It is coming up for 30 years now since Michael Knighton, who reigned notoriously at Carlisle United for a decade, first emerged on the national stage with his earlier, ball-juggling attempt to take over Manchester United.

What may be less remembered is that there was, a few years later, a move that could have seen the other Manchester club get the old showman on board.

That’s the way he told it, at least. There was seldom a dull moment when Knighton spoke and, amid a promotion push at Brunton Park in the autumn of 1996, the then Blues chairman claimed to have been courted by a consortium seeking to buy City, who were then still at Maine Road and playing in the second tier: a million miles from today’s glittering riches.

“They wanted me to be chief executive,” Knighton said, adding that he was “semi-flattered” by the approach. “They didn’t particularly want a financial investment, they just wanted me to run it. But Carlisle United will always be my club.”

These words were spoken in the times when Knighton was still relatively popular in these parts. At Carlisle, the Division Three title and Wembley season of 1994/5 had been followed by the anti-climax of relegation, but an adjusted side was looking in good shape for a bounce-back challenge.

It was Mervyn Day’s first full campaign in charge following Mick Wadsworth’s departure for Norwich. There was also a new talisman in defence in the form of the sizeable Frenchman, Stephane Pounewatchy.

He, along with fellow summer signing Owen Archdeacon, bolstered a side that included regular favourites such as Dean Walling, Steve Hayward and Rod Thomas, with home-grown prospects like Rory Delap – recipient of Ireland Under-21 call-ups – making a significant impact and others, such as Lee Peacock and Matt Jansen, also pushing for first team places.

By the time Colchester visited in October, United had won six of their opening nine league games and were handily placed among the frontrunners. They then took their latest opportunity to show their credentials by recording another emphatic win.

It proved a slow burner, since Carlisle were not at full tilt in a frustrating first half. After David Reeves headed wide in the first minute, a dour contest unfolded, attempts by Hayward and Peacock rare sights of goal.

The Blues also suffered the 40th-minute blow of an ankle injury to Delap which saw the 20-year-old stretchered off, David Currie taking his place. The veteran’s arrival, though, proved timely, for just minutes later Currie touched home Hayward’s low free-kick.

That lifted anxieties and in a better second half, Day’s side cruised clear. After Walling, Thomas and Peacock had gone close, the second goal came when Hayward’s inswinging free-kick was diverted over the line by the head of an Essex defender.

Two minutes later, it was three: Hayward again the architect, linking up with Currie before sending the ball low into the box, where wing-back Archdeacon arrived to fire home on the run.

It was now an emphatic lead and rendered Colchester’s late efforts futile, Steve Whitton firing straight at Tony Caig and Carlisle’s keeper doing well to push wide a Chris Fry attempt in the dying minutes.

The clean sheet and the 3-0 win took United back to the summit, ahead of rivals Fulham. This being Knighton’s Carlisle, though, there was further off-field drama in store.

The Colchester game turned out to be the penultimate outing in a Blues shirt for Reeves, the record signing whose goals had been pivotal to their recent rise. He was in the sights of Preston North End and duly the transfer was agreed, ex-United loan forward Allan Smart coming the other way in a deal Knighton said was worth £300,000.

The upheaval did not, thankfully, derail the Blues. Carlisle remained in the race all season and, although the well-heeled Wigan and Fulham eventually overtook them, they had enough to go up in third, clinching promotion with a 0-0 televised draw at Mansfield in April.

Nor had their significant encounters with Colchester ended that October night, for Day’s United were also heading back to Wembley in the Auto-Windscreens Shield for a second time in three years - this time beating the Essex club on penalties to record their first-ever win at the national stadium.

That proved, alas, the end of the good times. Another relegation followed in 1998, many of the club’s stars sold - and the second, more bitter half of Knighton’s turbulent reign then under way.

United: Caig, Delap (Currie), Archdeacon, Walling, Robinson, Pounewatchy, Thomas (Heath), Peacock, Reeves, Hayward, Aspinall (Prokas).

Colchester: Emberson, Dunne, Barnes (Gregory), McCarthy, Greene, Cawley, Locke, Reinelt (Whitton), Fry, Adcock (Duguid), Wilkins.

Crowd: 4,889.