Carlisle United's Official Supporters Club have defended their continued links to a sponsor that quit the club amid controversy last season.

Letters sent by CUOSC display a logo for Bookies.com, which ended its connection to the Blues in April after a Twitter storm involving the firm's owner Andy Bell.

Distasteful tweets about the Hillsborough disaster appeared on the businessman's social media account, which led Bell to resign as a club vice-president and end his sponsorship of the Blues.

But the News & Star has seen recent correspondence from CUOSC which still shows the Bookies logo among a series of their own sponsors.

The fans' group at the time had condemned the offensive tweets.

They insist that view is unchanged - but said the firm's appearance on their stationery dates back to Bell's support for the "welcome packs" CUOSC issued to new members last season.

The fans' body, which owns 25.4 per cent of United's holding company, added that it would cost too much to replace the current stationery.

CUOSC board member Nigel Davidson said: "Sponsorship for the printing of headed paper and membership packs was sought last season and a number of local businesses happily came forward to assist with this.

"As a result the logos for these businesses were added to the letter headed paper and membership packs

"We need to continue to use this stationery as the sponsors enabled us to produce it, at some considerable cost, and we cannot afford to reprint it

"Andy Bell contributed to the cost of this printing, with the inclusion of his advertising for Bookies.com and as such we feel duty-bound to honour that contract.

"It does not in any way mean that we align ourselves with the regrettable comments made on his Twitter account earlier in the year.

"We also have discussed this with the club, because it has also come under the same scrutiny previously in the media when the old branding at Brunton Park was being removed after the club’s own commercial deal ended - and our position and theirs are similar."

It is understood the various sponsors' logos will feature on correspondence CUOSC plan to send to new members soon.

United themselves recently removed Bookies signs from around Brunton Park some four months after the tweets, which included inflammatory references to the Heysel disaster and scorned human rights laws that another tweeter said had helped the Hillsborough families achieve justice at April's landmark inquests, which ruled the 96 victims of the 1989 tragedy had been unlawfully killed.

At the time CUOSC challenged Bell to prove his claim that his account had been "hacked".

The Blues' chief executive Nigel Clibbens added: “The events were many months ago, but were highly regrettable and damaging all round nonetheless - nobody could say otherwise.

"The club’s position was made crystal clear at the time.

"Yes, if the clock could be turned back I’m sure everyone would be happy, but life isn’t like that so we must learn lessons, which I’m sure everyone did very quickly, and then move on to focus on the future and on matters we can actually influence."