Carlisle United suffered another disastrous season on the pitch, whilst off it, there was more turmoil as Michael Knighton finally carried out his threats to resign and handed over control to an independent trust.

The appointment of Martin Wilkinson in the pre-season had more than an air of comedy about it. Wilkinson had been made the new General manager a month or so earlier and one of his first tasks was to appoint a new team manager.

That man was to be Keith Mincher, who was little-known outside footballing circles. Bizarrely, Mincher quit after barely a week in the job. The real reasons may never be properly known, but as far as the club were concerned Mincher had never signed a contract and was never actually installed officially in the job.

Whatever the true cause of all these shenanigans, it left the club badly prepared for the start of the new season. Neil Cooper arrived from Aberdeen to become first team coach and assitant to Wilkinson and with barely a week to go until the start of the season, United were still woefully short of players.

The eventual signings of Luke Weaver, Andy Walker and Steve Soley appeared to have plugged the gaps and the Cumbrians got off to a flyer with an impressive display in the opening game as they defeated promotion fancies Leyton Orient 2-1 at Brunton Park. This turned out to be a false dawn. Barely a fortnight later Carlisle were crushed 6-0 at Grimsby and poor results in the league saw them sliding down the table.

The arrival in late August of ex-player Paul Baker, who returned to Brunton Park after an absence of 12 years appeared to herald a change in fortunes and the 37-year-old veteran even netted in his first two games as United continued to hold their own in mid-table. September though was to be a squalid month as Carlisle began a desperate run of 12 league games without victory which saw them nosedive into the relegation zone. Humiliation was added at Ilkeston Town, where the Blues crashed out of the FA Cup to a non-league side for the first time in 12 years.

It took until December 4 and a much-needed 1-0 win at fellow strugglers Leyton Orient to halt the slide. However, more poor results meant United went into the game with bottom-club Chester on January 3 in desperate need of another rare win. The fans rallied round the club for this game, running a successful 'SOS 2000' campaign which pushed the gate up to over 4,500 and the 4-1 win could, and should, have been a turning point in the season. The immediate departure of Cooper, who had fallen out badly with Wilkinson a month or two earlier, and his replacement with Baker, only seemed to add to the newly-optimistic mood.

However, the bad results came back to haunt United and by the time the next crunch game came around against Barnet on March 18, Carlisle were actually bottom of the table, albeit with three games in hand. Chester had appointed experienced manager Ian Atkins, and he was in the process of lifting both their confidence and performances. United took the North London side apart with a 3-1 success, and once again they were off the bottom and confidence came flowing back. The chief reason for this was the signings of Steve Halliday and Shaun Teale, who were to prove to be just about the only decent pieces of business United did all season. Injuries were to force them to field six different goalkeepers and the lengthy absences of Weaver, in particular, were to cost them dearly in terms of points and morale.

Four wins and two draws from eight games, culminating in the dramatic 1-0 win at Chester on April 8 when Scott Dobie smashed in an injury-time winner for the nine-man Cumbrians, seemed to have sealed Carlisle's survival. However, just when the crisis appeared to have eased, United lurched back into trouble as they picked up only one point from the next four games and Chester went unbeaten and moved ahead of them as Shrewsbury slipped to the bottom of the pack. The game with Darlington on April 29, the last home game, was to prove vital. Carlisle took the lead through Halliday in front of easily the biggest gate of the season, 6,525. United were within a tantalising 10 minutes of guaranteed safety when Darlo's Glen Naylor struck a late equaliser. It could have been a bolt to the heart for United's survival chances.

Thankfully it wasn't to turn out like that. For the second year running, the Cumbrians escaped on the last afternoon. A 1-0 defeat at Brighton was enough to keep them up as Chester were defeated 1-0 at home by Peterborough, who were once again United's saviours. Shrewsbury got out of jail when they won at Exeter. For the 600 or so fans who had travelled 350 miles down to Brighton, the relief was palpable. But so too was the anger. Changes were needed this time, big changes. Knighton satisfied some, if not all, of these needs when he formally stepped down as chairman a few days after the Brighton match. Current director Albert Doweck, a close friend of Knighton's, took over. Wilkinson and his assistant Baker were sacked on the same day. Another summer of upheaval was already upon us.

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