Carlisle United FC history

At the time Carlisle Red Rose and Carlisle AFC were the pre-eminent clubs in Carlisle but the new club quickly gained a following and by the time Carlisle AFC folded in 1899 they were considered a force to be reckoned with.

By 1903 they had overtaken Red Rose and were further cemented as the city's biggest club when Red Rose's entire team were banned for four months by the Cumberland Football Association for taking part in a Scottish amateur tournament in contravention of league rules.

In 1905, Carlisle United joined the Lancashire Combination but were only admitted after agreeing to pay all visiting teams’ travel expenses for two years, due to Carlisle not being located in Lancashire.

Carlisle United were crowned champions of the North Eastern League in 1922.

The 1927–28 season was Carlisle's last in the North Eastern League.

On 4 June 1928 a delegation of representatives from Carlisle United took their seats at the Football League meeting in London to hear the results of the vote.

When the Second World War began in 1939, Carlisle United withdrew from national and regional competitions and only played local football.

In 1949, the club became the first to appoint Bill Shankly as manager.

Carlisle were members of the Third Division North until 1958 when it combined with the Third Division South to become the Fourth Division.

Shankly, a former player at Carlisle, later went on to manage local rivals Workington (helping them finish above Carlisle for the first time) before being appointed as manager of Liverpool in 1959; over the next 15 years he would guide that club to numerous trophy successes.

They remained there until 1962 when they won their first promotion, they were relegated the following season but immediately bounced back to begin the most prosperous period in the club's history.

Upon gaining promotion to the Third Division in 1964 United immediately won the Third Division Championship the following year.

Another relegation followed in 76/77 before returning to the Second Division in 1982 under Bob Stokoe.

Back to back relegations saw them drop into the Fourth Division in 1987.

In 1992, they finished bottom of the league but were not relegated due to there being no relegation from the Fourth Division that season, as well as Aldershot going out of business before the season's end.

He made the funds available for new players to be signed, and in 1994 Carlisle reached the playoffs in the recently rebranded Division Three, a year after narrowly avoiding relegations.

They achieved an instant return to Division Two in 1997, only to go straight back down again.

In the 1998–99 season Carlisle found themselves in their second successive relegation battle and needing to gain three points from the final game of the season at home to Plymouth Argyle.

Over the next five seasons, Carlisle were frequently in the struggle to avoid relegation to the Conference, finally being relegated in 2003-04 after 76 years in the Football League.

Carlisle were promoted out of the non-league conference at the first time of asking in 2005, winning the play-off final at the Britannia Stadium, Stoke.

The 2008–09 season saw Carlisle start promisingly but it was soon followed by one of the worst runs of form in the club's history.

On 9 January 2009, Graham Kavanagh was released by Sunderland and returned to Carlisle on a permanent basis as a player-coach.

Following Abbott's sacking, assistant manager Graham Kavanagh was installed as caretaker manager, appointed on a permanent basis on 30 September 2013, signing a two-year contract.

On 3 May 2014 Carlisle were relegated, ending an 8-year spell in the third tier having finished 22nd following a disastrous run of results under Kavanagh, meaning the club would compete in League Two for the 2014-15 league season.

The first half of the 2016-17 season was excellent for the club, with just one loss (against then-bottom Newport County) in their first 23 league fixtures.

Only in 2017 did more information about the early part of their history come to light.

On 4 January 2019, John Sheridan resigned as the Carlisle manager in order to become manager of National League side Chesterfield with the club in the last play-off position.

The 2020–21 season started in positive fashion for the blues with the club sitting top of the table at Christmas, resulting in Beech signing a new contract extension.