We are, sadly, at that point of delving into the history books for comparisons - and not for the right reasons.

Here are the bald stats: Carlisle United have gone four league games without a single goal or a single point.

It is the worst such run in both departments for some time, and it goes without saying that the Cumbrians could sorely do with both coming to an end at Newport County tonight.

The scoreless sequence, extended by a 1-0 defeat to Tranmere on Saturday, extended the wait for a Blues league goal to six hours.

Since Brennan Dickenson’s late equaliser against Scunthorpe on September 18, United have fired blanks against Sutton, Forest Green, Bristol Rovers and Tranmere.

That's a full calendar month without a league goal – and now the longest goalless run at Carlisle for more than four years.

United’s four-game barren spell is their worst since early 2017, when Keith Curle’s promotion-chasers managed to string together seven without scoring.

After Reggie Lambe’s first-half winner at Wycombe on February 18, it took Curle's Carlisle until April 1 – and 11 hours, 42 minutes of football – before finding the net again, when John O’Sullivan headed home against Yeovil.

United have had barren spells since – they went three without a goal late last season against Newport, Port Vale and Bolton, and also the previous campaign against Grimsby, Colchester and Bradford.

But the current stint has exceeded those, meaning it will be a more welcome sight than normal if anyone in a blue shirt manages to locate the net in south Wales this evening.

As for losing runs, United have equalled their worst efforts over a number of recent seasons – but if they are beaten tonight it will be their longest pointless stretch for eight years.

The Blues lost four on the spin under Chris Beech last season (Tranmere, Oldham, Colchester, Morecambe) and also did so in the dying days of Steven Pressley’s reign (Newport, Crewe, Plymouth, Northampton).

John Sheridan oversaw four straight defeats early in his reign, and Curle went four without a point twice, in 2017 and 2015.

You have to go back to 2013, though, for the last Blues side to lose five in a row, and even then there is a caveat, given that it overlapped two campaigns.

Greg Abbott’s Blues ended 2012/13 with back-to-back league defeats, to Bournemouth and Colchester, and then started 2013/14 with three more, to Leyton Orient, Bradford and Coventry.

Not since 2008 have United lost five on the spin in the same league season. That came in September-October, when John Ward’s League One reign unravelled and Carlisle were beaten by Scunthorpe, Leeds, Walsall, Tranmere and MK Dons off the reel.

We are, thankfully, some distance from the worst losing spell in United memory, when the side bequeathed to Paul Simpson by Roddy Collins went 12 matches without a point in the 2003/4 fourth-tier season.

Still – these are bleak stats to be digging out, the sort you only tend to associate with flawed campaigns. Here’s hoping the rot is well and truly stopped at Rodney Parade.

(Where Carlisle have taken a princely two points from seven visits…)