They won their first game in the league, the side of Prout, Coulthard, Cook, Harrison, Ross, Pigg, Agar, Hutchison, McConnell, Ward and Watson beating Accrington Stanley 3–2.
With players like Malcolm Poskett and Tommy Craig, they mounted a promotion challenge in the 1983–84 season but finished 7th after a late slump, and consecutive relegations followed in 1986 and 1987.
In the 1992 close season, Michael Knighton took Carlisle and within weeks had sacked manager Aidan McCaffrey following a terrible start to the new Division Three campaign.
This season was Carlisle's best in years, as the £121,000 record signing of striker Dave Reeves in October saw them acquire a much-needed prolific goalscorer.
Mick Wadsworth's resignation as manager in December was a major blow to Carlisle, as was the mid-season sale of key players Paul Murray and Tony Gallimore.
They finished the season clear of the relegation zone with more goals than 21st-placed York City, who had to replay a game against Brighton and Hove Albion which had been abandoned due to crowd trouble.
The promotion joy was accompanied by a penalty shoot-out triumph over Colchester United in the Auto Windscreens Trophy Final, in which Tony Caig pulled off some impressive goalkeeping heroics.
But nine defeats from their final 10 games condemned Carlisle to relegation in 23rd place, with 17 goals from striker Ian Stevens not being quite enough to attain survival.
Carlisle entered the final game of the 1998–99 season needing to beat Plymouth Argyle at Brunton Park to avoid relegation and possibly extinction, and the score was still 1–1 at full-time.
Goalkeeper Jimmy Glass, signed in an emergency loan deal after the transfer deadline, drove home a last-gasp winner which preserved Carlisle's Football League status and sent down Scarborough.
They lost their final game of the season 1–0 to Brighton and Hove Albion, but were kept up by Chester City's defeat at the hands of Peterborough United.
Paul Simpson's side picked up 40 points from a possible 75 but were still relegated; had they performed as well during the first half of the campaign as they did during the second, then they would have featured in the promotion push.
[7] Ward took Carlisle to the top of League One on 28 October, and they still looked likely for automatic promotion at the beginning of April, but could only finish fourth.
[9] On 3 July, a consortium of local businessmen, led by director and accountant David Allen completed a takeover of the club from Fred Story.
On 3 November, Carlisle announced that they had parted with John Ward "by mutual consent", and Greg Abbott became the caretaker manager of the club.
On 28 March 2010, Carlisle played Southampton at the new Wembley Stadium in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy Final, where they succumbed to a 4–1 defeat in front of 73,746 fans.
[14] Carlisle began the 2010–11 season strongly, with new acquisitions James Berrett, Frank Simek and the popular Francois Zoko boosting a team who had lost their star defender, ex-Leeds United full-back Ian Harte to Reading.
Their luck was to change, with strong runs in the Johnsons Paint Trophy and the return of captain Paul Thirwell boosting a Carlisle team lacking in penetration.
However, a resurgence of form in the New Year following the return of target man Lee Miller, and fellow front-man Rory Loy saw Carlisle string together a number of good results to claw themselves clear of the relegation zone, eventually finishing the season in 17th position.
The club retained Greg Abbott as manager, offering a 1-year extension to his current deal, whilst also extending assistant Graham Kavanagh's contract for another season.
The 2013–14 season started in disastrous style, with a 5–1 home defeat against Leyton Orient in which striker Lee Miller was sent off for violent conduct.
A highlight of the season was a visit at Anfield for the third round of the League Cup and a famous 1–1 draw against giants Liverpool, but lost 3–2 on penalties.
But a comeback home win against Newport County[29] combined with favourable results elsewhere were enough to put them back into the play-off positions.
[39] Chris Beech then set about the task of re-building the squad following the disappointing 18th-placed finish, bringing in a raft of new signings and developing a new football system.
[40] The 2020–21 season started in positive fashion for the blues with the club sitting top of the table at Christmas, resulting in Beech signing a new contract extension.
[41] However, a poor run of form saw the side slip from top to 14th in the table, nevertheless, results picked up towards the end of the season seeing the Cumbrians finish in 10th place.
[42] The 2020–21 close season saw a number of first team regulars depart the blues including club captain Nick Anderton,[43] goalkeeper Paul Farman[44] and winger Omari Patrick.
[46] In October 2021, manager Chris Beech was sacked due to a poor run of form for Carlisle and replaced by Keith Millen.
[48] "Simmo" led the blues to 8 wins, 1 draw and 6 defeats which was enough to pull the club from the relegation zone and keep Carlisle in the football league finishing 20th place.