There are, sadly, more than enough cases of Carlisle United getting the promotion jitters down the years and today’s team would be wise to avoid looking too closely at events from the 1989/90 campaign.

While this term has seen the Blues around the play-off places from late December onwards, that season is remembered as one of the great collapses in the club’s recent history.

It hurt because, for much of it, they had been firmly among the frontrunners and looking well set for a return to the third tier. Even as late as the start of March, the Cumbrians were sitting pretty at the top of the Fourth Division. Clive Middlemass’ team had recovered from Carlisle’s late-1980s malaise and a push for honours was now well and truly on.

Problems, though, had set in even as they remained at the head of a tightly-packed division towards the home straight. Injuries to key men such as Ian Dalziel and John Halpin had taken their toll on a thin squad by February, and a six-game losing run had pushed the Blues back into the pack by the time Cambridge visited Brunton Park on April 4.

Keeper Dave McKellar’s departure to Kilmarnock was another blow, a void Middlemass looked to fill with Bolton loanee Kevin Rose. United had, at least, arrested their slide with three much-needed wins come the encounter with John Beck’s mid-table Cambridge – and also managed to make the most of this midweek clash.

It was the first of eight April fixtures, and pitted Carlisle against opponents who had memorably reached the quarter-finals of that season’s FA Cup. Their £75,000 signing from Aldershot, Steve Claridge, kept his place at Brunton Park but he and highly-rated team-mates Dion Dublin and John Taylor were put in the shade by a frontman on the other side.

Keith Walwyn had joined Carlisle from Blackpool the previous summer and, at 33, was providing some crucial experience to United’s frontline, even though goals had been scarce for a while prior to Cambridge’s visit.

That changed quickly – just 100 seconds into the game, in fact. Carlisle’s quickest strike of the season was provided by Paul Fitzpatrick’s inswinging free-kick, Walwyn getting between defenders to head home from four yards out at the Warwick Road End.

This proved a useful buffer when Cambridge came flying back at them. Setting an urgent pace, with their familiar direct style and some fast breaks, they should have equalised through Claridge, but he headed wide.

Rose then pushed a Taylor header past the post and it seemed only a matter of time before the men from the Abbey Stadium would level. It was a pleasant surprise, then, when Carlisle went down the other end and struck a second. Fitzpatrick was again the architect, feeding Craig Goldsmith down the left, and his ball touched home by the lunging Walwyn.

This was a real bonus for the Blues and a further cushion against the visitors’ intentions. Midfielder Colin Baillie had been at the heart of Cambridge’s dominant spells and he went close from 25 yards after the break. Although Steve Norris wasted a good Blues opening, it was mostly backs to the wall from here.

Chances, though, were scarce for Beck’s side, Nigel Saddington manning the United defence with his usual authority, and it was not until the 74th minute that the visitors got a glimmer. Saddington and Fitzpatrick both challenged Taylor and a penalty was awarded, Alan Kimble firing it past Rose.

No matter: United held off further Cambridge salvos and made the points safe in the closing stages, their clincher clipped home by Derek Walsh after he pounced on Liam Daish’s interception.

Although the 3-1 win was not to Cambridge No2 Gary Johnson’s liking – he criticised United’s five-man defensive system as “very negative”, claiming it would have “disappointed” the home fans – in reality it enhanced United’s mini-revival, as it was a fourth straight victory which put the Blues third, two points behind leaders Exeter.

Alas, there was painfully little further joy in store for the Cumbrians – and the subsequent weeks went down in Blues infamy. Middlemass’s men won just one of their last six games, and needed to avoid a bad sequence of events on the final day in order to retain a play-off place.

A 5-2 defeat at Maidstone, coupled with results elsewhere, duly sent them crashing out, and in the event it was Cambridge who went on to taste play-off glory at Wembley.

It was the most painful conclusion for United – and the sort of finale to avoid at all costs as another campaign approaches its nervous business end.

United: Rose, Graham, Edwards, Saddington, Jones, Fitzpatrick, Walsh, Miller, Walwyn, Norris, Goldsmith. Subs: Proudlock, Sendall.

Cambridge: Vaughan, Fensome, Kimble, Baillie, Cheetham, Cook, Dublin, Taylor, Claridge, O’Shea, Philpott.

Crowd: 4,890.