Carlisle United have just been relegated for the tenth time as a Football League club. What happened after their previous drops – and does history offer any clues about what might lie ahead?
1963
What happened?
United’s first ever promotion proved a false dawn in that they came straight back down from Division Three in 1963. Their struggles in the third tier, as well as an ignominious FA Cup defeat to Gravesend & Northfleet, led to the demise of manager Ivor Powell, and despite nine wins from March onwards, they did not have enough to stay up.
What happened next?
Even amid relegation, the foundations for a remarkable resurgence were laid in the closing months of 1962/63. Powell’s replacement was Alan Ashman while a new signing in attack was a certain Hugh McIlmoyle – and the following campaign was a stunner, the Blues racking up a record 113 goals in 46 Division Four games to bounce straight back to promotion…then going up again the following season.
1975
What happened?
United, having flown closer to the sun than at any time in their history, came straight back down from the top flight after a valiant campaign which lacked some premium goalscoring threat to back up Alan Ashman’s diligent and admired side. Although they enjoyed memorable wins against top teams like Everton and Derby County, and famously topped the table after three games, Carlisle couldn’t ultimately avoid a return to the second tier.
What happened next?
Carlisle’s thrilling momentum, which took them into the First Division, was now no more and it was a recovery job in the next phase of the 1970s. Ashman departed in the autumn of 1975 with legendary trainer Dick Young a reluctant replacement. United went on to finish fourth bottom of the second tier and, though signings such as the returning George McVitie came along, some of the unprecedented mid-decade magic was certainly fading for the Blues.
1977
What happened?
Carlisle’s downward momentum continued in 1976/77 when, despite Young’s replacement at the helm by the Newcastle United legend Bob Moncur, they dropped into the third tier for the first time since the mid-1960s. The campaign also featured Billy Rafferty’s famous hat-trick against Cardiff City, but there were not enough thrills to match it, and they went down in third bottom place in a tight but losing battle.
What happened next?
Back in Division Three, United had to acclimatise to a lower level than had been the recent norm. New figureheads such as Ian MacDonald and Trevor Swinburne helped refresh the side and a mid-table league season unfolded, also enlivened by an FA Cup tussle with Manchester United. Crowd numbers fell, but the Blues had at least slowed the decline.
1986
What happened?
1985/86 remains a significant mark in time given that it remains Carlisle’s most recent season in England’s second tier. Having come close to promotion from it in 1984, a couple of campaigns later had the Blues struggling and, despite the presence stars such as Ian Bishop and John Halpin, they fell to Division Two relegation late in the campaign, Jim Tolmie’s infamous own-goal for Charlton Athletic helping push United towards their fate under Bob Stokoe who had returned for a third spell after the short, ill-fated tenure of Pop Robson in the hot seat.
What happened next?
The slide continued. Stokoe stepped down and was replaced in the summer of 1986 by Harry Gregg, but Carlisle’s momentum was vertical. The Division Three campaign that followed brought some historical low features as United recorded their lowest ever goals tally in a league campaign, and also their smallest league crowds, with just 1,287 watching the penultimate home fixture against Chester. They were, by then, consigned to back-to-back relegations for the first time.
1987
What happened?
As noted above, 1986/87 was a bleak season for the Cumbrians given their meagre goalscoring record and seemingly irreversible direction which took them to the Fourth Division for the first time since the early 1960s. A third-bottom finish in 86/87's third tier was accompanied by a critical loss of faith from the terraces...and a new era of hardship was beckoning Carlisle.
What happened next?
There was no let-up in the decline. In Division Four, Carlisle’s continued struggle cost Gregg his job and led to Clive Middlemass’s autumn appointment. He put some foundations in place for improvement, such as the signing of Nigel Saddington, but 1987/88 was a grim affair, only the crisis at Newport County keeping United from another dark reckoning as they finished second bottom of the entire Football League.
1996
What happened?
One of the great anti-climaxes of recent decades came in 1995/96 when, after the deckchair army Division Three title campaign under Mick Wadsworth, Carlisle came straight back down. The colourful 1994/95 season bled into something more challenging as United avoidably lost defensive kingpin Derek Mountfield in the summer, then saw Wadsworth leave for Norwich City mid-season, and a team short of significant reinforcements failed to cling on in the third tier.
What happened next?
At least the core of a successful side was still in place – and a new manager in Mervyn Day was equipped to lead a refreshing bounce-back season. United changed systems and acquired players such as Stephane Pounewatchy who added new intrigue to a general period of success. They went back up automatically from the fourth tier in third place behind the well-heeled Wigan Athletic and Fulham, and the Michael Knighton era seemed to be still on track…
1998
What happened?
The end of the nineties dream. A challenging start saw Day controversially sacked early into the new third-tier campaign, with Knighton appointing himself as part of a three-man managerial replacement regime involving coaches Halpin and David Wilkes. 1997/98 saw young stars like Matt Jansen and Rory Delap flourish, alongside notable signings such as Ian Stevens and Nick Wright, but the January sales of Jansen and Delap removed hope from the team and they finished with a flop, losing nine of their last ten games to go down in second bottom: headlong into the crisis era of Knighton’s ownership.
What happened next?
A subsequent season of colourless struggle, ending with one of history’s most remarkable footballing moments. Another warning against the dangers of downward momentum came when Carlisle struggled badly when back in the fourth tier, soon locked in a relegation battle with most of their nineties stars now gone. Nigel Pearson eventually came in as manager and United limped to the line, staring non-league and possible oblivion squarely in the face until an on-loan goalkeeper from Swindon Town scored with the final kick of the season to save them. Where would they honestly be, without Sir James of Glass?
2004
What happened?
The reckoning finally came after United had used up more lives than a particularly fortunate cat by the early noughties. Carlisle had somehow survived in spite of poor campaigns on umpteen successive occasions, but a rancid start to 2003/04 under Roddy Collins put their Football League status in urgent peril again. Veteran summer signing Paul Simpson took charge, revamping the squad with sorely needed professionalism and experience, but a record 12-game losing run from autumn to winter had made survival improbable – and the drop was confirmed with two games left of an eventually valiant struggle.
What happened next?
The great revival. Simpson had, by the time of relegation, introduced some long-lacking qualities back into the team and so the drop to the Conference was not the crisis it might have been. Coupled with Fred Story’s takeover, Carlisle were back on the road to credibility and they made it straight back up through some dramatic Conference play-offs, the Blues very much back on the right track after an era of disarray.
2014
What happened?
Until this season United’s most recent relegation was a steady and sometimes - but not always - predictable burner before things plummeted off a cliff late on. A bad start to 2013/14 ended Greg Abbott’s tenure as manager and the club put instant faith in his assistant Graham Kavanagh. Results improved to a degree, and remained competitive enough come February, but a relentless stream of signings saw the team lose all identity and record player numbers were reached by the end, when Carlisle staggered to relegation and, in the final analysis, looking miserably good value for it.
What happened next?
Kavanagh looked to stem the chaos and fortify the squad with experienced signings such as Billy Paynter, but could not halt the team’s downward movement. A grim start to life back in the fourth tier saw Kavanagh out and, in the teeth of another relegation fight, Keith Curle was hired to achieve safety. A tortuous effort eventually saw this campaign won, and United, after finishing 20th in the bottom division, could look to rebuild again.
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