The wait is over, and Carlisle United and their fans now know exactly how their 2024/25 season will shape up (give or take any changes for Sky’s benefit)…
Here’s a look at some of the key games and periods in the new League Two campaign for the Blues... (YOU CAN READ THE FULL FIXTURE LIST HERE)
THE OPENER
Not the ideal one for those who believe in historical omens. Carlisle start a season with a trip to Gillingham…and in order to make a winning beginning, they’ll have to banish a 30-year jinx when it comes to the Kent club.
Not since Dean Walling fired the Blues to victory in December 1994 have the Cumbrians won an away game against the Gills.
August 10’s curtain-raiser is also United’s longest trip of the entire season, at 335.1 miles. Welcome back to the motorway network, folks.
The contest - the first time United have started a season against Gillingham - will pit them against a home side under new management, ex-Cambridge boss Mark Bonner now at the helm and a side who are the bookmakers' early third-favourites for the title.
This is United’s first away-game opener since 2020, when they lost at Cambridge United in the Covid lockout season. The last time they won a first game of the season when it was away from home was back in 2008: a 3-2 win at Bristol Rovers under John Ward.
THE DERBIES
Whether or not you feel Carlisle v Barrow exactly fits that description, there’s no denying the all-Cumbrian meetings are among the spicier fixtures on the calendar.
And the first one comes very early: United’s first home game of the league campaign pits them against Stephen Clemence’s Bluebirds.
It will also be the first league game at Brunton Park following this summer’s major stand renovation work, setting up further the prospect of a bumper crowd for such an occasion.
There’s also the potential for it to be moved from the Saturday, 3pm slot on August 17, should Sky Sports take a fancy to the fixture for one of their main channels. We'll know about that (and other TV picks in August and September) in the next week.
Barrow haven’t beaten Carlisle in league football since 1960, and United will be hoping to maintain that run. Would a repeat of January 2023's 5-1 win be too much to ask?..
Then there’s the rematch at Holker Street: always a popular one with the travelling hordes. That one falls on Saturday, March 1.
FESTIVE FUN
Well, hopefully. After going on their travels for the two games after Christmas last season, it’s the opposite this time for United.
On Boxing Day they will welcome Morecambe to Brunton Park, meaning Danny Grainger – the Shrimps’ new assistant manager – will be back in the dugout at his former club.
Three days later it’s another home game against a side with a shortish distance to travel: Accrington Stanley.
Either side, United’s away games in the festive spell send them to Port Vale on December 21, and to Crewe Alexandra on New Year’s Day.
Other than Newport County away on December 7, the fixtures at the heart of winter don’t entail a glut of motorway miles, as they have at times in the past.
THE TREKS
Carlisle’s overall journeying is markedly reduced in a more northern League Two, and the Blues will also be able to tick off some of their longer trips in the first phase of the season.
Gillingham, on day one, is the furthest. AFC Wimbledon, the third longest, is their sixth away game. Colchester United, their fourth longest, is their fifth trip.
MK Dons and Swindon Town, also among their top trips for distance, will be out of the way by mid-September.
And after two months and two days of the campaign, Carlisle will already have negotiated five of their seven longest missions of 2024/25.
The other two are also completed in the first half of term. A first ever trip to Bromley's Hayes Lane Stadium comes on November 16, while December 7 is Newport.
2025’s trips are, by and large, more accessible. Yes, there is still Cheltenham Town in April, but before that we have the likes of Crewe, Tranmere, Fleetwood, Grimsby, Barrow, Harrogate, Doncaster, Chesterfield, Morecambe and Accrington, all between January and the end of things.
Some good trips there for the Blue Army. And not so many bleary-eyed early starts.
MIDWEEK MATTERS
Where midweek matches are concerned, there are not too many beasts for Carlisle to contend with on the face of things.
Walsall, Notts County and Chesterfield are on the agenda on Tuesday nights in terms of away games.
At home, Notts, Crewe and Walsall will make midweek trips to Carlisle.
No doubt the weather will intervene in its usual charming way when we get into winter, so there may be others. But, at this opening stage, the midweek missions don’t look too bad.
LONG MONTHS, SHORT MONTHS
October is Carlisle’s heaviest month for motorway miles. In the space of 17 days Paul Simpson’s side will go to Colchester, Wimbledon (on consecutive weekends) and Walsall, at a cumulative 1,644-mile round trip.
There are two months on the calendar where Carlisle have four away games: January (Crewe, Tranmere, Fleetwood, Notts County) and April (Chesterfield, Morecambe, Accrington, Cheltenham).
Among those are the shorter trips of the campaign. Morecambe, the shortest, falls during the run-in on April 12. Accrington comes nine days later, on Easter Monday.
Both – like many others – should see packed away ends. Hopefully with something to cheer.
REUNIONS
Welcome back, Jordan Gibson…on November 23. That is the autumn date for the former Blues midfielder’s return to Brunton Park with his new club Doncaster Rovers.
A few other familiar faces will be heading back up the road. We have Danny Grainger with Morecambe on Boxing Day and, among others, Mike Jones and Paddy Madden with Chesterfield on December 14, Byron Webster with Bromley on March 22, Michael Kelly with Accrington on December 29 and Rod McDonald with Notts County on October 1.
And how about those opposition clubs we love to love?
Our old play-off foes Bradford City are soon on the agenda. The fifth game of the season takes United to Valley Parade on September 7. Then the Bantams come to Brunton Park on January 18.
As for Harrogate Town…will this be the season the league jinx is banished? October 19, at Brunton Park, is the first chance to find out, and then we’re off to the EnviroVent Stadium on March 8. Stand by for floodlight issues, frozen pitches, floods, pestilence and famine, all on the same day.
THE RUN-IN
Carlisle’s march to the promotion line (well, we can dream) will need them to have their away form in order. Five of their last eight games are on the road, including against a pair of the early bookies' favourites (Doncaster and Chesterfield).
If United still have something to fight for after 45 games, the finale comes at Brunton Park, where Salford City will be the visitors; as they were late in the 2022/23 season, Elliot Watt’s theatrics and all that…
Let’s hope the curtain comes down in happier circumstances on May 3.
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