How do Carlisle United start life under new owners?

But how have the Blues historically got under way on the pitch after a change of control at Brunton Park?

Here’s a look back at the first games under previous new owners - and how things have gone from there…

1992

Michael Knighton’s arrival that May promised new beginnings for the Blues – and, indeed, new endings, such as his pledge that United would reach the Premier League within the decade.

Hmm. Anyway, no transformation was going to be swift given the poverty of the pre-Knighton club, with the team having just finished bottom of the 92 and United having been in increasing financial strife under local leadership involving the long-serving Andrew Jenkins.

George Oghani, second left, was in the thick of the action in the first game of the Knighton era (Image: News & Star)

Under the smooth-talking Knighton, 1992/3 offered a new dawn but it began in familiar fashion: in defeat.

Perhaps its circumstances, though, offered a glimpse at the melodrama to come over the decade at hand. The opening day of the new season saw Carlisle take on Walsall at Brunton Park in the newly-named Division Three (the old Fourth Division) at the advent of the Premier League era in English football.

A goal fest followed, with summer signing George Oghani scoring at both ends inside the first ten minutes, before Walsall turned the screw with goals from Wayne Clarke and Chris Marsh.

The game’s second own-goal, from Walsall’s Rod McDonald – father of the future Blues defender of the same name – brought United back into it before the Saddlers struck again via Mike Cecere. Andy Watson, himself a future Walsall man, rounded off the scoring for Carlisle and a 4-3 home defeat, in front of 4,199, heralded the Knighton era.

United, who started the season under Aidan McCaffery but finished it managed by Dave McCreery, went on to finish a modest 17th, though emerging were at least some of the shoots of recovery which became more visible in the next handful of progressive years...before things went sour again.

2002

This was another occasion when things off the field struck home more than events on it.

Carlisle were now in John Courtenay’s hands, the Irish businessman finally wresting control of the Blues from Knighton after protracted and often infuriatingly prolonged talks.

Roddy Collins' side lost in front of a bumper crowd at the start of the John Courtenay reign (Image: News & Star)

The deal was done in July, with little time to prepare for the campaign, but the explosion of relief was certainly reflected in the attendance on 2002/03’s opening day.

For the visit of Hartlepool, some 10,684 supporters turned up to welcome the long overdue and much-needed start.

It was a definite glimpse of United’s potential, and the feeling that Courtenay had spared them a kind of grim death.

Again, though, it was clearly going to take more than the stroke of an owner’s pen to turn the ship around. Carlisle, under the reinstated Roddy Collins, were inferior against a confident Hartlepool at Brunton Park.

After some to-and-fro, and corner-flag tricks from new signing Trevor Molloy, the visitors popped United’s balloons via a Mark Tinkler goal, before Ritchie Humphreys and Tinkler adding further strikes in the second half.

Brian Wake, with a debut goal, ensured the big home crowd had something to cheer, but the afternoon, which ended in a 3-1 home defeat, in may ways encapsulated the new era.

Carlisle were out of Knighton’s shackles but their team remained a subject of chaos and struggle – United, in 2002/03, made the LDV Vans Trophy final but needed a Wake hat-trick at Shrewsbury Town in the penultimate league game to keep them in the Football League.

2004

This was, all in all, a beginning which did not set the tone for what was to come under United’s latest owner.

That summer, Courtenay had sold the Blues to the Cumbrian construction businessman Fred Story.

Tom Cowan and United failed to find a way past Canvey as the Fred Story era got under way (Image: News & Star)

It was a less flashy takeover than some in the past, Story promising a sound business approach rather than imagined future bonanzas, and this was in keeping with a period when United seemed to have regained some credibility after years of strife and chaos.

They were in the Conference for the first time, player-manager Paul Simpson having come close to a gallant and remarkable survival, but a rebuilt team had restored hope and faith on the terraces.

United were also a big deal and a big draw in their maiden season in non-league’s top flight. The first game of 2004/05 saw 7,234 in the ground for the visit of Canvey Island.

In the event it proved something of an anti-climax, given Carlisle could not quite give the new era the perfect start.

A goalless draw was the outcome – a hint, perhaps, that Conference life was going to be no doddle – yet the day’s atmosphere, and the profile of many of Simpson’s players, suggested a turnaround was very much possible.

So it proved. United embarked on a long unbeaten start before going head to head with Barnet at the top of the Conference. The Bees pulled clear, Carlisle having to recover from a mid-season dip to make the play-offs.

What followed was a consistent crescendo. They won the play-offs to come straight back up, won the League Two title the following season, finished eighth in League One and then fourth, an agonising play-off near-miss against Leeds United in 2008 proving the final act of Story’s ownership, which delivered year-on-year progress after so many preceding periods of difficulty and failure.

2008

So what about the current regime? All those years ago, 15 of them in fact, Carlisle emerged blinking into the 2008/09 season with the club in the hands of Andrew Jenkins, John Nixon, Steven Pattison and David Allen.

The promise was the running of the club on the same business principles as Story had applied, although there were questions about the kind of investment fans could expect to see in order to build on their recent climb.

In the immediate term, things were fine. Although Carlisle lost star men Joe Garner and Keiren Westwood that summer, they did what they’d failed to do at the outset of the three previous regimes - and won on the opening day of the campaign.

Marc Bridge-Wilkinson, right, scored in the first game under new owners who included John Nixon, left (Image: Stuart Walker)

It saw John Ward’s team on the road to the Memorial Stadium for a League One tussle with Bristol Rovers. The manager opted for the pre-season form of Danny Carlton over the returning star Michael Bridges in his starting line-up, and on August 9 Ward was rewarded.

Carlton, after Rickie Lambert had struck early for the Pirates, quickly equalised, with Marc Bridge-Wilkinson putting United in front before the break.

Another Carlton goal gave Carlisle breathing space and a late Andy Williams reply for Rovers did not take the shine off a good Blues start: a 3-2 victory which was backed up with more good results in the early weeks of term.

Then things suddenly got more challenging, as form under Ward nosedived, leading to his removal in November. Greg Abbott stepped up and guided United across a tortuous struggle for survival which they won dramatically on the last day against Millwall. A new and challenging era was well and truly under way.