What are Carlisle United's best ever unbeaten runs?

Paul Simpson’s side have enjoyed a sequence of three wins and four draws since losing at Stevenage in late August.

Not since Keith Curle’s team in February-March 2018 has a Blues side gone so long without defeat in league action.

United can equal that team's eight-game run if they avoid defeat at Hartlepool United on Saturday. But it would take a remarkable effort for the current side to go on and threaten the most formidable unbeaten runs in the Blues’ history...

BEST OF THE BUNCH

The gold standard for United unbeaten runs was set in the 1994/5 season.

Mick Wadsworth and his deckchair army went a massive 19 matches, from October to February, between defeats in Division Three.

Mick Wadsworth led United on their best unbeaten run in 1994/5 (Image: News & Star)

After losing to Northampton Town in late September, the Cumbrians were irresistible, picking up 12 wins and seven draws before their next setback, at Preston North End.

It is their longest league unbeaten run by some margin. No wonder they won the league at a canter.

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United have enjoyed plenty of other long unbeaten runs, most of which inevitably came in seasons that either achieved or came very close to success.

In 1983/4, for instance, Bob Stokoe’s Division Two contenders went 15 games without defeat from October to January.

United had an impressive 15-game unbeaten run in 1983/4 (Image: News & Star)

That helped set up a push for promotion to the top flight which sadly hit the buffers towards the end of the campaign.

The same fate awaited the other Blues side to go 15 games unbeaten – Keith Curle’s group in 2016/17.

They started the campaign with eight wins and seven draws before finally coming a cropper at Graham Westley’s Newport County in League Two.

Luke Joyce and Keith Curle celebrate another win in their impressive 2016 run (Image: News & Star)

That season ended with play-off defeat as United’s form waned in the second half.

An older Blues vintage – and a legendary manager – can also boast a 15-game spell.

That was Bill Shankly’s side of 1950/1, who lasted from October to January without losing in Division Three North; eight wins and seven draws featuring in that impressive run for a side that finished third in the table.

Bill Shankly's 1950/1 vintage had an impressive unbeaten run (Image: News & Star)

A couple more of Carlisle’s best unbeaten runs will be familiar to the man leading the current one.

For United twice went 13 games without losing in Paul Simpson’s first tenure at Brunton Park.

Firstly, Carlisle started their only Conference season, 2004/5, with seven wins and six defeats before Barnet finally burst the bubble.

And in 2005/6, a League Two title campaign was bolstered by a decisive spell of nine wins and four draws from February to April – United’s promotion sealed by the time that run came to an end against Torquay United.

An excellent unbeaten run helped take United's 2005/6 side to the title (Image: News & Star)

Another Blues side going 13 without defeat were the 1968/9 team, whose mid-season run of eight wins and five draws in Division Two came mostly under Stokoe after he replaced Tim Ward at the helm.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

In all, United have had 14 unbeaten runs lasting ten league games or more.

Respect is due to John Ward’s League One side of 2007/8, who hit real form between February and March with a 12-game run featuring nine wins and three draws, before falling agonisingly short of automatic promotion and going on to lose to Leeds United in the play-offs.

In 1978/9 there was also a 12-game stretch, Bobby Moncur’s third-tier side winning five and drawing seven between October and February.

Richard Prokas in action during 1996/7's 11-game unbeaten run (Image: News & Star)

Eleven unbeaten games were put together, meanwhile, by Mervyn Day’s Division Three promotion side in 1996/7, eight wins and three draws in a defining period from November to February.

The boys of 1961/2 under Ivor Powell also went 11 without defeat (won eight, drew three) in Division Four from August to October as they laid the foundations for United’s first ever promotion.

Ron 'Ginger' Thompson toasts promotion in 1962 (Image: News & Star)

And those hitting ten games unbeaten included Clive Middlemass’s 1989/90 side at the start of that near-miss campaign, along with Ian MacFarlane’s 1970/1 outfit (won four, drew six from September to November) and the 1937/8 side, who won seven and drew three from November to January.

GOOD COMPANY

It is a sign of progress that Simpson’s side are currently on the joint ninth longest unbeaten league run in the club’s history.

Should they avoid losing to Hartlepool and Doncaster Rovers in their next two league games, it will be the best run for ten years (Greg Abbott’s 2011/12 side had a nine-game run late in that campaign).

Greg Abbott's side, featuring Lee Miller and Francois Zoko, had a nine-game unbeaten run in 2012

Nine-game runs have also been achieved by the Cumbrians in 1981/2, 1980/1, 1978/9, 1977/8, 1967/8 and 1935/6.

Eight-game sequences have also featured at Carlisle in 2006/7, 1996/7, 1994/5 (twice), 1981/2, 1979/80, 1973/4, 1966/7, 1963/4 and 1958/9.

Currently, the seven-game run is shared with similar Blues spells in 2011/12, 2010/11, 2005/6, 2004/5, 1998/9, 1996/7, 1983/4, 1976/7, 1971/2, 1965/6, 1956/7, 1951/2, 1950/1 and 1949/50.