Carlisle United Football Club, nicknamed “The Cumbrians,” is a non-league football club based in Carlisle, Cumbria.
Established in 1896, they currently compete in the Enterprise National League, which is part of the fifth tier of English football. The team calls Brunton Park their home ground.
The team rose in the late 1890s, soon overtook older city sides and, after adopting a new name in 1904, settled at Brunton Park by 1909. A league-and-cup double preceded moves to the Lancashire Combination in 1905 and the North Eastern League in 1909, whose title it won in 1922 before election to the Football League in 1928.
Post-war managers Ivor Broadis and Bill Shankly raised standards that led to promotion from the Fourth Division in 1962, consecutive titles in 1964 and 1965 and a brief spell at the summit of the First Division after three wins in August 1974. Relegation that season triggered decline, although seventh place in 1984 showed lingering potential.
Back-to-back relegations in 1987 left the club in the Fourth Division and regular survival battles, the most dramatic resolved by goalkeeper Jimmy Glass’s stoppage-time goal in 1999. Demotion to the Conference came in 2004, but Paul Simpson’s side bounced straight back and won the League Two title in 2006. A Wembley trophy win followed in 2011, yet after promotion to League One in 2023 successive relegations in 2024 and 2025 carried the club into the National League.
Carlisle United Football Club 1921 Ltd is a registered company in England and Wales under company number 00175280