, young players like Rory Delap, Matt Jansen and Lee Peacock were crucial as Carlisle bounced back from relegation to achieve promotion back to Division Two at the first time of asking. The promotion joy was accompanied by a penalty shoot-out triumph over Colchester United in the Auto Windscreens Trophy Final, in which Tony Caig pulled off some impressive goalkeeping heroics.
Mervyn Day was sacked just six games into the 1997-98, and chairman Michael Knighton promptly installed himself as manager. They were still in the relegation zone come Christmas, they did manage to climb clear. But nine defeats from their final 10 games condemned Carlisle to relegation in 23rd place, with 17 goals from striker Ian Stevens not being quite enough to attain survival.
Carlisle entered the final game of the 1998-99 season needing to beat Plymouth Argyle at Brunton Park to avoid relegation and possibly extinction, and the score was still 1-1 at full time. The referee allowed four minutes of stoppage time, and during the final minute Carlisle were awarded a corner. Goalkeeper Jimmy Glass, signed in an emergency loan deal after the transfer deadline, drove home a last-gasp winner which preserved Carlisle's Football League status and sent down Scarborough.
Once again, Carlisle narrowly avoided relegation in 1999-2000, finishing in second from bottom place in Division Three. They lost their final game of the season 1-0 to Brighton, but were kept up by Chester City's defeat at the hands of Peterborough United.
2000-01 saw Ian Atkins, one of the most successful managers in the lower leagues, appointed at the Carlisle helm and there was much hope that he could be the man to achieve promotion. But things didn't work out, and they finished 22nd - just one place higher than in the previous two campaigns. Atkins quit at the end of the season and was succeeded by Roddy Collins.
After three seasons of close shaves with relegation, in 2001-02 Carlisle enjoyed the relative luxury of attaining a safe final position of 17th - which saw them finish 16 points clear of the relegation zone.
For the fourth time in five seasons, Carlisle narrowly avoided relegation in 2002-03. This time 22nd place was just one place above the drop zone, as this was the first season in which two clubs were relegated to the Conference instead of just one.
The writing was on the wall for Carlisle after they lost 18 of their first 21 Division Three games of the 2003-04 season. Manager Paul Simpson did all he could to salvage something from the next 25 fixtures, but couldn't quite achieve safety - 40 points from a possible 75 were effectively rendered meaningless due to Carlisle's appalling first four months of the season. Had they performed as well during the first half of the campaign as they did during the second, then they would have featured in the promotion push. Carlisle United thus became the first club to compete in all top five tiers of the English football league system (Oxford United and Luton Town, both League Cup winners, have since followed).
In 2004-05, Carlisle returned to the Football League at the first time of asking by winning the Conference National promotion playoffs.
Carlisle's excellent form under Paul Simpson continued into the following season as they returned to the Football League with a bang, clinching the League Two title. Simpson then departed for local rivals Preston North End, and was succeeded by Neil McDonald.
In 2006-07, Carlisle become the first visiting team to win a League One match at the Keepmoat Stadium, the new home of Doncaster Rovers after a 2-1 win on February 3, 2007. The win was part of a sequence of games in which the club - mired in mid-table - staged a late run for a play-off place, they finally finished the season 8th, their highest league finish for 22 years with the added bonus of returning their highest average league crowds for 30 years.
Neil McDonald was sacked one game into the 2007-08 season. This move came as a shock to the Carlisle fans, Greg Abbott took over as caretaker manager with Cheltenham Town manager John Ward taking over on a permanent basis in October 2007, with both clubs agreeing a six figure compensation package and Ward's contract will run for four years.
Ward took Carlisle to the top of League One on 28 October, and they were still looking likely for automatic promotion at the beginning of April as they occupied second place, but could only manage a draw on the final day of the season and finished fourth. They played against Leeds United in the semi-finals. On 12 May 2007, Carlisle United played Leeds United in the League One Playoff first leg at Elland Road. Carlislie won that match 2-1 with Graham's posterior and Bridge Wilkinson scoring the goals. Dougie Freedman scored a controversial injury time goal (in the 96th minute; only 4 minutes were shown on the fourth official's board) for Leeds to set up an enthralling second leg.
In the corresponding fixture at Brunton, Leeds took an early first half lead through a Jonny Howson goal, and then Howson scored his second with only seconds to spare to put the match at 3-2 on aggregate to Leeds, meaning Carlisle would spend another season in the Third Tier of English football.
The 2008-09 season began with the sale of 2 key players for a combined total of £1.5 million. On 18 June 2008, Kieren Westwood left for Coventry City F.C., for an initial £500,000, while Joe Garner left for Nottingham Forest F.C. for £1.14 million, triggering a clause that made Carlisle sell him. Fans favourite Michael Bridges returned on a season long loan from Hull. Meanwhile, there was action off the field, as, on 3 July, a consortium of local businessmen, led by director and accountant David Allen completed a takeover of the club from Fred Story. Carlisle's start to the season was one of their best, maintaining an unbeaten run in the league throughout August. However, this was followed by one of the poorest runs in form of recent Carlisle United history - with only one win since August, and a 6-game losing streak (ended by a draw at home against Peterborough United F.C.), Carlisle United currently languish near the bottom of League One. On 3 November, Carlisle announced that they had parted with John Ward "by mutual consent", and Greg Abbott became the caretaker manager of the club. On 5 December, Greg Abbott was announced as the permanent manager of Carlisle, after his performance in his 6 game stint and low wage demand had impressed the board enough to appoint him. Carlisle secured their place in League One after beating Millwall 2-0 on May 2 and Northampton Town were relegated to League Two. |