The League Cup is back on the agenda for Carlisle United tomorrow when they head to Sheffield United's Bramall Lane for first round action.
So, to whet the appetite ahead of the tie, we've picked out a few memorable Blues games in the competition to look back on, with the help of our picture archive and YouTube...
1966
United’s first run in the League Cup of any serious note came in one of their finest seasons: 1966/7, when Alan Ashman’s side were competing in the higher reaches of the Second Division.
This saw them enter the League Cup at the second round stage, and after edging past Tranmere and Southampton, the Blues hosted fellow second-tier high-fliers Blackburn in round four.
A tight contest might have been anticipated. Not on your life.
Instead, in front of a 14,054 crowd, the Cumbrians laid on a dominant performance.
The star was David Wilson, the striker who had joined the previous year from Nottingham Forest. He hit a hat-trick which was supplemented by a George McVitie goal as United cruised through 4-0.
Their run ended in the fifth round at QPR, but it was another sign of United on the rise.
1969
And then, three years later, the Blues went even closer: all the way to the semi-finals, and a two-legged shoot-out with West Brom for a place at Wembley.
Imagine the uproar, then, when United’s Frank Barton rifled home the only goal in the first leg at Brunton Park, watched by more than 20,000.
“The noise was awesome,” Barton later recalled of the moment when he shot the Cumbrians to the brink of a major cup final.
It was a formidable Brunton Park occasion, and after winning 1-0, Carlisle held their lead into the second half of the second leg at the Hawthorns.
The dream then crumbled, though, thanks to four quickfire Baggies goals, Barton adding a late consolation. But it remains easily United’s best and most tantalising League Cup adventure.
1970
The seventies provided a handful of fine League Cup memories, notably a 5-0 thrashing of Sheffield Wednesday in 1971 and a gutsy draw with Liverpool in 1972.
Their win over Manchester City in 1970, though, was as fine a cup victory as the Blues have known.
It was a genuinely illustrious Citizens side, featuring some of their greatest names: Book, Summerbee, Lee, Bell.
Yet they came unstuck against an inspired, white-shirted United.
Dennis Martin raised the roof with a Blues opener, before Francis Lee shot City level.
Bob Hatton then broke clear to go around keeper Joe Corrigan and secure a famous 2-1 second round win for Bob Stokoe’s Blues.
1990
Not a vintage era for the Cumbrians. But they certainly raised themselves to rare heights when Derby County of the top-flight came to town.
The Rams side contained two players, in Peter Shilton and Mark Wright, who had recently played in the World Cup semi-final for England against West Germany.
Yet they were given unexpected levels of discomfort by Clive Middlemass’s basement-dwellers, who stunned Derby by taking a first-half lead.
The architect was their veteran summer signing Eric Gates, who deceived Wright with a clever shimmy before crossing to the back post.
Paul Proudlock met it with the sweetest volley, and United were only denied a famous first round, first leg win by Dean Saunders after the break, leaving things at 1-1.
Saunders shot Derby through in the second leg, but the skilful Proudlock always enjoyed the memory of beating one of the country’s greatest keepers and threatening a remarkable upset. “Shilton had the cheek to dive,” he said.
1992
A new era at Carlisle, after the Michael Knighton takeover, had barely got going when the side at the very top of the new Premier League arrived at Brunton Park.
Norwich City were playing some fine football early in 1992/3 and ought to have made short work of Aidan McCaffery’s Blues – but there was a new spirit about the Cumbrians, and it showed on a memorable midweek night.
Indeed, Andy Barnsley shot the hosts ahead from the spot after Andy Watson had been brought down.
Norwich drew level in the opening seconds of the second half through Mark Robins, then got a fortunate second through Jeremy Goss.
Yet bottom-tier United were resurgent once more, as young Cumbrian midfielder Darren Edmondson beat keeper Bryan Gunn to a cross and tucked home a memorable close-range equaliser for a valiant 2-2 draw.
1997
Before the good times of the 1990s ended, the Blues had one last cup cracker in them.
In the wake of Mervyn Day’s shock sacking, United went to White Hart Lane and gave Tottenham Hotspur a serious fright.
Responding to Neale Fenn’s Spurs opener, the Blues stunned Gerry Francis’ hosts with an equaliser when Andy Couzens arrived to volley home Gareth McAlindon’s cross.
The travelling Blues, newly promoted to the third tier, were then in dreamland when the ample figure of Warren Aspinall bustled past Sol Campbell and squeezed a shot past keeper Ian Walker to make it 2-1.
Alas, it couldn’t last: Ruel Fox and Paul Mahorn eventually turned things round, before a David Ginola penalty and Chris Armstrong strike saw Tottenham through the second leg - but United had given them a real test.
2009
United’s League Cup record had long been modest in the modern era, so this was a landmark victory at Bristol City’s Ashton Gate.
Carlisle had not reached the third round since 1974, and the League One Blues faced a tricky trip to third-tier rivals Bristol City in order to end that long run.
Yet Greg Abbott’s United put together a bright and effective display which eventually took them into the lead when Scott Dobie slid home a cross.
United then punished the hosts a second time, when teenage striker Gary Madine finished emphatically after good work from Joe Anyinsah.
It took the Blues through to a third-round tie with Premier League Portsmouth, when they took a shock early lead through an Ian Harte penalty before Pompey hit back to win 3-1.
2015
This one doesn’t need a great deal of introduction. Anfield, Asamoah, those penalties – and a terrific travelling support. Over to Derek…
2019
Hopefully this one proves a good omen for Carlisle’s trip to Yorkshire to take on a side in red and white tomorrow...
Their 2019 first round tie at Championship side Barnsley turned into an emphatic victory for Steven Pressley’s Blues.
Harry McKirdy poached the opener, pouncing on a mistake, before United cut further loose in the second half.
Jack Bridge converted a penalty after McKirdy had been fouled, before Nathan Thomas added a third in one of the best wins of the otherwise underwhelming Pressley era.
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